Berry's SEAJ trip Day 56: Brewery and Distillery tours (7/31/15)

After breakfast and dropping off the kids, we head to the observation deck of the train station and grab lunch on ramen street which was awesome; just a row of different ramen places about 5 stories above the trains. I ordered the dipping noodles where you dip your noodles into a broth of meat. When you are done, they pour more stock into the bowl and you drink the remnants (reminded me of my philmont days when we swilled after our meals to clean our bowls). After that, we got the train to get to the Suntory brewery where we took a tour of the facility (all in Japanese) before they let us sample their flagship and their masters dream and the third is your choice of those 2 beers; the beers are both light lagers with not much difference in flavor. The catch is you have ~20 minutes for 3 8 oz beers.  

Berry found a helipad at the train station overlooking the city. Nice view I must say.

Keeping things consistent, you order from the vending machines then go inside and present the cooks with your voucher to get your food. Berry is hungry!

Dipping noodles for the win. Berry and I are happy to see this delicious looking meal.

Berry hanging out while the conductor does his/her job. On towards the brewery!

Berry looking out at our train's destination. 

Alcoholic vending machine? yes they are all over the place. Had to remind Berry where we are going, there will be beer.

Berry with the exquisite sign for the brewery. The premium malts is a phrase I heard in the tour no less than 100 times.

Berry couldnt wait for the beer so we served him in the lobby with some props they had lying around.

Now its my turn to take a picture with the props.

Our group walking over from the visitor center to the brewery.

Grain silos or external fermenters. Berry believes they are the latter.

Berry found the brew house. Tanks are kinda big.

Want to get lost in the hypnotic making of beer?

Towers of kegs waiting to be filled and sent out for enjoyment.

Takao, Berry, and I enjoying our beers. 

Berry helping me out with the abundance of beer given in such a short amount of time.

They give you a little bag of pretzels but still giving 3 beers in 20 minutes would never fly in USA. So I pound mine and some of Takao's before we are kicked out as they prepare for the next group. We then catch a shuttle to the train station to get to our next stop, the Yamazaki distillery. These 2 establishments are own by the same company yet the tours were drastically different; the distillery gave us audio guides in our languages so we could understand what was being said and be included in the tour. Granted, I was the only foreigner on the brewery tour whereas the distillery tour was predominantly foreigners. The barrel room is impressive in its size and its smell. After the tour we go to the tasting room and they do themselves a huge disservice; their drinks are served in glasses with soda and ice cubes even though their stuff is good. First is their single malt then their blend and the third is the blend anyway you want it; I get it neat and for their bottom of the line whiskey, it is very smooth and drinkable as is. Makes me more impressed with their line of spirits, but at the same time more pissed at their decision to do their tasting this way. After the tasting I buy a in house only available bottle of whiskey before stumbling upon the bar which allows you to taste an assortment of their whiskeys at a cost. Since I am here once, I decide to get a drab of the 30yo Hibiki (~25$); I'm on vacation? It is pretty tasty with what I thought were fig characters coming through. Cannot say it was worth the money, but it was fun to try it as I will never get the chance to try something like that again I think.

We have made it to the whiskey haven. Lets explore Berry!

Still in the tourist center surrounded by bottles of whiskey. Not a bad place to end up.

Found a representation of the barrels we will see later. Berry couldnt wait to take a picture with the real thing.

Berry and his copper stills for the whiskey distilling.

Finally we have found the barrel room Berry. Barrels as far as the eye can see.

Berry and I posing with the barrels full of whiskey. Room definitely smelt of alcohol.

Mikis and Berry at the whiskey tasting. Time to indulge.

Good choice Berry. Before we drink just want to take some pics to document the occasion.

The bartender let me pose with the bottle in front of the still.

Posing with my purchase before getting my taste. Berry is excited to try it.

Berry mesmerized at the hall of whiskey. 

We head back and have pizza for dinner where Takao finally had me try his German potato pizza (potato, mayonnaise, sausage, etc.) he had always talked about when he came to the states. It isn't too bad but the taste of cooked mayonnaise is kinda weird. We hang around the house that night and I booked my hotel for the first couple days on my lonesome; going to Hiroshima, all the hotels are 2-300 a night since it is the 70th anniversary of the bomb being dropped on the 6th and there is the world boy scout jamboree as well, however I find lodging in nearby Fujiyama Using the rail pass, the bullet train gets me to Hiroshima in an hour max. Being able to stay there and the savings I get from it in these couple nights alone have paid for my rail pass without factoring in the cost of the actual train tickets. Best investment for this trip! Hung out a little bit more and then hit the hay.