Robot Ice Cream in Matsumoto

On our last day in Matsumoto, we decided to take it easy and just spend the morning shopping for souvenirs.  We also wanted to go to a famous ice cream shop in Matsumoto called Kaiundo （開運堂）.

 

Kaiundo

Kaiundo is also a Japanese sweets store.  Kaiundo opens at 9:00 a.m., but the ice cream part of the store doesn’t open until 10:30, which we weren’t aware of until we got to the shop.

 

The sweets section of Kaiundo

The reason why this particular ice cream is famous is because it is made by a robot!

To buy ice cream, you must go to the counter and pay 320 for a special coin.

Once you have your coin, insert it and then choose whether you want a medium or large serving.  It doesn’t cost extra to choose large.  Once you have chosen your size, the robot starts preparing the ice cream!

Unfortunately, they only serve one ice cream flavor a day, but it means that you can try a different flavor every day!  They have many different flavors, including strawberry, chocolate mint, pistachio, Tahiti (mango and passion fruit), green tea, apple pie, banana, espresso, maple, and many more. On the day that we went they served Apricot Yogurt, which was really good!

Apricot Yogurt Ice Cream

For a list of the flavors for the month, please check this link. (Japanese only)  For more information, please check this site (Japanese only).  Kaiundo is open 7 days a week from 10:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m., or until there is no more ice cream.  

Please enjoy!