Hacho Miso

I went to the Hacho Miso factory today to do a tour. When I arrived there, there wasn't anyone else to do the tour with me, so it was just me and a very nice tour guide (pictured). He spoke very little English, so we did it in Japanese. I guess my skills have improved some, as I was able to understand most of what was said (though we did use a dictionary more than once).

Hacho is a very old factory. He said the year they started, but I didn't catch the exact date. But it was something like 1350, so they have been in business some 700 years. Wow!

The picture below shows the process they use. Basically, they take either rice, barley, or soy beans (Hacho uses soybeans) with some water, sea salt, and koji (aspergillus oryzae), process it (grinding, cooking, etc.) and then let it ferment for over 3 years.

The name Hacho comes from the factory's location in relation to Okazaki Castle. Written in Kanji, the name means 8 blocks, which comes from the factory being 8 blocks from the castle.

日本語：
今朝ハ丁味噌の会社のツアーへ行った。着いたとき、私だけツアーが行きたかった。だから私だけツアーした。　とても親切なガイドだった。ガイドは少しい英語が話せると、日本語でした。たいていの言葉が分かったので、日本語がだんだん上手になっている。

ハ丁味噌はとても古い。彼はいつ始まったと言った（ごめん）、でも忘れた。１３５０年ごらいと思う。すぐい！

作り方の写真だ。３年以上掛かるよ。

名前は所の意味だ。岡崎城から８丁だ。