In a few corners of Japan, vending machines built around the 1970s still cook hot noodles: drop in coins, wait a little, and a steaming bowl of udon (thick wheat noodles) or soba (buckwheat noodles) comes out with a clunk. Most stand beside country roads or shops with big parking lots, so they make an easy stop on a drive, and you eat in your car or at a counter by the machines. Bring plenty of coins, since nobody is there to make change.
A row of noodle vending machines beside a mountain road in Gunma, running 24 hours a day with no staff. Choose udon, soba or ramen, then wait by the machine while it fills your bowl with hot broth. It is about a 15-minute walk from Hanawa Station on the Watarase Keikoku Railway, a local line along a river gorge, so you can reach it without a car.
More than 80 old vending machines stand side by side inside a used-tire shop in Sagamihara, west of central Tokyo, lined up like a small arcade. Some of them make hot udon and soba, which you can eat in your car in the large parking lot. Many visitors come just to look at the machines and take photos.
A quiet, unstaffed drive-in on a hill road near Narita, where old machines serve bowls of tempura soba and tempura udon around the clock. Because the machines are old, the noodles are sometimes switched off at night. Come in the daytime if you want to be sure of a hot bowl.
A small unstaffed dining room in Isesaki, Gunma, filled with nothing but old vending machines, where you sit at a table indoors and eat your udon or soba slowly. With a roof and seats, it works even on a cold or rainy day. The machines are old, so some may be out of order on the day you visit.