Sake and drinking games....

Day 4

Thursday 29 September

Higashi Hiroshima: 27 degrees and mostly cloudy

Sake Brewery tour!!! Thankfully no hangover from last nite’s shenanigans….in fact I woke up before my alarm went off!!

After breakfast, it was off to Saijo Station and then a wander around the local breweries. We started off at Kamotsuru Brewery (Saijo was previously called Kamo and tsuru means crane). It was here at about 10am that we had our first sake tasting. Unlike wine tasting or the like in Australia, you help yourself to a small plastic cup and then pour your own sample. What a trusting bunch the Japanese are!! Good thing I don’t like sake or they would have had to put out more bottles!! We also watched a video about how sake is made. At this particular brewery, the sake is still made by hand.

The brown bauble-y looking thing is made from a tree and the brown colour tells people that the sake is ready to drink......

The most famous places to buy sake from are Niigata, Hyougo and Hiroshima. The reason being that all of these places have beautiful, clear water. So much so that in many areas surrounding the breweries in Saijo, you can help yourself to water. People around town come with empty bottles to fill up.

Our next stop was at Fukubijin Brewery where the sake was actually quite good. Sake or Nihonshu is an acquired taste I guess……don’t think I will ever acquire it. 

We then visited Kirei Brewery (Kirei = beautiful). At this particular sakagura (sake brewery) we were very kindly given a souvenir by one of the ladies who worked there. She had lived in Brisbane many years ago and was excited to hear that we were from Australia.

Then one more sakegura named Saijotsuru and by this stage all I wanted was some food to stop the burning feeling in my guts!! At the last sakegura we sampled some umeshu or plum wine. This was quite sweet and much nicer than any umeshu that I have tried before…..I may go back later on to buy myself a bottle….or two….

Next it was off to Youme Town for lunch. Being the guts that I am, I chose to indulge in the Matsuri or Festival set: Tempura, rice, fish, tsukemono or pickled vegetables, chawamushi or a savory custard (blergh) and dessert which was a kind of sake flavoured sweet (blergh again!). All, of course, washed down with a beer. Tough life I’m leading!!!

The walk to Youme Town....a mix of old and new....

What did Dad used to call me ??? Guts-ache??? Seems appropriate!!

After lunch we headed back to HIC for our tour briefing on Miyajima. We also were shown a geisha drinking game: bekku hai. Basically there are three different types of sake cups: one has a hole in the bottom of it so you need to skoll it, the second has a long stem (the nose of the character on the cup) and lastly, there is a small cup which represents the ladies. You spin a top to determine which cup you will have to drink from. Hopefully I can find one of these to buy on Miyajima!!

After dinner we had our shodo or calligraphy lesson. Bloody hell it is difficult! Not only do you have to write neatly but you have to ensure that you exert the right amount of pressure on the brush to produce a perfect piece. After many attempts of writing sushi, umi (sea), hikari (light), and tori (bird), I settled on writing hana (flower). My final attempt was not so bad….

I asked the shodo sensei to write yume (dream) for me as it is my favourite kanji and my favourite word. Hopefully I can get it home safely.

Then beers on the balcony (or Coke Zero in my case) with Travis and Ken. It’s almost like our nightly ritual!!