Located about 30 minutes from Sapporo, Otaru is a cute little harbour town with a rich history. Their historical buildings are perfect for taking cute pictures, while lazily strolling along the town centre, and afterwards eating a delicious sea food donburi consisting of sea urchin and tuna. Sounds fantastic right? And to top it all off, it also has a sake brewery.
Tanaka Shuzou has two locations in Otaru: their main store and Kikkogura, a store and museum. Kikkogura is a bit hidden compared to all other tourist spots in Otaru. It’s located outside the town centre, and quite the long walk from Otaru station. It’s actually located closer to Minami-Otaru station, the stop before Otaru station if you are coming from Sapporo.
When walking on the premises of the brewery, I first got a bit confused when I saw the kanji for entrance on multiple doors of the brewery. Thankfully, all of those doors lead towards the shop. When entering the shop, one of the employees guided me towards a set of stairs, and to my surprise, you can actually view the brewery from the second floor of the building. I got a pamphlet in English with some key points, and was off to see the sights.
The second floor consists of a lot of walkways where you can view the mashtuns, the koji room and the storage tanks. It was also very fun to see that, plastered across the walls of the brewery, there were posters with sake related questions on them. It made this solo-tour a bit more interactive. They were all Japanese only, but still, even with my limited knowledge of Japanese I was able to answer a couple of questions rights.
Returning to the shop the same employee guided me to the tasting corner. That day I was able to try 4 different sake, and the best part of it all, the tasting was free. The sake I tried were:
- Hotaru Yuki Junmai polishing rate unknown
- Yuki Akari Junmai Daiginjo 50% polishing rate
- Takaragawa Junmai Daiginjo 40% polishing rate
- Kikkogura Junmai Ginjo, 40% polishing rate
All sake were made with local rice varieties, mostly Suisei rice. I really liked both Daiginjo sake, they were very fruity, even if a bit mellow and subtle. All sake had some umami in them, and were quite easy to drink.
Compared to the Chitosetsuru Sake Museum that I visited the day before, Tanaka shuzou is actually worth your time. The solo-tour was very enjoyable, their tasting corner had nice sake and all that just made me want to get a bottle to take back to my apartment. I would definitely recommend a visit if you are even in Otaru!
Kikkogura/Tanaka Shuzou
〒047-0016
2-2 Nobukacho, Otaru, Hokkaido
7 minute walk from Minami-Otaru train station
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