Eki Tama and train station kiosk innovations

Here is a surreal take on the fast food stand: Tamachi’s station’s new Eki Tama (“station egg”).

This minimal, spacey pod designed by Osaka based Graf and developed by Ecute serves up designer hotdogs and is, appearance-wise, light years away from your average station kiosk or coffee shop.

Tamachi is a relatively high-traffic station near Shinagawa where lots of medium-sized companies have their offices, and in addition to appealing to the local lunching crowd of office workers, the Eki Tama gives Tamachi station a unique talking point to the tune of, “hey since we have to go to Tamachi today for that meeting let’s get food at that egg thing we saw on TV.”

If you spend enough time going to various stations around Tokyo (or enough time watching TV shows that do this traveling for you) you’ll notice that most of them have their unique points. I am personally fond of the okonomiyaki filled taiyaki at Sasazuka station, the cold coffee in glass bottles from the Green Farm at Shibuya station, and often wonder if I’ll ever catch anyone using the umbrella vending machine at Suidobashi station.

Yotsuya Sanchome station recently made a name for itself by becoming the first vending point in Japan for the latest food craze, “Hole’d Baguettes.”

This Danish food innovation involves piercing a sandwich-sized chunk of baguette and filling in the hole with some variety of meat, cheese, etc. Hole’d Baguettes is planning to start a franchise this year, but until then, we’ll have to come up with an excuse to visit Yotsuya Sanchome.