Well, our friend Mika came to stay with us for a couple of days (more info about her visit is planned for the next entry). So, Ritsuko and I together with Mika and our friends Shiya and Chiyo plus their daughter Ruth went on a bit of a cycling tour of Nagaokakyo. The weather was absolutely fantastic for cycling.
The first stop of the tour was the Suntory Brewery in Nagaokakyo. We went on a guided tour of the Brewery which was very informative, but all in Japanese. Fortunately for me I could get interpretations from my friends. There was lots of good stuff: like all the things they recycle and amazing statistics. For example there are 6 giant vats which hold the finished beer ready for canning/bottling/kegging. If you were to drink a jug a day of beer from a vat it would take you 1400 years to finish just one vat!
The photo is of the canning machine, which was stopped for maintenance, because it was Saturday. This machine cans beer at the rate of 1500 cans per minute! They showed a video of it operation and it's unbelievably fast!
Since we arrived the factory by bike, we were given tags to say we are drivers and couldn't have the free beer (up to 3 middies) which those coming by bus are allowed. We were however allowed to have free Suntory Orange Juice and Barley Tea. It doesn't cost anything to go on the tour, and there's even a free bus from the JR Nagaokakyo Station.
After the Brewery, we went to a history museum which has displays of what Nagaokakyo may have looked like when it was briefly the capital city of Japan (just before Kyoto became the capital). Then we went to Shoryuji Castle and Temple, to a traditional cafe on the Old West Road and finally to a nice restaurant for dinner.
