Sake - 日本酒 (part 4 of several)

Sake Festivals and Other Events

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So you’ve read parts 1, 2 and 3 and are interested in this sake thing. Where do you go to actually try it? what sakes are worth buying? which ones do you like? and so on. One way to find out is to find a sake festival or tasting event and sample the wares.

Kamigata Nihonshu World (上方日本酒ワールド ) 2025 - Osaka

Of course that sounds simple but it may be not that easy in practice because sake events seem to be about as good at marketing as your average introvert indie author (i.e. terrible). However there are a few that are (fairly) easy to figure out and attend

Sake Day - October 1

The simplest is finding something on October 1st. This is officially Nihonshu day (日本酒の日) in Japan and so various places do things on that date to celebrate. A semi-organized group sets up “Go Around” events on that day in various cities in Japan. This year there were events in

• Sapporo (札幌)

• Sendai (仙台)

• Tokyo (東京)

• Kanazawa (金沢)

• Shizuoka (静岡)

• Kyoto (京都)

• Osaka (大阪)

• Kobe (神戸)

• Awajishima (淡路島)

• Himeji (姫路)

• Okayama (岡山)

• Hiroshima (広島)

• Izumo (出雲)

• Kochi (高知)

• Fukuoka (福岡)

Nihonshu Go Around 2025 poster

How you find them? Do a search for 日本酒ゴーアラウンド and the name of the city (in Kanji). Each “Go Around” consists of a number of bars and izakayas, each of whom partners with a single sake maker. You buy a badge (in advance or on the day for a little more) and go from place to place. At each place you get one sake drink free and you normally order food and maybe a second drink. We took part in the local Izumo one this year which was relatively small (6 locations) but a lot of fun

Yamatosake (山と酒) during the Izumo Go Around

Some of the larger cities had many more places taking part and sold out of the limited the number of badges for sale well in advance. Where to get the badge? typically one of the bars taking part, which means you are forced to go and try one of the places out before hand - such an imposition! A lot of the sake makers and izakayas seem to announce their participation on Instagram, so although your search engine of choice may find it, if you have an Insta account searching direct on the app may be better.

Sake Events

October is a pretty good time for Sake events, with stuff happening in different places most weekends. For example, on the first weekend (4th/5th this year), there were sake events at both Fukuyama Castle and Matsue Castle. We didn’t attend either this year, but last year we were at the Fukuyama event.

Unlike the “Go Around” style of walking from one place to another, these events tend to take place in a single location where there are multiple sake brands on offer as well as numerous food options to go with them. Sometimes you pay for a number of tickets (which will normally be discounted if ordered in advance) and which you then exchange for a cup/glass of sake, sometimes you just pay the sake provider, it depends.

It is up to you what food to eat with it, but I recommend eating some and I strongly recommend bringing in the largest bottle of water you can put in a bag so that you can hydrate effectively. This is particularly true for events that take place (as the Fukuyama one did, and the Osaka one at the top) on sunny afternoons. If you do not do this then you will probably regret it, and now you can’t say you weren’t warned

These events can be all day ones, but usually they are afternoon/evening only starting at, say, 1pm and ending at 7pm or so. A few start earlier, say midday or even in the morning. One in May in Masuda (Kagurazake) starts at, IIRC, 10am. As does…

Saijo Sake Matsuri - 西条酒まつり - Higashi Hiroshima

Map of the Saijo Matsuri area

Saijo, the main urban part of Higashi Hiroshima, is the home of seven (more?) sake makers and on the second weekend in October they have their Sake Matsuri (festival) where hundreds, even low thousands, of people gather to drink sake. It’s a two day affair but I don’t recommend trying to go both days. Festivities start at 10am and end at 7pm on the Saturday and 5pm on the Sunday.

The crowds drinking at Hakubotan Shuzo (白牡丹酒造)

The Saijo Matsuri is really a town-wide celebration although the “main” spot (メイン会場) is where the mikoshi end up and where music etc. happens. Across the main street there is the Sake Hiroba (酒ひろば) which you can buy a ticket to enter that gives you a lot of sake to drink in the classic “sake event” style. On the advice of people who have been there before we didn’t bother with that because you can wander around and drink at all kinds of bars and the like as well as the various kura (such as Hakubotan above). Some of those (e.g. Kirei - 亀齢) had such a huge queue that we decided not to bother though apparently they have their own food vendors and other attractions inside. We started off at at Kakei Saketen (掛井酒店) which had a famous okanban serving warm sake as well as, umm, Bavarian beer and Munich white sausage. I can say that the white sausage went well with hot sake at 10:30 am

On the streets around it there were vendors selling all kinds of street food such as okonomiyaki (Hiroshima style of course) and fish onna stick. There were others selling highballs and other non sake drinks, as well as live music performances and games for children.

We did a couple of Kura (Hakubotan and Saijotsuru) and then decided we needed to sit down so we went to Hide, which I mentioned in part 3, for some sit down eats and accompanying drinks. Then it was on to another Kura (Sanyotsuru), with a logo that looks just like the JAL logo only with a mountain range on top

Then a look at the crowds in the Sake Hiroba

And more kanzake at a Tachinomiya (standing bar) called Radical. And then rinse, lather repeat. Lot of fun. Do not even think about booking a hotel in central Saijo though, it isn’t possible as the hotels for next year were reserved this year, but you can stay out by the Higashihiroshima Shinkansen station (there are ~hourly buses) or take the train from, say, Mihara or Hiroshima itself.

Other Events

Hiroshima has a couple that I know of.

Hiroshima Sake Circuit (with poster of the event)

There’s the Hiroshima Sake Circuit (日本酒サーキット Hiroshima), which is like the go around, and takes place in early June (second sunday?)and the Hiroshima Castle Kanzake Festival, which is like the Fukuyama/Matsue ones, and takes place in March.

Matsue has a go around like event on February 3rd (立春シン酒まつり) which you can should be able to get tickets for from Ishihara Liquor Store or one of the participating restaurants¹.

Poster for this year’s Matsue Shin Shu Matsuri

Finally, Izumo has a couple of sake events held at Palmate Izumo by the station. One is at the end of May (出雲の新酒祭) and the other (出雲の酒祭) is at the start of the Kamiari celebrations in November (this year it should be on the 28th or 29th, but I haven’t got the date confirmed) - from 4pm until 7pm. All four Izumo kuras are present and usually all have multiple sakes to taste both warmed or cold and you can drink as much as you want for 1000 yen.

Tenon and Juji Asahi at Izumo Sake Matsuri (出雲の酒祭)

Online resources

If you aren’t that gripped by my list of Western Japan sake events then you can use the web to find your own. Sadly very few sake events (actually none in my experience, but maybe one exists somewhere) have any publicity in English, so you very definitely need to have your browser do the autotranslate thing. Three Japanese sites that have quite a lot of events are Nihonshu Calendar, Sake World and Sake Times. The Nihonshu Calendar is probably the most complete but it can be hard to search for specific locations. You can also stick the phrase “日本酒イベント” in your search engine of choice (and/or instagram as mentioned above) and see what shows up. If you add the names of places you are interested in that will probably help narrow down the list. In my experience, many events fail to make announcements far in advance so if you visit, say, the Nihonshu Calendar to look for events two or three months in advance you probably won’t find many. If you look for events in the next two or three weeks, on the other hand, you will probably find a lot.

Good luck and Kanpai! But remember to hydrate and don’t get too drunk!

1. Or contact me. We’ll figure something out, because I’m almost certain to be there