We get lucky with a Wagyu beef gacha vending machine at 3,000 yen a pop

There are no losers with this, but we think we won big.

Japanese Wagyu gacha vending machines are nothing new to the SoraNews24 team, but that won’t stop us from trying every new one we find. Our Japanese-language reporter Yuuichiro Wasai found one such vending machine that serves up different cuts of a new kind of Wagyu every month.

▼ This particular month, it was high-quality Miyazaki beef from Miyazaki Prefecture.

For 3,000 yen (US$21.10) a pop, he could get a 200-gram (7-ounce) sirloin steak, a 160-gram (5.6-ounce) blade steak, 200 grams of boneless short ribs, or 150 grams of upper short ribs. They were ranked from ultra-super-premium to premium, starting with the sirloin steak.

There was also a note reading “If you don’t see your prize listed, then you’ve won the secret prize!” Yuuichiro was hoping to get the secret prize, but with the way his luck worked, he’d probably end up getting the sirloin steak if he wished hard enough for the secret prize.

▼ He simply had to choose one of the numbers on the screen for his random prize–for some reason, nine was missing.

Yuuichiro thought long and hard about which number to pick. For previous gacha machines like this, he had gone with numbers that people wouldn’t normally choose as lucky digits. Long story short, it didn’t work out for him. This time, he wouldn’t fail.

▼ He picked the luckiest number he could think of: seven.

When he got his prize, it was…

▼ “Wagyu For Yakiniku – 200 grams”

That wasn’t listed in the four prizes on the vending machine. That could only mean one thing…he’d won the secret prize!

▼ Woo hoo!

He excitedly opened his prize and gazed in awe at the beautiful marbling on the beef. He fried it up, yakiniku barbecue style and took a bite.

▼ Too good to be true!!

▼ The fact that it was the secret prize made it seem even more delicious.

But it wasn’t until a few days later as he penned his review article that he took a closer look at his packaging photos.

▼ It says 200 grams.

Then he got to thinking…the short ribs were also supposed to come in 200-gram portions. Since that particular cut is often used for yakiniku-style cooking, it could only mean one thing…

▼ …it probably wasn’t the secret prize after all.

Well, there’s still a possibility it was the secret prize. We’ll never know since it was written so vaguely. It didn’t change the fact that Yuuichiro got a delicious, luxurious, and exciting meal out of his adventure.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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