Trip Report…Toyota Factory Tour…In Japan!

[Robinhood4x4]

Ok, the title is a little misleading. My wife and I just got back from a great 2 week trip to Japan. The last time I went to Japan was over 10 years ago right after we got married. This time the main reason we went was for her sister's wedding, but we did end up doing a solid week of sight seeing all over the country and this included a tour of a Toyota factory! I thought I'd share the sights we saw on our journey.

We started out in Tokyo where a Japanese friend of ours lives and could show us around. Our flight got in around midnight and we checked into our hotel. This was pretty typical of the size of the rooms we stayed in. Small by US standards but not bad. Still larger than a cruise ship cabin. Since we were traveling by train everywhere, those two backpacks were the only luggage we had.


It turns out that governments all around the world are just as inefficient as ours. There, it takes 4 guys to paint an arrow on the ground.


This the district of Akihabra, which is known for selling electronic gadgets. You mostly go there to people watch because all the weird anime people go there, kinda like going to Comicon.


The newly opened Tokyo Sky Tree was pretty cool. It's the worlds tallest tower. Not building, but tower, like the Eiffel tower. It pretty much dwarfs every other sky scraper around.




Heading back to our hotel at light speed.

[Robinhood4x4]

After Tokyo, we headed down to Kyoto, but along the way we stopped at Toyota HQ. We signed up for the tour about a month in advance on their website. Getting there wasn't hard, but it wasn't as easy as getting around in the big cities. From the bullet train, we hopped on a couple different local trains, then a bus. Every time we switched, we kept getting more and more into the suburbs and saw fewer and fewer tourists. I probably could have made it there without my guide, but I would have had to do a lot more research. Here's the toyota flag flying outside the headquarters.


When we got to the meeting point, there were actually quite a few other people there for the tour, probably about 100 in total. It was surprising to see how many people visit every year.


Unfortunately, the day we went the main museum was closed, but they had a smaller one open. Also unfortunately, they wouldn’t let us take pictures inside the factory so these are all I have.


I bet nobody here has sat in one of these:


It's a right hand drive FJ cruiser.





They were very proud of their Pruis's and had a large display covering the history and technology behind it.


There are 4 main processes to build a car. Stamping, welding, painting, and assembly.


And of course, no meal would be complete without some Toyota Curry.


So the tour itself started with two huge buses picking us up, Hino buses of course. Lots of families, people of all ages, and from all over the world were on the tour. All the factories are within 30 min to 2 hours away from the head quarters, which, they said helps with the supply chain. We went to the Takaoka plant which builds the iQ, Auris, and Corolla. After the 30 min bus ride, we got off and followed the tour guide up the stairs to the top of some scaffolding. The entire walking tour was held on this elevated pathway which skirted the edge of the manufacturing floor. We were basically at the ceiling of this huge factory, which afforded us a great view of the workers below.

On the other hand, we happened to visit Japan during a heat wave where it was 100 deg F and 80% humidity, and were were at the top of the building. It was a little hot, although that was a theme for our entire visit. I sure hope it was much cooler down in the floor for the worker, because they were working their butts off.

The assembly line basically never stops unless there is a problem. That means the people can never stop either and I was amazed at how hard they work. It's definitely no place for the lazy or fat people.

They were very proud of the Kanban system and Kaizen system. Kanban is basically a supply chain system in which everything is labeled so people know when to get or order more parts. Kaizen is continuous improvement in whatever you do. The very first thing they showed were the kanban cards on all the parts carts. The very last thing they showed were some hands on displays which showed how the line workers came up with improvements to their job.

Something else they showed off was the use of Poka Yoke, which is mistake proofing which leads to better quality. The example they used was a torque wrench used by a worker. If the sensor built into the torque wrench sensed that the torque wasn't applied correctly, a green light at the station turned yellow. This automatically summoned a line leader and if the problem with the torque wrench wasn't solved within the specified time, the light turned red and the entire line shuts down. Talk about pressure.

After the tour, we were all glad to get back into the air conditioned bus and head back to the museum. Here's a picture of the Toyota Technical Center. I would have loved to get a tour of that place.

[Robinhood4x4]

More to come in the next few days!

[4x4mike]

Very cool. A factory tour sounds like fun. Thanks for sharing.

[troyboy162]

sounds like a awesome trip! That assembly line must have been amazing to watch.

[DHC6twinotter]

Sounds great! I didn't realize Toyota did factory tours. It's almost worth a trip to Japan just for that!

[Robinhood4x4]

Yup, here's the website for Toyota's tour.
http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/about_toy...kan/index.html

After Toyota, we continued on to Kyoto which would be our base for the next 5 days. We checked into the Best Western hotel, but soon discovered two disappointing things about it. One, the wifi was only available in the lobby, which sucked. The second was our view.


