A station bento featuring Myaku-Myaku, the official mascot of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, called “EXPO 2025 Myaku-Myaku Hipparidako-meshi,” has gone on sale. With only a limited number available each day, shops are reportedly selling out immediately.
On flea-market sites, even the empty containers are trading for over 5,000 yen, showing how hot the demand is. Buying a container that once held food on resale might give you pause, but it’s true the Myaku-Myaku design stands out, and it’s not hard to understand why people would want the container as a decorative item.
Based in the Kanto region, I tried to buy one at the only advance-sales location in eastern Japan, Ekibenya Matsuri Gransta Tokyo inside Tokyo Station, and here is my report.
3:30 a.m. on September 24. I set out from Kanda Station in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo. Pre-trip intel suggested that even the first train into Tokyo Station might be too late to secure a numbered ticket, so I decided to walk to Tokyo Station this time.
Passing through the nightlife district around Kanda Station, I was repeatedly solicited by touts for so-called night spots and could only give a wry smile. After leaving the entertainment area, a few taxis even slowed down when they saw me—perhaps I looked like the perfect fare…
Since Kanda Station is next to Tokyo Station, I walked a little over a kilometer and arrived at the Yaesu Central Gate around 3:50 a.m. Given there are izakaya and karaoke places open through the night, getting to Tokyo Station at this hour may not be that difficult if you’re prepared to spend the night at an eatery.
I reached the Yaesu Central Gate around 3:50 a.m. About ten people were already lined up in front of the still-closed ticket gates. The gates open at 4:10 a.m., roughly 30 minutes before the first trains depart Tokyo Station. Note that some gates are not in service in the early morning, so take care.
Among the gates operating at this early hour, the Yaesu Central Gate appears to be the closest to Ekibenya Matsuri Gransta Tokyo.
Once the gates opened at 4:10 a.m., I speed-walked to the shop and successfully secured a numbered ticket. They had 140 units for sale, limited to one per person, so lining up at this hour virtually guarantees you’ll get one.
Numbered tickets are handed out from 4:10 a.m., when the gates open. A total of 140 tickets are distributed. Since it was a weekday, roughly 40 people had obtained tickets before the first trains arrived.
The first train to reach Tokyo Station is a Keihin-Tohoku Line service from Tabata to Ofuna at around 4:41 a.m., followed a few minutes later by Keihin-Tohoku from Shinagawa to Omiya, and the Yamanote Line inner loop from Osaki. Around 20 people picked up tickets at that stage. Trains continued to arrive sporadically thereafter. By about 5:00 a.m., roughly 80 tickets had been handed out, with a trickle of distribution after that.
Ekibenya Matsuri Gransta Tokyo opens at 5:30 a.m. Sales windows are segmented by ticket number: 1–50 from 5:30 to 5:40, 51–100 from 5:40 to 5:50, and 101 and up from 5:50 to 6:00 a.m.
The actual sales proceeded smoothly. Ticket distribution continued in parallel, and all 140 tickets were gone by around 5:57 a.m.
Perhaps because it was a weekday and because an announcement had been made that from October the system will switch to reservation-only for numbered tickets, reports said distribution had been ending in the 4 a.m. hour on prior days. In the end, though, it proved easier to get a ticket than in the days before. That said, getting to Tokyo Station before 6:00 a.m. is hardly easy.
For Hipparidako-meshi, you hand over your ticket to receive the item, then pay individually. Self-checkout is available, so the flow after pickup is very smooth.
And that’s how I managed to get the Myaku-Myaku–designed Hipparidako-meshi.
Sales of the Myaku-Myaku–design Hipparidako-meshi at Ekibenya Matsuri Gransta Tokyo are scheduled to run through September 30. Conditions change day by day, but if you’re interested, why not try your luck?
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This article was generated using automatic translation by GPT-4 API. The translation may not be accurate.
