Travelogue Japan Day 10-Glicopia East

Yesterday I couldnt get the Nihonshu Kit Kat.  When I spoke to them, I made out March 8.  So I went back in the morning and they had restocked.  Only problem is, I will have to buy it now, carry it to Saitama, then back again to assure the dnt run out on me again.  I had a reservation for the 1230 tour.  There is a Glicopia in Kobe but a little more difficult to get to.  I got to Kitamoto around 1100 which gave me more than enough time to walk the 30 minutes to the factory.  Taxis and a bus are available.  Took pics of the pimped out Glico wagon while i waited.  Once the tour starts, there is a video on the history of the man, Riichi Ezaki.  Afterwards we are seperated into smaller groups.  A small section the caramels history and the toys they used to include. Photo op with the victory man.  Finally on to the tour.  Photography is not allowed.  The first part they showed was the Pocky being bagged then boxed.  In the next section, We saw dough being extruded and pressed into ribbons.  The ribbons are ct to ther undividual sticks and head into the oven to bake.  I took a pick of frsh Pretz coming out.  Lastly, they were packaged and boxed.  At the end there was a little quiz.  The people with the best score got a 3 box set of large Pretz.  As a partinh gift, we were given a box of Pretz and inflatable Pocky.  A 70 minute tour on its own but you can opt to design your own giant Pocky for 500yen.

Did I mention I havent had lunch yet and its almost 1400.  I pounded down the box of Pretzon the way back to the station.  The first thing that I latched on to was the udon shop.  Got my ticket and entered.  It registered that she asked me what kind of noodle that I wanted.  Due to the hunger and the fact that I saw udon on the front of the shop, I blurted out "UDON!".  Normally udon is pretty low on my list of japanese noodles.  Bit of curry rice on the side