Sake, where it is brewed

Brewery mornings, tasting counters, izakaya nights

The good bottles never leave Japan. So go and drink them there.

Which Kyoto brewery pours straight from the tank. What a Shinjuku izakaya crawl costs once the guide starts ordering. Whether the Nagano snow monkey day is worth the early train. Reviews of every sake tour you can book in Japan.

Start with a tasting Every sake tour →

117sake tours to book

from $19cheapest pour

22nights under $50

Start here

The four sake bookings a first trip to Japan hangs off.

A Shinjuku crawl, a Fushimi brewery, the Nagano day out, and Nada, which brews more than anywhere else.

Tokyo after dark

Tokyo pours late: a Shinjuku counter, a sommelier flight, or the market bench.

The capital is where most sake trips start, and it sells three completely different evenings. Pick by how much talking you want, and by what the bill comes to.

★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Sake Tasting Masterclass in Shinjuku (8+ Varieties with a Pro)

The cheap crawlThree Shinjuku bars, ordered in Japanese, food included. from $34

The sommelier flightCertified sake sommeliers pouring and explaining an omakase. from $79

The market classTsukiji first, then washoku cooked at the bench with a pairing. from $79 All 43 Tokyo sake nights →

At the counter

Junmai, ginjo, daiginjo: a tasting is the cheapest way to hear the difference.

Most of these pour six to ten cups with something salty beside them, and the good ones tell you how far the rice was polished and why it matters. An hour, and you can order confidently for the rest of the trip.

Sake tastings Brewery tours Food pairings Cooking classes Private days

Inside the kura

A brewery is a cold room, a rice polisher and a smell you do not forget.

Cedar vats in Takayama, the Nada warehouses on their hard Miyamizu water, Fushimi in the south of Kyoto. Most kura take visitors around the tanks, then pour the young sake that never gets bottled for export.

Every brewery tour

★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 104 reviewsHiroshima Saijo Sake Tasting Tour with visit to 7 Breweries

★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 65 reviewsTakayama: Authentic Sake Tasting at a Historic Brewery

★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 65 reviewsPrivate Sake Brewery Visit and Tasting Tour in Hida

Best ofNada, KobeBest ofFushimi, KyotoBest ofTakayamaBest ofSaijoBest ofNaraBest ofFukuoka

When to come

Sake is brewed in the cold, and the kura calendar decides what you can see.

Pressing runs from late autumn to early spring, roughly November to March, and that is when a brewery visit shows you an actual working floor and pours shiboritate, the unpasteurised new sake. Come in August and the same tour is a tasting room, a shop and a good story. Everything below runs all year.

Tastings Izakaya nights Food pairings Cooking classes With a local guide

1Nagano: Snow Monkeys, Zenkoji Temple & Sake Day Tripfrom $135
2Private Nagano 1-Day Tour:Snow Monkeys,Zenko-ji,Obuse,Sake,Onsenfrom $337
3Kobe: Guided Sake Breweries Tour with Tastingsfrom $106

After the second cup

The izakaya circuit: Golden Gai, the Shinjuku alleys, Osaka backstreets.

Six seats, a paper menu on the wall and no English. A guide gets you through the curtain, orders the grilled things worth ordering and keeps the pours coming. This is the cheapest good night on the whole site.

Best ofBar hoppingBest ofWith dinnerBest ofOsakaBest ofTokyo

Every izakaya night →

★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 — Shinjuku Izakaya and Golden Gai Bar Hopping Tour

Osaka Authentic Local Izakaya Hopping Experience: Food & Drinks

Shibuya: Local Bar & Izakaya Crawl

Kyoto

Kyoto keeps its breweries in Fushimi, a train south of the temples.

Soft well water made Fushimi the second brewing town in Japan, and the tasting rooms sit along the canal among the old warehouses. Half a day, easily bolted onto a temple morning, and considerably quieter than Gion.

1Kyoto: Izakaya Bars Guided Walking Tourfrom $25
2Kyoto: Insider Sake Experience with 7 Tastings and Snacksfrom $66
3Kyoto: Afternoon Japanese Izakaya Cooking Classfrom $67

Best ofBrewery toursBest ofTastingsBest ofTemples tooBest ofPrivate days

Every Kyoto sake day →

What it costs

What a sake evening in Japan actually costs.

Every tour on the site, grouped by the price per head. Plenty of the best nights come in under the price of the dinner you would have had anyway.

Under $50

Standing-bar crawls, a short tasting at a counter, the Tsukiji market pour.

1Tokyo: Shinjuku Local Bar and Izakaya Guided Walking Tourfrom $34
2Tokyo: Shinjuku Local Bar & Izakaya Crawl Tourfrom $39
3Kyoto: Izakaya Bars Guided Walking Tourfrom $25

$50–150

The full brewery mornings, sommelier flights and the long izakaya food tours.

$150 and up

Private guides, the Nagano day trips and eight-course wagyu pairings.

11-Day Snow Monkeys, Zenko-ji Temple & Sake in Naganofrom $151
2Tokyo The Izakaya tourfrom $198
3Tokyo Wagyu & Sake Pairing Tasting Experience with Local Flavorsfrom $151

Only here

Three things that only happen around Japanese sake.

Tasting rooms and brewery tours exist everywhere wine and beer are made. A ball of cedar over a doorway, a town built on one spring, and a hot-spring valley full of monkeys do not.

One spring, one town

Nada and the Miyamizu

A brewer in Nishinomiya worked out in 1840 that the water from one particular well made better sake than the water a few streets away. It is hard water, high in phosphorus and potassium, and the yeast loves it. Nada has been the biggest brewing district in Japan ever since, and the tours here walk you between warehouses that ship a quarter of the country’s sake.

1KOBE Sake Tasting Tour at Breweries (tasting fee included)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 154 reviews
2Kobe: Guided Sake Breweries Tour with Tastings★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 55 reviews
3Sake Brewery and Japanese Life Experience Tour in Kobe★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 39 reviews

See every one →

Read the doorway

The cedar ball

A sugidama is a ball of cedar sprigs hung over a brewery door when the first sake of the season is pressed. It starts bright green and browns through the year, so anyone walking past can see roughly how old the sake inside is. Kura still make one every winter. On a brewery tour it is the first thing your guide points at, and the fastest way to tell a working brewery from a shop.

13-Hour Kyoto Insider Sake Brewery Tour with Tastings & Pairings★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 917 reviews
2Kyoto: Insider Sake Brewery Tour with Sake and Food Pairing★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 704 reviews
3Kyoto Sake Brewery & Tasting Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 623 reviews

See every one →

Nagano in the cold

Monkeys, a temple, a cup

Japanese macaques come down into the hot pool at Jigokudani when the snow settles, and the valley is an hour from Nagano city. The day trips pair them with Zenko-ji, which has kept its own pilgrim road for thirteen centuries, and with the small kura in Obuse that pour at the end. It is the one day out here that is genuinely about three separate things.