Asahi Brewery

Today was uncharacteristic in that we actually went out and did something. With other people. Shocking, I know. Bret and I both have adult students as well as child classes, and they sometimes suggest we go out and do something touristy on the island, like go to the Asahi Brewery, visit somewhere scenic, ride bikes across a famous bridge, etc. Today we went to the brewery! I’ve visited, or rather peeked inside some breweries in the past, mostly just the brewery/restaurant combos that are fairly popular in Seattle, but it was nothing like this. This place was huge! It was an enormous factory with impressive equipment. I got dizzy just looking at some of the assembly line machinery. The mega machines would fill and cap 600 bottles a minute! The can machine was even faster, a 24-pack a second! Afterwards we got a free beverage and some snacks.

The funniest part of the trip was the baby that one of the ladies brought along. There were four Japanese ladies, the baby, and Bret and me. The baby’s name was Haruka, and is in one of Bret’s classes. In class, (which is a baby and mom class, so her mother, Yoko, is there with her) she cries as soon as she sees Bret’s face and is inconsolable until someone starts singing the ABC’s or Jingle Bells, or some other kid song. As soon as you stop singing, however, she goes back to screaming bloody murder. Poor child, it’s not her fault she’s terrified of Bret. She works herself up so much! Even after she stopped screeching and crying her breath would be shallow and rapid for a long time. Seeing a hyperventilating baby is the saddest thing ever! Her mom told me not to worry though, that she does it all the time and that she’d get used to Bret eventually.
That day was not today. After calming her down in the car with the ABC song, her mom thought she would be okay and brought her in with us to the factory, but as soon as she spied Bret again off she went, wailing away. After a few minutes, we all spontaneously burst into a rendition of Jingle Bells, and were all dancing about like fools in the middle of the Asahi visitor information lobby trying to get little Haruka to stop crying. Men in suits walked past, eyeing us strangely, and the staff ( I think they knew what we were attempting to do) were all laughing at us. But it worked! We had to stop singing when the tour started, however, so Haruka and her mother had to sit it out. No matter where we were in the gigantic factory we could hear Haruka's crying and screeching at the top of her lungs echoing in the distance.

After the tour (about 25 min long) we went to the restaurant area where we were getting drinks and snacks, and where Yoko and her baby were hanging out since they couldn’t go on the tour. As soon as Bret entered the large room, from 30 meters away, Haruka spotted him and started crying and screaming again. I can’t even imagine trying to teach a class with a child screaming like that the whole time. Bret had told me stories about her, but I always imagined the crying to be like the kind I encounter during baby class, which is usually pretty normal leveled and brief, and not usually because of me, haha. I hope she gets acclimated to him soon!

here are some pictures from the factory, I took a few but then the lady said (reading off her guide manual book) "I am sorry to say, but there is no smoking or picture taking allowed on the Asahi Brewery tour"