7 April – Toyota Nagoya plant. Took us quite a ways off the main tourist routes, but it was interesting to see given a loose interest in cars and Toyota’s business model from a work perspective.

And you know you’re off the beaten track when the warning signs start to omit english and become more obscure. This one from a train door:

Eventually we got to Toyota HQ where there were a lot of cutaway cars:

Janette preached the virtues of the Toyota Production System to Nicola:

Little model production lines (since we’re not allowed to take photos in the real factory):

We got a brief demo of the Toyota i-unit:

and then Nicola wanted to try the big persons car (Lexus HS250h):

Toyota HQ:

Cakes:

To give you an idea of just how complex these little cakes can be, that chocolate one above comes together like this – white icing squiggles on top of choc icing on top of mousse for the top. The bottom section has a cylindrical band of light cream coloured cake with the little chocolate fenceposts on the outside. In the middle of the cylinder fits a cube of chocolate cake with the gap between that and the cylinder band of cake filled with cream. All sitting on top of a biscuit disc base… Yeah, elaborate.

And to round it off we finish with another DANGER! LIFE! sign:

Covered 450km today, finishing in Tokyo where we spend our last days in Japan.

Toyota Nagoya at EveryTrail

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