News Akita bear-meat vending machine proves popular

[thomas]

The daily dose of "Japan is different" news: a bear-meat vending machine in Semboku, Akita Prefecture, has proven to be quite popular (with about 10-15 purchases a week).

The meat, which sells for ¥2,200 (£13/$16.50) per 250g, is proving popular with passengers alighting at a nearby railway station in Semboku. Still, the operator has also received requests for mail order deliveries from Tokyo, about 400km away. The machine, which touts its contents as a regional speciality, was stocked with locally killed wild bears and sold a mixture of lean and fatty meat, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper said. The meat came from bears captured in the mountains by members of a local hunting club who were permitted to kill a certain number during the annual hunting season, the paper added. The vending machine appeared in November after Soba Goro, a local restaurant, spied an opportunity to use ursine cuisine as a tourist attraction. Bear meat consumption is highest in northern Japan, sold in cans and even as instant curry. It has a slightly gamey flavour that some have likened to venison and is often served in a stew. "Bear meat tastes clean and doesn't get tough," a Soba Goro spokesperson told the Mainichi.

Japan’s bear meat vending machine proves a surprising success

The machine in the northern prefecture of Akita sells locally killed wild bear captured by local hunters

www.theguardian.com

Bear meat vending machine a hit among visitors of northern Japanese city

The vending machine displays pictures of lean and fatty bear meat. Read more at straitstimes.com.

www.straitstimes.com

 

[Majestic]

Ah - I should have put my bear meat comment here in this thread. Anyway, the tl:dr version is: I had it, its overrated.

 

[mdchachi]

Ah - I should have put my bear meat comment here in this thread. Anyway, the tl:dr version is: I had it, its overrated.

I've never heard anybody praise bear meat. Is it really highly rated?

 

[nice gaijin]

As I understand, it depends on the season but bear meat is supposedly really greasy and not very good eating. Seems to me like bear meat is only consumed because it would be 勿体無い, such a waste, to kill the animal and not make use of it.

Poor things, imagine going about your business scrounging for grubs and berries and scratching your *** on a tree when some hairless ape with concepts about property ownership shows up and shoots you, then stuffs your corpse into a vending machine as a novelty.

 

[Grandpa Frank]

I've heard nothing good about eating bear meat here in Maine. Full of fat and super greasy.

 

[salyavin]

Never tried it but I'd be happy to once. Even in the US people try all kinds of things like possum or squirrel brains (my mother ate this).

 

[Grandpa Frank]

I have a tiny possum who I feed table scraps to at night. They say they eat ticks which is a good thing.