Watch rice crackers bake and try free samples
Senbei are crisp Japanese crackers, usually made from rice, and some are pressed thin with shrimp or octopus. At a few factory shops you can watch them being baked through a window, then walk along the tasting counters and choose a favorite to take home. Watching is free and you can drop in without booking.
A cracker shop in Shiogama, a fishing port next to Sendai, where the factory opens straight onto the shop floor so you can watch seafood crackers come off the line. About 50 kinds are set out to taste, and you can draw your own picture on a cracker and bake it by hand. The hand-baking is first come, first served, so arrive early on weekends.
The main shop of a maker of ebi senbei, thin crackers pressed with shrimp, on the Chita Peninsula south of Nagoya. From a walkway you look through windows as the crackers are baked and packed, and the shop lays out many flavors to taste. It is about five minutes by taxi from Kowa Station, at the end of the Meitetsu line from Nagoya.
A cracker shop on Awaji Island, across the bridge from Kobe, known for tako senbei, crackers baked flat with pieces of octopus. You can watch them being made through a window, and almost every product in the shop is out to taste. Buses from JR Maiko Station near Kobe take about 30 minutes, and the line sometimes pauses, so baking is not always on show.