The Soba Goro restaurant has started selling bear meat from vending machines, with the £13 packs of wild-caught produce already proving popular. Residents from as far away as Tokyo have enquired about getting the bear meat delivered to them.
Of all the things you might expect to find in a vending machine, fresh bear meat doesn’t spring to mind.
But for residents living in the northern Japanese city of Semboku, they can get their hands on the delicacy for 2,200 yen (£13).
The vending machine, placed outside the Soba Goro restaurant near the Tazawako train station, has proved to be popular with locals and tourists who are passing through the city on the train.
Featuring meat from locally hunted wild bears, the 24-hour vending machine has attracted a steady stream of customers since it opened in November last year, reports the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.
It is so popular that residents from as far away as Tokyo, located 350 miles from Semboka, have enquired about getting the bear meat delivered to them.
While most vending machines feature images of sweets and drinks, this one has various pictures of lean and fatty bear meat.
The wild bears – including black bears – are captured in the mountains near Semboku and killed by members of a local hunting club before being processed at a slaughterhouse.
The Soba Goro restaurant installed the vending machine in a bid to make the bear meat a staple of the region – and put their eatery on the map for tourists visiting the area.
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