The American ice cream chain has closed all of its branches in east Japan, but this Tokyo train station sells its frozen treats from a vending machine.
It was a sad day for ice cream fans when, on April 28, Cold Stone closed its final branch in Tokyo, and things got even sadder when the ice cream chain’s shop in Sano, Tochigi Prefecture, the last one in eastern Japan, shut down roughly one week later. Cold Stone is now down to exactly one remaining location in Japan, at the Mitsui Outlet Park Jazz Dream Nagashima in Mie Prefecture, which is three hours away from Tokyo if you use the Shinkansen for the first part of the journey, and a considerably longer trip if you stick to non-bullet train transportation.
However, there is a way for fans in Tokyo to get their hands on some Cold Stone ice cream with a much shorter train ride. It turns out that there’s a Cold Stone vending machine in Meidaimae Station, just about 10 minutes away from Shibuya, where the Keio and Inokashira Lines intersect.
The Cold Stone machine can be found in a bank of vending machines on the platform of the Inokashira Line that trains headed towards Kichijoji depart from. As it’s inside the ticket gates, it’s possible to hop off the train, get some ice cream, then get back on the next train and continue on towards your destination without buying a separate ticket, even if you don’t have any other business in the Meidaimae neighborhood.
Taking a look at the offerings, we saw that the vending machine sells four flavors: Strawberry Pinky Cake, Warabimochi Wa La Mode, Chocolate Mint Lovers, and Asai Bowl Ice, with the first three all priced at 500 yen (US$3.40) and the Asai Bowl Ice at 600 yen.
Our Japanese-language reporter Ikuna Kamezawa, who’d drawn taste-testing privileges, had her heart set on the Strawberry Pinky Cake, but apparently so had a lot of other people that day, since it was sold out. As a matter of fact, the day’s stocks of Warabimochi Wa La Mode and Chocolate Mint Lovers were all gone too, leaving the Asai Bowl as the only option.
So instead of compromise her ice cream ideals, Ikuna came back again the next day…
…and this time the Strawberry Pinky Cake flavor was still available!
Cold Stone is famous for its large in-store portions (which might not have been the best fit for the Japanese sweets scene), but the vending machine-version is reasonably sized, the sort of portion that an ice cream lover would have no problem getting through in a single snack session. Instead of a waffle cone like the in-store Strawberry Pinky Cake, it comes in a cup, and the cross-section gave Ikuna a sneak-peek at what she’d be taste-testing…after she got home, that is, since the vending machine Cold Stone doesn’t come with a spoon (note to self: ask boss to provide all SoraNews24 reporters with a spoon that they can keep on themselves at all times in case the chance to eat ice cream arises while in the field).
Back home, Ikuna took a closer look at her treat, which has a pretty impressive quantity of frozen strawberry slices on top…
…sponge cake at the base…
…and whipped cream and strawberry ice cream in between.
Considering how thoroughly chilled the strawberries were, Ikuna expected the ice cream to be rock-hard, but that wasn’t the case at all. Her spoon slid easily into the cream, and when she tried a bite, it was surprisingly, even startlingly, light and airy. In terms of texture, it felt more like mousse than ice cream to her.
That didn’t mean it tasted bad, though. Flavor-wise, the vending machine Cold Stone dessert was great, sweet but not overpoweringly so, and with an excellent balance between the sensations of the chopped strawberries and whipped cream. If someone were to give this to Ikuna and told her it was strawberry mousse, she’d probably be completely satisfied, but it felt different enough from in-store Cold Stone ice cream that if her cravings get especially intense, she might need to make that trip to Mie after all.
Photos ©SoraNews24
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