Asahi Brewery

On Thursday we had a morning tour of the Asahi Brewery.  Asahi was founded in 1889, and currently has a 40% share of the Japanese beer market.  Our tour started with a brief introduction and a short film which described Asahi's quality control measures.  

They have beer tasters who will taste each batch at the end of the day-- there are about 40 of these tasters, and only about 6 will work on any given day (they have other duties at the facility), consuming an average of 2 beers before leaving for home.  I was assured that they all either walk, bike or ride the subway home.  My favorite line from the film:  "Beer is a gift from nature.""

After the film we walked through a display of hops then saw a demonstration of the brewing process, concluding at the canning/bottling/packaging area.  Prior to bottling, the beer is kept in giant beer silos (I'm sure there's another name for them) that are 7 meters in diameter, 23 meters high, and hold 500 kiloliters.  The bottling and canning operation was impressive: over 600 bottles per minute are filled; cans can be filled and topped at a rate of 1500 cans per minute. 

After the tour, we got treated to a beer trolley and cold cuts in the executive dining room.  Nothing like a couple of pints before 11am!

Lunch was "Nouvelle Chinoise" at a fancy restaurant owned by a Rotarian.  Ostrich meat, tasty!  Then a 2-minute stroll through a private sculpture museum adjacent to the restaurant-- some great Nakashima furniture, and sculptures by Zadkine, Rodin, Giacometti and some others.

We continued on to Arima Onsen Resort but we were late, so we didn't get to try the hot springs.  Instead we sat through the last half of an incense guessing game and a long explanation of it.  I was very relieved to have a 20-minute break to relax outside.

Dinner was great, a multi-course kaiseki dinner with the Ibaraki East Rotary Club.  I couldn't keep up with all the dishes, they just kept coming (along with sake and beer).  I told one of the servers that Kathleen doesn't eat meat, so they brought her this giant sea creature, still alive.  It moved a bit when it was touched.  Kathleen wasn't inclined to eat it, and really felt bad after the server put it in the hot pot and cooked it alive!  

We sat with a fun group though, especially the guy next to us who had a little rubber stamp with his face on it.  He wrote our names out in kanji:  Kathleen's name means "arrow frost nowhere bush birdhouse" and mine means "temple picture stone red dance stay."

Haiku #9

i've had too much, but...
beer is a gift from nature
rude not to accept