#10: Yokohama Tire Factory and Some Good Food (June 24-27)

June 27, 2024

On Tuesday we loaded up on a bus for the Yokohama Rubber Company's Shinshiro plant, which is their main production facility for their tires. They make tires for passenger cars, trucks, buses, tractors, off-road vehicles, and almost anything else with four wheels. We were given a tour of the plant and saw every step of the tire manufacturing process, from mixing globs of rubber into sticky slabs to putting the treads on and preparing them for shipping. For someone who spent the five months before this trip working at a wheel manufacturing plant, touring a tire manufacturing plant was a blast. There were a bunch of similarities in layout, machinery, color schemes, sounds, etc. that reminded me of home. We weren't allowed to take any pictures, so all I have is the front sign. One of my favorite parts of the program schedule so far.

Not much else to report on this week, it's mostly been classes and day-to-day life in Japan, but I've had some fun lunches and dinners. Cafes here, while not great breakfast places since they don't open till 10am, have great, made-to-order sandwiches for excellent lunches and dinners (and iced milk--why don't they serve that in the U.S?), and the pizzas at the Italian place near my dorm are among the best I've ever had: made fresh in the brick oven and with extremely thin and very digestable crust where they're designed for one person to eat the whole pizza. I'm not a big eater and I ate half of it (and then the leftover half the next night). While I'm still eager to try new things at new places, I definitely like being able to return several times to the same place and explore their menu in depth, seeing their full range of culinary skills.