Day 12

Today began with an early morning, catching taxis at 7:00 to reach the train station. We arrived at the train station a few minutes early, so we had the opportunity to witness some of the bullet trains come screeching through the station. It doesn't seem like you are moving so fast when you are on them, but when you are in the station, they are an awesome sight to behold. We caught the train to Kobe, which is famous for its beef. We were not there to sample any of this delicacy, but to finish up our last two plant tours for the entire program.

Our first tour involved a stop at Kobe Customs, the agency that monitors all imports that come into Kobe port, which is one of the larger ports in Japan. In fact, it was once the largest port in Japan until an earthquake caused structural damages. During the rebuilding process, many shipping companies transferred to the nearby port of Osaka, and have not switched back since due to the costs associated with such a switch.

(Kobe Port- Notice the overcast skies)

Inside, there was a museum highlighting parts of Kobe Customs process. Some interesting pieces included how they differentiate between actual high end products like Luis Vutton purses and fake copies of these goods. They said they experience high volumes of these fake goods, because they are produced in China and imported to Japan, where the customer might even know that the goods are fake but still purchase them for the brand name. Seeing how smugglers have attempted to get goods past customs was also very interesting. From kitchen tables filled with meth to macadamia nuts filled with cocaine, there did not seem to be any lack of creativity.

Upon leaving Kobe Port, we traveled to Takara for our last company visit. Takara was a 2 part tour: we visited their warehouse, which focused on logistics and warehousing, and their distillery, which focused on production. As you can guess, Takara makes alcoholic beverages of all sorts, and in fact the distillery that we visited is the largest producer of sake in all of Asia. I have visited a similar process in Milwaukee, and I was trying to compare the two distilleries in my mind. It seemed that the Japanese was both more automated and diverse in stock keeping units, although I would have to visit the Milwaukee site again to be certain.

(The production line, notice, no workers in sight in this picture)

After the tour ended, we hopped on the Shinkansen (Japanese for bullet train) to head back to JCMU. We had the option to stay in Kyoto and visit some sites, but everyone decided to pass in favor of studying for the exam, which is tomorrow. We were offered the option to take the exam early to have a chance to go to Hiroshima, or to take it at the original time. I will let you know tomorrow which one I chose, but for now I must return to studying.

(Part of the group putting in some time with the books)