Royce Chocolate Factory

Yamazaki san greeting us in his office ( nice touch with US flag!)

Yamazaki san bear carving collection in the office building

This is Yamazaki san aka Mr. Royce Chocolates.  Dallin taught him English.  We got the VIP treatment ...many bows and greetings as we were in the office and in the factory.  We were served herbal tea several times...not Kim's favorite.  We visited for quite a while and then Yamazaki san drove us to the factory where we got to see how the chocolate was made.  It had signs for no picture taking but they were very gracious to let us chronicle this fun field trip. 

This is the front of the factory.  There are 800 employees that work in the factory.  It is on the outskirts of Sapporo in a place where Yamazaki san grew up.  They grow their own potatoes ( for chips) and sugar beets.  It is a rural place.

This begins the scrub down.  First we had lint rollers that we used on all our clothing.  We took off all jewelry. We washed our hands.  we put on these cute hats.

We kept adding layers and wore slip on shoes that they provided and even then, we had to get the shoes clean on a walk through water canal.

Those are blowers that you walk through to dry and clean any last remaining critter!

Then the fun began.  Our tour guide had a red band on her head and after the tour we decided it must mean VIP treatment coming through.  She spoke English and was part of the creative team that comes up with new ideas.  We had people bowing to us every where we went.  That is something you would never experience in the US!

White chocolate covered potato chips...a specialty that we saw often in stations like airport.

Assembling Kids Selection ( non alcoholic)

This is the factory in action.  They had lots of machines that sorted, boxed, coated, covered.  It was really fun to see how much goes into that little piece of chocolate that we love to eat!  After the tour we saw a car collection that Yamazaki san has in a big warehouse and then we went on a tour of the Chocolate museum.  Again we had a guide that spoke English until she found out that Dallin spoke Japanese and then everything went through him.  She stayed late just to show us around.  Then we met up with Yamazaki san and he drove us to his sushi restaurant.  We had so many courses that after a while, I just took a bite of each thing to be polite.  He wanted to serve us more but we enthusiastically declined!  However, Dallin and Kim did finish up the dinner with Royce ice cream. 

Yup, I ate almost all of this...not a fan of raw shrimp and I LOVE shrimp.  In the room next to us they were having what sounded like a karaoke party.  According to Dallin, those are big in Japan.  Then a cab was called for us and we headed back to our hotel like stuffed puppies.  We felt like we had been treated like royalty and hope some day to return the favor...we are really wanting Yamazaki san to come to UTAH where many adoring returned missionaries that have been recipients of much chocolate would love to see him and his family again.