The Mazda factory tour in Hiroshima
 

I have been in Japan for the last 5 months or so, and am concluding my stay with two weeks of travel through a good part of the country. I was originally going to go see the Toyota factory near Nagoya, but after learning I could go to the Mazda one in Hiroshima, I quickly changed my mind. It was a nice experience, and after learning a bit more about the company's history, ethics, and pride in the rotary engine, my appreciation for them grew. It was also great to see things like concept cars and the Le Mans race winner in real life. I used to own a Protege, which sparked my interest in cars and the driving experience, and I am anxiously looking forward to coming back home where I will be purchasing the Rx-8. If any of you get the chance to come out here, I would highly recommend taking the tour. Also, I have a silly question. Japanese people commonly put lanyard-like straps on their phones, and I purchased one with a minature rotary mechanism on it. Do American cell-phones have a little notch like the ones over here where you can attach it to? If not, I'll find some use for it.

Is it one of the ones where the rotor spins in the housing? I've got one of those.

Most every cell phone as some kind of a lanyard mount on it, except maybe the iPhone and blackberries. They're usually designed in japan anyways, we just get them 3 years later when nobody in japan wants them anymore. :lol2:

taht is sweet. in 12 th grade summer, me and a couple of schoolmates from okinawa worked at the nissan factory. was a good experience. glad you enjoyed

and no pics? FAIL

Top secrect!

No pictures allowed in factory or you will be visted by three men in black suits.

that may be slightly exaggerated, but true. I couldn't take any photos of the actual museum or factory, which is understandable, but a bummer. And totally unrelated, but I saw a pretty young, cute girl working on the assembly line, and when she started bolting things into a new Rx-8, I think I got an erection.

And alfy, I remember reading in another thread you mentioning growing up in Okinawa. Next time I come I would definitely like to visit there, even though I only know a few bits of Okinawa-ben.

you will like it. especially if you like beaches, its like a mini hawaii . lots of good night clubs etc. and also okinawa ppl are more friendlier then Main Land Japan ppl are.

thats cool id love to go there and look

By any chance did you get to tour the rotor production portion?...doubt it but I have had the privledge of training under the master a little and his coworker(Yoshii), I need to email yoshii and wish him a happy holidays now that I think about it. I would love to go there, funny thing is I dont realize who I meet here from japan, I actually meet/shook hands with the designer and head engineer for mazda, he designed the first miata and all of them since. They are surprisingly very out going and honestly looser then I imagined to work alongside with. I close up the day with the bosses at our plant when I ship out the motors and a few of the mazda japan guys pull out there remote control cars and helicopters before they go home(after work, ha). Considering they are from hiroshima I wondered if they hated americans at all with the a-bomb being dropped there and probably wiping out some of there family but they are very very nice and I considered Yoshii a friend.

On a small note we lost our top end assembly guy, his family reserved a front row section at the funeral for all of us to sit, every one in the US plant went along with Yoshii and our japan bosses, his dad personally thanked Yoshii and said he loved training under him.....really inspirational for me personally consider I pride myself on my job but I know Yoshii loved him also as a coworker......anyways.

They gave us this attatchment used to clean our cell phones from japan.
http://www.photodump.org/stored23/P7030084.jpg

sorry about the loss of your co-worker sleepyz

but man, now that i know they have a factory tour at mazda HQ, that's definitely on my to-do list if i ever get a chance to go to japan!

that's so cool! when i go to japan that's definitely something i'll do. when i went to england a few years ago i tried to tour the lotus factory but they were closed for holidays when i was there so i was really bummed out. good luck on find an 8 when you get back. there're plenty of good deals around these days

No, we were taken to a lobby/showroom with a few cars, and then through a history hall with automobiles dating as far back as the 1930's (a three-wheeled truck with "Mazda" on top of a Mitsubishi logo). Also, you learn about the production process of a car, with the RX-8 as an example. You see original concept drawings and clay models, crash tests, materials used, etc. The stamping, welding, and painting buildings were all nearby, but those facilities weren't accessible. They do show you about 8 rotary engines up close, as well as videos on the production, though. My only complaint was that the tour was somewhat too quick, as the lady just zoom-zoomed from one place to the next.

Still thats pretty cool to see that considering that the building was the only thing in town to survive the a-bomb and it turned into the town hall/home to the newspaper for a while afterwards. I figured they would allow tours inside production, same reason we cant do it here in the us, insurance. The thing that always scares me though is Mazda was almost saved by ford in a way and ford sold back there shares to mazda a few weeks back so hopefully they learned enough to stay strong......and didnt pick up bad habits from ford along the way lol.