SAKE TRAVEL

Sake Travel Guides

Editor-made guides to Japan's great sake districts — Nada, Saijo, Fushimi, Niigata, Aizu, Hida Takayama, Kanazawa, Shinshu, Nara, Hokkaido and Tokyo. Model courses, visitable breweries and access.

Nada Gogo — Kobe & Nishinomiya

Nada Sake District Walk — Japan's Greatest Brewing Coast

Where Mt. Rokko's famed miyamizu water meets the sea — a coastline of brewery museums, one train stop apart.

Saijo, Higashihiroshima

Saijo Sake Street — A Brewing Capital Five Minutes from the Platform

Red-brick chimneys crowd the skyline of Japan's 'sake capital' — four historic breweries within a five-minute walk of JR Saijo Station.

Fushimi, Kyoto

Fushimi Sake Stroll — Tastings in Kyoto's Water Town

Willows, canals and white-walled kura — home of Gekkeikan and Kizakura, and of Fushimi's famously soft 'feminine' sake.

Niigata — Uonuma & Nagaoka

Niigata Snow-Country Sake — Riding the Shinkansen into Tanrei Territory

Japan's most brewery-dense prefecture — home of Hakkaisan's Uonuma no Sato and Kubota's Asahi Shuzo, one Shinkansen ride from Tokyo.

Tokyo — Okutama, Fussa & Higashimurayama

Tokyo Sake Day Trips — Working Breweries an Hour from Shinjuku

Yes, Tokyo brews sake — three working kura reachable by train alone, from Sawanoi's river gorge to a beer-brewing sake estate.

Aizu & Nihonmatsu — Fukushima

Aizu Sake Journey — Castle Towns, Snow Country, Storied Kura

From the castle town of Aizu-Wakamatsu to the storehouse streets of Kitakata — a snow-fed basin where sake runs deep, one tasting counter at a time.

Sapporo, Otaru & Asahikawa — Hokkaido

Hokkaido Sake Trail — Museums and Kura Across the Northern Frontier

From Sapporo's sake museum to canal-side Otaru and brewing hub Asahikawa — a rail-linked trail across snow country.

Matsumoto, Suwa & Zenkoji — Nagano

Shinshu Sake Journey — Alpine Water, Castle Towns, Temple Streets

From Matsumoto's castle town to Lake Suwa and the temple gates of Zenkoji — breweries raised on Japan Alps spring water.

Kanazawa & Kaga — Ishikawa

Kanazawa Sake Heritage — Old Houses of Kaga and the Onsen Towns

From teahouse-district Kanazawa to the Kaga onsen towns — the breweries behind Ishikawa's celebrated food culture, with a thought for Noto.

Hida Takayama & Furukawa — Gifu

Hida Sake Walk — Sugidama Lanterns of the Old Merchant Streets

Takayama's preserved streets and white-walled Furukawa — mountain towns where breweries stand a stroll apart.

Nara & the Yamato Road

Yamato Sake Pilgrimage — To the Wellsprings of Japanese Brewing

Kikizake in Naramachi, the sake deity of Miwa, brewery tours in Katsuragi — walking the homeland of Japanese sake.

Hakata, Munakata & Chikugo — Fukuoka

Fukuoka Sake Circuit — Breweries Behind Japan's Great Food City

From a brewery-pub in central Fukuoka to a heritage kura on the Genkai coast and the sake belt of the Chikugo plain — Fukuoka beyond ramen and yatai.