Sake tasting machines at a sake shop in Japan

Sake tours and breweries by place

Every city and sake town we cover, with bookable tours and tastings and breweries you can visit.

Sake tasting machines at a sake shop in Japan. Photo: meow0623, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Tokyo area (Kanto)

Denbouin Street, Asakusa, Tokyo

Tokyo

22 experiences · 1 brewery to visit

Tokyo is where most visitors try sake properly for the first time: sommelier-led tastings in Asakusa, Tsukiji and Shinjuku, pairing dinners, and day…

Enoshima, Kanagawa

Kanagawa

2 experiences · 1 brewery to visit

Within about an hour of Tokyo, Kanagawa has small breweries in the Shonan beach towns near Enoshima and in the countryside around Atsugi and Ebina…

Photo: Syced, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Kansai

Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum, Fushimi, Kyoto

Kyoto (Fushimi)

15 experiences · 2 breweries to visit

Fushimi, in southern Kyoto, is one of Japan’s great sake districts: canals, black-timbered warehouses and more than a dozen breweries within walking…

Photo: 663highland, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
An exhibit at the Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum, Kobe

Kobe (Nada)

8 experiences · 5 breweries to visit

Nada, along Kobe’s eastern waterfront, is Japan’s biggest sake-producing district. Several of its famous breweries run free museums with tastings…

Nishinomiya Shrine

Nishinomiya (Nada)

3 experiences · 1 brewery to visit

Nishinomiya holds two of the five Nada Gogo brewing villages and the well that made the region famous. It is quieter than Kobe’s side of Nada and a…

Photo: Saigen Jiro, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
A street in Dotonbori, Osaka

Osaka

4 experiences

Osaka’s sake experiences are built around its love of food: sake with takoyaki you cook yourself, guided nine-sake flights near Dotonbori, and a…

Photo: Joli Rumi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Japan Alps (Chubu)

A sugidama cedar ball outside a sake brewery in Takayama

Takayama

3 experiences · 7 breweries to visit

In Takayama’s old merchant streets, the sake breweries are part of the townscape: look for the cedar balls hanging over their doors. Most let you…

Photo: Celuici, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Lake Suwa, Nagano

Suwa (Kami-Suwa)

1 experience · 5 breweries to visit

In Kami-Suwa, five breweries line a 500-metre stretch of the old Koshu Kaido highway. One ¥4,000 pass gets you tastings at all of them.

Photo: Sei F, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Hiroshima (Chugoku)

Brewery chimneys along Saijo’s sake brewery street, Higashihiroshima

Saijo (Higashihiroshima)

4 experiences · 7 breweries to visit

Saijo, in Higashihiroshima, packs seven sake breweries with red-brick chimneys into a few streets beside JR Saijo Station. Most open their shops for…

Photo: 東広島市, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Hokkaido

Odori Park fountain, Sapporo

Sapporo

2 experiences · 1 brewery to visit

Hokkaido is better known for beer, but Sapporo has one remaining sake brewery with a free museum, and local guides run evening tastings of Hokkaido…

Photo: Choi2451, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Also listed, with fewer than three listings so far (no page yet): Itami (1 experience) and Nara (1 experience · 1 brewery to visit). See them on the Kansai page and in all tours.

Frequently asked questions

Which city has the most sake tours?

Tokyo has the most bookable experiences we list; Kyoto (Fushimi) and Kobe (Nada) have the most brewery tours.

Where can I visit sake breweries without a tour?

Kobe, Saijo, Takayama and Suwa have several walk-in breweries close together. See the brewery directory for details.