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  • This is our factory noodles are made in japan.

  • So I'm back with another made in japan video and this time we are in Yamanashi and the good folks at Hakuba who have allowed me to show you guys how japanese noodles are made in a factory.

  • But like always, if you guys want to see what I'm doing on the daily, check out my instagram account.

  • If you guys wanna help throughout the channel, check out the Japan march.

  • And if you guys have any questions about Japan and Japan travel, check out my discord community.

  • Mhm.

  • Okay, so I've made it inside, but in order for me to go into the factory, I'm gonna need a change.

  • So let's do that now.

  • Cool, That was easy.

  • I got my coat on, but we need to find someone in order to get into the factory.

  • Let's see if you can find someone now, excuse me, can I go inside the factory with you Noodles like Udon and Solomon are a popular maintained japanese food culture, which is why Hakuba could have been creating their specialized dry noodles since 1959 now employing 420 hardworking staff to make it all happen each and every day.

  • And it's no surprise that their noodles have become a standard and family dining tables all throughout Japan.

  • In fact, we've been serving their baby noodles to our son ever since, he could start eating solids, which is why I'm so excited to take you on his factory tour today to show you how noodles are truly made in japan first thing in the morning, the flour for the noodles are delivered to the factory.

  • This is where it all starts.

  • Yeah, The trucks are connected directly to a pipe on the facade of the building, which feeds directly in the larger tanks housed in the factory.

  • Using a blend of different types of flour, delivered two different tanks.

  • That factory is able to craft their own specialized noodles.

  • The flowers delivered in these huge truck tankers up 3-4 times a day as a factory consumes about 11 tons of flour during peak times.

  • Yeah, so just behind you right here, the ingredients come down from the ceilings and they go into these mixer machines.

  • After receiving the flour, flour and water are combined in order to create a bouncy texture in the noodles to the company's mixture, increases their water ratio compared to most other makers and performs their mixing in a vacuum state, which allows the water to permeate the flower, which creates a denser gluten, ultimately producing their own unique and signature noodles.

  • This machine is able to make 200 kg, about 440 lb of dough at once, and during peak summer production times, they run up to 70 times a day, creating about 12 tons of dry noodles.

  • After maturing for 20 to 40 minutes.

  • It's compared into their custom pressing machines, which applies pressure both vertically and horizontally, ultimately creating a smooth and elastic structure.

  • A total of six roller sections are implemented as each set of rollers creates a thinner and thinner dough and depending on the product, the machine can press the dough as thin as 1-2 mm Mhm.

  • When it reaches the final roller stage, the noodles are automatically cut with a threaded roller hung on metal poles and then ready for the drawing process.

  • The factory switches between 11 different threaded rollers called Kitty Hawk to produce at various types of noodles.

  • What's going on here?

  • Let's find out high.

  • What are you doing?

  • How long does it take you to make noodles?

  • So what's the secret to all this?

  • Thank you.

  • Now, one of the most critical parts.

  • The drying process.

  • The noodles are hung in cycles gradually through eight different rooms with varying temperatures, humidity and air blower strengths, which runs a total length of 400 m about 430 yards for up to 16 hours, ensuring that the center of the noodle is completely dried, preventing breakage.

  • Let's see what's going on on this side of the factory.

  • Mm.

  • Mhm.

  • After the noodles have completely dried, they're brought into the cutting and packaging area, uniquely The factory invented and developed specialized production line machines to cut bundle and package their noodles in total.

  • About 60 of these marvelous time saving machines were built by the in house engineering team Hakuba could in fact create many other bali based products, but in this noodle factory, They produce 55 different types of noodles, focusing on making 2-3 types each day.

  • Mm Oh wow.

  • It looks like this lady is replacing the bundling tape By developing and supporting their machines in house.

  • They're able to quickly customized for a variety of noodle products.

  • For example, in Japan, the standard noodle length is 20 cm but in smaller pots have become popular these days.

  • The factory quickly adapted to make shorter versions.

  • Cool, what's this?

  • Let's see what they're doing.

  • So this is the packaging area for the baby noodles with a length of 2.5 centimeters a lot shorter than santa noodles.

  • So parents don't have to cut it at home as a parent myself.

  • Anything to save time on meal private is very much appreciated.

  • Just look at these machines go, mhm package after package coming down the line.

  • Hi, can I ask you a question.

  • So what's the most important thing about packaging?

  • Uh You want a vampire and Oklahoma.

  • Yeah.

  • Mhm mm.

  • Now, to the final stage, the products are sorted box and loaded onto pallets for delivery.

  • This process is fully automated as even the computers are able to recognize the different types of boxes to feed to the correct pickup location, there's even an automated crane that's able to sort the different types of boxes and stack them perfectly.

  • Mm hmm And there you go.

  • The noodles are ready for delivery.

  • Mhm Quickly before we continue on.

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  • Alright, let's continue on with this tour.

  • So this video wouldn't be complete if I didn't explore what the other workers are doing to make this all happen.

  • So I've made it to their office area.

  • Let's see what they're doing here, wow, this is great.

  • Look, everyone is wearing blue uniforms.

  • Look, I guess not everyone is wearing a blue uniform.

  • The place is so big.

  • I wonder where these doors go.

  • Let's see what's behind this one.

  • So this is the quality assurance.

  • Tesla samples are taken regularly from their package products and a slew of tests are performed every day.

  • Let's see what she's doing.

  • Excuse me.

  • What are you working on?

  • sodium tests are especially important because they also offer sodium free noodle products.

  • But they also run tests on things like flour.

  • Only the ones that passed.

  • The rigorous testing are used in the factory and wow!

  • The lab is so much equipment.

  • These are used to analyze the residue of agricultural chemicals and this one is to clean the pipe.

  • It's so cool.

  • Oh damn!

  • Is this a taste testing?

  • So this is called condo Yoka a blind taste test of their products.

  • The team also conduct a she show ku Fukuoka and open taste testing of their products for qualities such as taste and color.

  • Followed up with a group discussion.

  • Excuse me, what are you doing?

  • So what do you think?

  • Thank you man.

  • We are exploring today.

  • Let's see what's beyond this door.

  • Okay, yo what's all this?

  • What do you do?

  • How often do the machines break down?

  • And who made these machines?

  • What's the most challenging part of the job?

  • So apparently these are the engineers that build a factory machines from design programming testing all the way to the final build.

  • It's amazing that the company not only makes noodles, but they make the machines that help them craft the noodles definitely worthy of the title made in Japan and it looks like they do maintenance and all the equipment here.

  • These bad boys are the tools used to curve shaped drill and build their product line machines.

  • So dope.

  • What up Doe logistics.

  • So this is the product development area where all the new products come to life.

  • The workers use these scaled down versions of their factory machines to create prototypes.

  • This machine here is similar to the large six roller press found in the factory, but instead of being done automatically, the dough has to be fed by hand a little bit more work, but the same effect.

  • How many times you need to press the dough?

  • Now he changes the roller to a noodle cutter.

  • Similar to what we saw in the factory having threads of different sizes allows them to develop different types of noodles.

  • Apparently, the team creates about 4-5 prototypes a year, but only one or two ever make it to market.

  • Unfortunately he can't share what he's working on, but I'm digging the green noodles.

  • Finally, he places the noodles in a specialized tank to dry for later testing and development.

  • Mhm So that's how noodles are made in Japan.

  • Let me know what you thought in the comments.

  • If you guys like this video helped me out and hit that like button.

  • If you guys want to see more videos like this made in Japan videos or anything related to japan, hit that subscribe button and the button and I'll catch you guys in the next one.

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