Do you know what a gachapon is? Gachapons (ガチャポン) are toys in capsules you can get from a vending machine located all over Japan like toy stores, restaurants, and convenient stores. They usually consist of toys for kids, keychains or collector’s items. The fun part is, you never know what you’re going to get and it’s always a surprise.

Gachapons are very nostalgic to me as I remember wanting to get them all the time when I was a kid. My poor parents and grandparents always had to get me one as they were located in areas kids would notice. As a teenager, I used to spend tons of money on gachapons because they have collector’s items like popular anime keychains and I wanted the whole collection. Now, as an adult, I still love gachapons because they have fun and silly items like ‘Cat Sushi’ figurines and underwear for your phone. They also have cute keychains I like to attach to my bags or purses.

I recently visited the Akihabara Gachapon Kaikan store and this store is ridiculous with all the gachapon machines they have. If you’re a gachapon lover, you must go here. It’s a tiny shop (located right across from the maid cafe we visited), but there are literally hundreds of gachapon vending machines stacked and lined up wall to wall. They had everything from popular anime figurines to fun keychains to American cartoon keychains like South Park and Toy Story.

The cheapest gachapon vending machine we found was ¥200 (~$2) and the most expensive one we found was ¥600 (~$6). It was fun scoping out all the machines and seeing what fun items I could get. I ended up getting some fun ¥200 keychains and splurged a little on the cat sushi figurine for ¥400. For ¥200, these toys and keychains are pretty well-made.

One of the many awesome gacahpon toys added to our collection

According to this video, about 60 new designs come out every month, so the store constantly changes out the machines. This is fantastic news for gachapon collectors.

If you’re in the Akihabara area, make sure you stop by this store to have some fun and surprises.

XO, Crystal

GACHAPON KAIKAN
ADDRESS: 3-15-5 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
HOURS: 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM