I woke up early today and headed to Miyajima- basically a 30 minute train ride and then a 20 minute ferry ride. It is home to the famous 'floating' torii (Shinto shrine gate). It is one of the most photographed places in Japan and is classified as one of the 3 best views in Japan.
There also happen to be tons (hundreds?) of deer roaming around. Unlike the deer I have seen before- these ones are not afraid of people and they are very overly friendly in trying to get food from you- they will actually start chewing on your backpack.
There is a gondola ride up the mountain and then a tram that takes you to the top. I was scheduled to go to the Mazda plant so I just took the gondola portion- amazing views.
Then I hopped back on the ferry and train and headed to the Mazda plant to take a tour (in English!!). The first part of the tour begins in a showroom of new cars, then you are put on a bus and driven to the museum and factory which are connected. In the museum they have lots of historical vehicles- first ones they made and such its actually pretty cool There is also lots of information about the rotary engine and its creation and the technology behind it. A Brit I was chatting with brought up something- if this engine is so great- why is it only in one of their cars? They also walk you through the creation of a car from start (concept and clay models) to finish with each step demonstrated with models and videos- it was really cool.
Next they brought us into the factory itself- the line. I have never been in a factory before and it was an amazing thing to see. Pictures were not allowed so I don't have any to post. We were standing above the line so got a good perspective. It is really incredible watching these guys assemble a car on a moving line- they really have to hustle. It looks absolutely mind-numbing and I bet these guys dream about the line. In addition to a bunch of Japanese guys assembling the cars there are also robots that assist in the process. One of the robots would pick up a piece of glass (side rear window) and put glue on it and then move it so it was close to the guy who would then pick it up and stick it on the car. Apparently this plant produces around 3000 cars per day! It is the longest car assembly line in the world- 4.35 miles long.
My friend James has a friend living in Hiroshima and she and a couple of her friends took me to dinner at an Isakaya- sort of a pub/restaurant but it's nothing like a pub in the US. We had our own little private room that had space for your legs to hang down (yes! no numb legs). We ordered the course menu (or I should say they ordered as I don't know what the menu said). We had 8 or 9 courses (and it only cost 40 bucks each with drinks). The sashimi course came out with dry ice so it looked like it was smoking. The food was great.
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