That's right, a freaking cemetery right outside the window. For some reason, that wasn't on the website.

Anyway, the next day we took an old fashion train ride which followed a river, then took an old fashioned boat back down the river. These school kids seemed to be a theme throughout the trip, where ever we went. The wife said it's field trip season for school kids and elementary school kids up to high school kids would travel all throughout the country, some with chaperones and some without.


This is the boat we took down the river.


After the boat ride, we took a stroll through the bamboo forest of Arashiyama.


On the way back to the train station, we walked through a neighborhood and I just randomly stuck my head over a fence. I have no idea why I did that at that time, but there I was face to face with a deer! Of course my first reaction was to yell at the wife and say, "Hey, there's a deer!", which promptly made it run away.


You know how we're getting all these tiny cars here in the US now? Well, they make tremendous sense in Japan because of their lack of parking spaces. If you don't have a parking space, just park on the sidewalk.


After that, we made our way back to Kyoto and visited another shrine.


I'm pretty sure this sign means Ogres with kids are ok from 1 pm to 5 am.


This is from the grounds of Nijo-jo Castle.


After the castle, we, along with hundreds of other tourists, hit one of the most photographed temples in Japan, Kinkakuji, or the Golden Pavilion.


Remember how I said we visited during a heat wave? Well, we spent most of our time walking from one shave ice place to the next shave ice place, to the soft serve ice cream place. Needless to say, I was soaking wet most of the time and going inside was the only respite we had. On top of that, they didn't have the air conditioning as low as we do in the US. I'm not sure if it's always like that or if it's because of the lack of power after the earthquake and tsunami. Here's some green tea shave ice.


This was the busy street just outside our hotel


The next installment will be about wild deer, floating tori gates, and hiroshima,

[Good Times]

awesome trip!

[Robinhood4x4]

Thanks everybody. Ok, last installment.

The next day we went down south for a day trip near hiroshima. This is the Itsukushina shrine which is famous for this "floating" tori gate. It's actually not floating, but it's claim to fame is that during low tide you can walk out to it.


When we got off the ferry boat, we were greeted with wild deer. Despite the sign that says not to pet or feed the deer, everybody does.


By the time we left, the tide had gone out and people were walking up to the tori gate.


Originally, we weren't going to go to Hiroshima because we didn't think we had time, but it turns out we had time to kill so we went. I'm glad we did. This is the Atomic Dome, which is one of the original buildings still standing after the bomb went off. The bomb detonated 600 meters directly above this building, which is one reason it survived.




The Peace Park is a memorial to the 160,000 people who died from the bomb.


The next day were off to see another shrine (there's a theme here, when traveling to Japan). This one is Fushimi Inari and their claim to fame are these thousands of tori gates that lead you all over the property.


Well, the first week came to an end quickly and we were then off to the small town of Aomori in the north of Japan, for the wedding. The future in-law's parents own a small restaurant so they served up the pre-wedding dinner. See the stuff in the middle? It looks a little different from regular raw fish doesn't it? That's because it's raw horse!


After the wedding, we headed back to the wife's parent's house where we stayed for another week. Things got a little more mundane so I had fewer photography opportunities. She's from the island of Hokkaido, where the weather is much much better and the landscape is much more rural.




This is the Blue Pond, which in my mind isn't peculiar for it's color, but rather because right next door there was a shooting range! I didn't get any pictures of it, but I could sure hear it. I guess the sign said it's a shotgun range, but the funny thing is I only heard one shot at a time and only every couple minutes.


Our last stop of the trip was a hike up the tallest mountain in Hokkaido, Mt Asahi. No, I didn't see any springs trickling out beer. What we did see was snow! We went from sweltering heat to snow in a matter of days.


Mt Asahi is actually a volcano, complete with sulfer vents.


Well, we're finally at the end of our trip. It was a great vacation that was much too short but well worth the sweat, the bathtub laundry, the blisters, and the sometimes crowded buses and trains.




For more pictures, click this link
http://antinode.smugmug.com/Vacation...13-Pub/n-RLrNj

[Robinhood4x4]

But of course this thread wouldn’t be complete without showing all the trucks I saw during the trip.

Eventually, I saw every generation of 4runner except the 5th gen, but not as many as I thought I would. Surprisingly, I saw more Land Cruisers than 4runners.

I don't even know what land cruiser this is, but I'd buy one in a heartbeat if it were sold here.


The more north and rural we got, the more I saw lifted trucks, especially 80 series land cruisers.


And lots of nice 60 series land cruisers too.


Not a truck and not a toyota, but this certainly caught my eye. An old nissan skyline that even sounded like a muscle car.



While on the freeway, there was this monster. A Mitsubishi Delica minivan. He actually had some off road club stickers so I guess he actually off roaded it.


This was one of 2 motor homes that I saw.


And finally, another lifted 80 series.