I briefly thought about going to Zenkō-ji, but I wanted to take my time, so I gave up on that. :-)
Zenkō-ji will have to wait for next time!
I'll be done in by a cow! (Oops—wrong word.)
The final line refers to this story about the temple. The relevant phrase is "ushi ni hikareru". Normally, it's written 牛に引かれる ("to be pulled in/led by a cow"), but Mizuki-san purposely uses 牛に轢かれる ("to be run over by a cow") instead.
Reader-added tags include "But it's free, Kogasa-san", "Douman Seimai" (a play on "dōman seiman", a traditional Japanese charm used by onmyōji, and "seimai", or rice-polishing), and "Factory manager Ibuki".
The survey still wants to play tourist:
What should we go sightsee? • Scenery • Delicious food! • A touch of history • Hot springs, hot springs! • A pilgrimage
You remove husk, bran and germ of the rice resulting in white rice. That rice is polished so it's smooth and shiny. It now can be stored much longer, but at the cost of lost nutrients.
That sounds right; I knew at one point, but I kinda forgot it.
Huh, Suika in charge of a place that's indirectly responsible for sake production. Makes perfect sense to me. Well, at least it was free, Kogasa-san, and Sanae-san looks like she's having a good time, so it all works out.
For the poll, let's go see the scenery! If we sightsee the food, we'll end up eating it and getting fat, and that would be bad (except for Yuyuko-sama).
Schrobby said: You remove husk, bran and germ of the rice resulting in white rice. That rice is polished so it's smooth and shiny. It now can be stored much longer, but at the cost of lost nutrients.
For the purpose of sake-making, though, the milling is mainly to remove the fat from the rice (which is mainly in the germ). During fermentation fat will be oxidized into organic acids, which are never pleasant-tasting stuff.
BadRoad said: Right, but how do you polish it? I don't imagine you put it in tiny clamps and run a tiny cloth over it...
Darth_Sirov said: With MACHINES!!! It's mostly automated, with washing and all.
The machine itself is sorta boxy and uninteresting, sadly. It uses dry abrasives, usually talc, to "wash" away everything except the endosperm (the white grain).
Oooh, it's full of sake displays!♡Kurobe cost us too much money, so any place that doesn't require paying will be good.Light and DarknessWe've still got a little time before check-in at the hotel. Wonder what we should do...Alps Rice Mill.Apparently, this is the plant where they polish rice for sake!And best of all, field trips here are free of charge!♡Sightseeing Guide MapI'm sorry! Rice-polishing season's over, so the plant's not in operation.How fun!♡We don't mind if you have a look around, though!Sob...looking at machines that aren't operating is boring!
