04/01/09 WEDNESDAY
Back to Kobe for sake and beer. Yay! We set off for the Kirin Brewery plant in the hills of Kobe. It was cold and
rainy today, so luckily we planned an indoor trip. When we arrived to Sanda Station, June got directions to look out for a beer can shaped bus. I thought, no way! We waited for a few extra
minutes past the expected pick up, but suddenly, from a distance, this bus in the shape of a beer can, came down the road. We chased it down half a block, not sure where the stop really was. It took half an hour to get up the mountain to the Kirin brewery. When we arrived, no one spoke more than 2 words of English. But they did have a flyer telling us that they would not be speaking anything other than Japanese on the tour…we said, “that’s okay, we’re here for the beer!” As we came up the escalator, we were greeted by a man who asked if we were the ones who couldn’t speak Japanese. He happily offered to give us a special tour guided by him. We got to see a large part of the facilities. FYI, the Kirin beer plant in Kobe is the largest of 10 Kirin plants in Japan, it’s about the size of 6 baseball stadiums, huge! His English was good enough for us to follow. We learned so much about the brewing and bottling of their beers. We even got to see the world’s fastest beer can filler, I forgot the figure, but the guy said, “I worked with Mitsubishi to design the machine.” That tipped us, who was this guy, important enough to work with Mitsubishi. Later we went into the beer tasting room, we tried their lager and their classic beer, both off tap, and both light and very drinkable. Then he showed us the perfect beer pour, it took three steps of pouring beer from a can into a glass and forming a foam with really small air bubbles. The result was a smoother less bitter beer. Fun info, we thought. June made a comment about how much we liked the beer snacks. And the guide said, “I ordered these especially for our plant.” Who was this guy? I was sly, so I asked him how long he worked for Kirin. He said, “30 years, I started as a brewer. Now I’m the manager of the plant.” Whoa! June and I were already excited that this guy took the time to give us a special tour. As I was about to down my beer, he said, “Don’t worry, I’ll give you some canned beer to take home. Let me show you something special.” We went through a security door, and down some stairs, and outside. There was a man-made pond. He said that the water in the pond comes from the water used to clean the cans before filling them with beer. Also, Kirin is very conscious about the environment, so in the pond are 7 endangered species of fish! So cool! Also, in Japan, Kirin bottles are recycled by the original bottle being returned to the plant, just to be washed tested and then refilled. They use only 100% recyclable material. So cool! That’s a beer company I can support. So after the manager sent us on our way to the beer can shaped bus and giving us a couple cans for the road, we headed for another sake museum. The whole day, June and I couldn’t believe we had just hung out with such an important guy. Real cool!
It took us a while to find the one sake museum we wanted to visit for the day, but when we got there it was pretty much closed and pretty much a bust. Except for the warm tea and pickles they offered us. One of the pickles was obviously pickled in a sake mixture, it was pungent and the alcohol breathed through our nostrils. We bought a small sake for dinner later. Afterwards, we went to a supermarket to pick up some sushi. Btw, it seems like all Japanese people have a super high standard for fish, even the supermarket offers very fresh tasty sushi. You can even buy raw or seared beef, chicken and pork nigiri style. We bought sushi, some udon that needed to be warmed, and some other snacks for the next couple of days, and a lot of treats around 50 cents. It’s always so much fun at the market picking through all the things that we don’t get in the U.S. Plus it saves a ton of money for other days when we might want to splurge.
Back at the hotel, we used a small propane burner to boil my dashi and warm the udon noodles…so tasty. I’m already craving more noodles for tomorrow. The sushi was delicious, too, along with some edamame and our beers, thanks to Mr. Sakamoto of Kirin. What a good day; simple, exciting, and fulfilling.
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