A couple years ago, I was eating some Pocky (well, Pretz), and I wondered if the little grill marks on the bottom were part of the manufacturing process or were just cosmetic. So I looked it up! Eventually this resulted in a little open thread here. Then, a few days ago in Osaka, I visited the famous Glico Running Man billboard, which reminded me, and made me wonder–does Glico offer factory tours? Well hey, you know what? They do! So we booked our free tickets (well, my husband did, the website was in Japanese), and yesterday we took the train down to Saitama for our visit to Glicopia East.
They showed us some propaganda videos, which were slightly educational. I learned that Glico is named after glycogen, the vending machines used to show little movies when you paid, and the boxes used to include toys. Then there were some photo ops, including this innovative new HIMARS design:
Finally we got to enter the factory itself. I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures, or I’d share them, but my earlier post has an official video you can watch. Much cooler in person of course. We got to see the dough being made, and stretched, and noodle-ified, and baked; the machine that sprays the flavor onto Pretz; the quality control floor; and the whole packaging workflow, all the way to the machine that stacked the big shipping boxes onto pallets. We did not get to see the floor where they dip the Pocky sticks into chocolate, which they claimed was a trade secret, but I’ve seen enough Willy Wonka parodies to know that it’s probably just done by a giant alien worm.
In the end they gave us a commemorative box of Pretz:
Annnd then we spent a bunch of money at the gift shop, which of course is how they get ya.
I’d forgotten how much I love stuff like this. The vaguely-threatening robots! The scale of it all! The process! Engineering can be so cool. I’m now willing to tour any factory. Might hit up the Coors brewery when I get back home.
Overnight open thread, I suppose!
Major Major Major Major
And in video game writing news, we’ve started commissioning character art and hope to launch our kickstarter in July! I’ll be doing some blogging about the writing and production process as we go. First one will probably be about puzzle design. Thanks as always for humoring me :)
brantl
Why watch people make bad beer for shitty pay?
Major Major Major Major
@brantl: happy to do a different factory tour in Colorado if you have any suggestions.
ColoradoGuy
Factories are fun, especially when you don’t have to work there. My diplomat dad took me on many different factory tours when we lived in Japan. Always entertaining … even saw a underground hydroelectric plant accessible via a tiny railway.
different-church-lady
Got that folks? GET TO WORK ON IT!
Major Major Major Major
@ColoradoGuy: my grandpa worked at a dog food factory, was always interesting to visit. I didn’t exactly see the input side of things though.
Rusty
My first job out of law school was a small patent law firm, we had a client that made giant extrusion machines. One line made food products, I always remember the advertising brochure that listed possible uses, including pet food, fish pellets and snack foods. All could come out of the same giant machine. They operated at high temperature and pressure, the only “cooking” was being extruded to atmosphere.
p.a.
I have no idea what this is about. Has Mike Chen mentioned this on Strictly Dumpling?
Major Major Major Major
@Rusty: wild!
@p.a.: you’ll have to pick up some Pocky next time you’re in an Asian grocer or international food aisle.
Manyakitty
@ColoradoGuy: anything with a tiny railway gets my immediate attention.
Major Major Major Major
@Manyakitty: oh they have some of those in the old mining towns in Colorado… maybe there are some interesting industrial tours up there…
Anyway
There’s a small potato chip factory a short, “scenic” drive from here and its my go-to when I need to entertain youngish kids …
Amir Khalid
I see Pretz snacks all the time in Malaysian grocery stores. Never been tempted to try them.
Anyway
Post needs more pics of Japanese food…
Major Major Major Major
@Anyway: juuuust got our soufflé pancakes after 30 minutes which I will definitely be writing up
Manyakitty
@Major Major Major Major: oooh, eagerly await relevant posts when you get home.
MelissaM
Nice! I am not a “car person” by any means, and far from a pickup person, but when we were visiting a friend in Detroit, we did the Ford Rouge plant tour where they made the F150s (I think – it was a pickup truck.) I was fascinated! It’s a self-guided tour on a platform above the factory floor, and my husband was b.o.r.e.d. but I lingered. Look at the sucky-device to hold the windshield!
We also got to see the living roof !!during a downpour!! This plant has a living roof and permeable parking pavement. The living roof made it up to 15 degrees cooler in the plant in the highs of summer (so a difference of 100+ horrific to high 80s eh, bearable I guess.) I loved it. And the gift shop was worthless to us. We’re not car people.
Mom Says I*m Handsome
The best part of my career as a supply chain guy has been visiting hundreds of factories across the world. Making things is COOL, and I wish manufacturing got the same cred with the youngs that video games or social apps get. This summer I’m arranging to take my teenagers to an injection-molded plastic manufacturer in Longmont so they can see what that might look like for them — as a toolmaker, or automation designer, or production supervisor, or biz dev manager.
TaMara
@Major Major Major Major: Hammond factory tour in Denver is a must if you haven’t done it before.
TaMara
@Major Major Major Major: Years ago, you used to be able to go down into the Molly Kathline Mine in Cripple Creek – I spent waaaaay too many weekends going down that tiny elevator (1000 feet!) with my parents and whichever guest was staying with us. Cool once you got down there, but I had to forget how trapped we were so as not to have a panic attack.
wenchacha
My son and Japanese daughter in law just signed papers with her Dad. They will co-own a home in Japan. They bought it for around $25k, and it will need that much again for plumbing and upgrades. I think it’s about an hour outside Tokyo.
My husband and I never had Japan on our bucket list, but I’m hoping we can make the trip sometime in the future. My son and his family live in Mountain View, but will now have a place to stay when they visit.
Thanks for sharing some of your experiences! I don’t think I heard of Pocky until my teenager introduced me, years back.
Noskilz
Neat!
brantl
@Major Major Major Major: I don’t know Colorado, but Coors is anti-union, pretty much anti-decency, and anti-good-beer.
Major Major Major Major
Thanks for the suggestions ❤️