Free Sake in Osaka

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Post tags: Kiku Masamune, Kikumasamune, Sake, Sake Brewery

Sake Tasting Bar

In an hour or so, we’re about to go on a tour of the local area sake breweries. I live in Hyogo which has about 60% of the sake (nihonshu – Japanese rice wine) breweries in Japan.

I thought I’d dig out an old blog post I wrote for a different site and post it here with some photos.

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Sake or Nihonshu (Japanese rice wine) for those that don’t know is an alcoholic wine made from rice and sugar, about 13-16% alcohol by content and can be drunk chilled or heated.

But it’s much more than that. Like wine to the French, sake is an integral part of Japanese culture and diet, served at special occasions like weddings and funerals, given as offerings to the Shinto gods and family ancestors or just enjoyed in bars, karaoke and restaurants everywhere.

Ok, so that’s the explanation out of the way, let’s get back to the tour of the breweries.
There are many throughout Kobe, and we headed to a concentrated area, Nada about 10 minutes by train from Sannomiya. Getting out at Hanshin Mikage station we managed to get a map (in English and Japanese) with a suggested route laid out (ask the station guy for a “Sakagura no chizu kudasai”).

Takinokoi Kuramoto Club Sakasho-kan

There are large and small breweries in the area and our first stop was a small but apparently famous one, (due to it being the location of an NHK TV drama some years back), Takinokoi Kuramoto Club Sakasho-kan (that’s quite a mouthful, even before you start drinking the booze).
Unfortunately we couldn’t get a tour of the buildings but they do have a cozy little bar where you can try some of their sake (for ￥400-￥500 a glass). Served in a glass inside a small square box called a “Masu”.  (The picture on the Sake main page of the site I took in this bar).

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Read the rest of Sake Tour of Hyogo Part One (436 words)

© MoIppai for Wine, Beer, Sake, Whiskey Blog at MoIppai, 2009. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us StumbleUpon MoIppai on Twitter
Post tags: Hakutsuru, Hyogo, Kikumasamune, Nada, Nihonshu, Sake, Sake Brewery