Japan Navigator

The carbonated soft drink Ramune (from “Lemonade”) was first brought market in Kobe by Alexander Cameron Sim (1840-1900), a Scottish pharmacist who also founded the Kobe Regatta & Athletic Club. Although Ramune rather tastes like an ordinary soda, it is the glass bottle that is interesting.

Called a Codd-neck bottle after its inventor Hiram Codd, when you buy it the bottle is sealed with a glass marble. The marble pushes against a plastic (in the past rubber) gasket/washer at the top of the neck and is held in place by the pressure of the carbon in the drink. You have to open it by pushing the marble inward with a plastic pin which sits in the cap of the bottle. The marble falls into the neck of the bottle which has been formed into a special shape so that the marble remains there and nicely rattles round when you are pouring.

[Ramune bottles. See the strangely shaped neck with the marble in it to the right and the green pin to push in the marble on top of the left bottle]

Ramune therefore was popular with children in Japan and reminds people here nostalgically of summer festivals and childhood. It is a symbol of summer. The bottles you see on the picture were bought at Daiei in Kobe and make a bow to modernity in the anime-inspired labels.