Haul from Glicopia [Japan] [スイーツ]

I had always wanted to visit Glicopia, and made a visit reservation a few years back when I was in Okayama, thinking I could arrive there in time for the last visit slot.  Unfortunately, I totally underestimated the time required to reach Glicopia from Okayama via public transport, and had to reluctantly cancel my visit reservation.

This year though, I made a visit reservation for 10am, thinking if I set off from Osaka by 8am, there should be plenty of time to arrive there in time.

The journey from Osaka to Glicopia was a lot more time-consuming that I had expected.

First was the JR to get to Sannomiya from Osaka, then transfer to the Kobe Subway at Sannomiya to the terminal at SeishinChuo, then take a bus from the bus terminal at SeishinChuo to Glicopia.  The total journey easily took more than 1 hour!

There were only 3 other passengers on board the bus to Glicopia as it drove into the Takatsukadai industrial park.  Thankfully they alighted at the same stop, so I thought they were all fellow visitors to Glicopia.  However, they turned towards another factory and my face greened at the thought of being the only visitor at Glicopia.

Turned out my fears were totally uncalled for.  In fact, I was the last visit to arrive to a mini theatre full of pre-schoolers with their parents.  I felt totally over-aged until the introductory video and guided tour started.  Then I thought THEY were under-aged for this visit.  Ha!

The building housing Glicopia was a little old, and so were some of the exhibits.

I was particularly impressed by 1 of the machines, which was able to fold a flat cardboard into a carton, and stood there watching it fold cartons.

The best part of the visit certainly had to be the Souvenir Corner, where different types of snacks by Glico, such as Pocky and Pretz were available for sale (at a slight discount compared to the shops outside, I think).  

Some of the products seemed to be exclusive to Glicopia, as I had not seen them in the shops outsides.

I bought every single type of Pocky available at the Corner, and The Milk had a specially-printed package (below) which quite surprised me.

I usually do not eat Pretz, preferring the sweet Pocky instead.  But it was hard to resist the different-flavoured Pretz so I just had to buy them too.

It never fails to amaze me how food scientists can mimic the flavours of real food and change thin biscuit sticks into fun snacks (although I would really prefer to eat real food for the flavours).

At the end of the visit, each visitor was given a souvenir.  For adults, it was a box of Pretz with a specially-printed box (top right) which featured Glicopia.  This packaging is not available outside Glicopia, and made a real interesting souvenir.  It also made the long journey back to Osaka a lot more bearable.