Experience Japanese Culture with a Tour through Sake Breweries and Sake Set Workshops! [Guided Tour by Private Car]

First, the tour departs from the Joetsu Shinkansen’s Jomokogen Station by car. Its first stop is Kashozan Mirokuji Temple, famous for being the “tengu temple.” Tengu are legendary creatures passed down through Japanese mythology since ancient times. There are many huge tengu masks on display at Kashozan Mirokuji Temple, but even among them all, the enormous tengu mask (the largest in Japan) is the most impressive.

After worshipping at the temple, it’s time to visit the sake brewery!
Next up is Otone Sake Brewery, which has been in business for about 280 years.
Otone Sake Brewery is a small brewery located at the base of Oze, surrounded by the Okutone mountains. Here the staff are extremely particular about the flavors that can only be achieved at a small-scale brewery, and they pass down local sake brewing recipes and traditions rooted in the region’s nature and climate.

Mr. Tomonori Abe, the owner and head brewer at Otone Sake Brewery, offers lectures to visitors. The lectures are easy to understand, and they go over topics such as how rice produces such amazing sake, all while also discussing the process of sake brewing and the history of Otone Sake Brewery.

The brewery tour ends with a tour of the workshop that crafts wooden sake sets.