Exploring Shiga: Breweries, Izakaya, and other Sake Travel Tips

17:49Frank Walter:Yes in the western area there is a brewery called Uehara Shuzo that makes the sake called Furosen and that is actually the first sake first Shiga sake I tasted in my life and still one of my favorite sake. The frozen is very hefty and full body flavorful sake that is brewed with a very natural method without adding cultured yeast. They only use the natural fermentation, spontaneous fermentation, and the brewery also uses the traditional wooden pressing machine with a balance beam press which is very rare I think is a handful of like seven about seven to five breweries in Japan in Japan out of a thousand breweries use the traditional pressing method they They have a shop that sells all the sake of the brewery and the sake tour is available.

19:17Awesome.

19:18Frank Walter:Yes, it's awesome.

19:21Cindy Bissig:And for anybody, it's really great sake to also be drunk warm or slightly heated up.

19:28Frank Walter:yes the sake is like basically good sake is excellent in any temperature and the frozen sake is especially great when you warm up even for the unpusturated sakes and for the ginjo sakes that usually people do not warm. I still have like several bottles of frozen in my fridge and I still regularly drink the warm sake of frozen like weekly or weekly, yes.

20:08Cindy Bissig:It's in many, many fridges in Kyoto. Many fridges in Kyoto, yes. so from frozen then maybe give us one more brewery that you would recommend yes

20:22Frank Walter:I recommend one brewery in in city brewery in Otsu City Otsu City is the capital of Chiga Prefecture and they had me like from the 70th century the brewery is called Hirai Shoten that brews a sake called Asajio and now it's the only brewery in the city area of Osu but there used to be 77 breweries in the region in Edo period and that was the primary port on Lake Biwa and it was important to trade rice and the rice product cultivated in the northern part of Japan was carried by boat in the Lake Biwa and carried to Kyoto and Osaka. The rice was available in the port city. There used to be 77 breweries at the peak during the Edo period and then the hirai shoten is the only brewery that continues to brew sake in the

21:45Cindy Bissig:the city area of otsu because otsu is actually quite accessible from kyoto with maybe 20 minutes

21:53Frank Walter:15 minutes by train 15 minutes by train yes and there are many like izakayas of sake uh that serves that serve sake in the city area of Otsu. And they are very good at pairing local cuisine with local sake. The sugar food and sugar sake. In Otsu, Otsu city, I recommend two izakayas. One is Nao, that serves great sake and food. And Hanabi, that serves a variety of local sake. Besides the Ithacae in cities like in Otsu, I recommend it or you find, you search on the map app app of the smartphone, I recommend to ask the brewers where to go in the region because brewers know the best places to drink sake in their neighborhood and the people in the Izakaya have a great strong relationship with the brewery and they're the great fan of the brewery and that might overcome the like language barrier because even though you were using the smartphone the translation app the you will experience a great hospitality of the people in the izakaya

23:35Cindy Bissig:and i think that's really great advice because especially when you get out the cities people are very curious and they like to meet and and figure out why you're in this small town away from everything. So I think that's really, really great advice, actually.

23:50Frank Walter:Usually people in rural areas in Shiga and other regions of Japan, they have great hospitality to the travelers, people from outside.

24:05Cindy Bissig:And you know, now that we heard a couple of breweries and places you like to visit and like to drink, I might add one or two that I love. I know you know them as well I have a feeling you might have introduced me to them one of them is Okamura Honke the makers of King Kame or the golden turtle I went there maybe three years ago and again like it's not a place that you stumble upon because you just get off a train somewhere it's also a good one hour train ride or like 40 45 minutes train ride and then a small taxi but I was really impressed because they do tours although they're mainly in Japanese that you have visuals that even if you don't speak Japanese you can understand what they're trying to show you but the best part is actually their tasting room they are doing kind of a lineup

25:04Frank Walter:from is it 30 % to 100 % polished it's good news they started to from 10 and 20 so now you have

25:14Cindy Bissig:like 10 to 100 so basically you can drink the almost well it's actually not true um so you can try many of their sakes at different polishing rates also with a 100 and they call it the red sake which is um unpolished rice which is actually one of my favorite um that they have but if that sounds already pretty amazing they also give you everything unpasteurized and pasteurized so you really want to spend a little bit of time in their tasting room because it's it's quite a cool experience when you can do like a side by side how things change um just by pasteurization so i definitely recommend for people to go there if you feel like doing a day trip yes yes they also do a sake festival twice a year so in in spring i think it's late april and then in autumn if you look up on their instagram or home page you'll see the dates they will have a shuttle bus from the station which makes it a little bit easier and then they have the festival shenanigans with food and free sake and it's it's a pretty nice way to explore spend the day in chica and also you will inevitably inevitably make new friends because people do as I said earlier

26:41Frank Walter:like to talk yeah the truth is sake always I really I'm a great fan I really like to participate in like such festivals in everywhere because I believe that sake connects people especially in the festivals and that's the power of sake to connect people

27:06Cindy Bissig:yeah I totally agree and again like even if you're foreigner and you feel a bit shy don't worry

27:12Frank Walter:people actually are very curious

27:14Cindy Bissig:about getting to know you and again as we have these apps that can translate it's actually quite fun to try to have a conversation with the locals

27:24Frank Walter:right right right it is if you have sake if you have the drinking the same sake in the breathing the same air being in the same place you don't need language so that's we can communicate via sake that we call Nihon Shugo the language of Japanese Japanese sake language language of sake okay can I add one thing about the the the polishing ratio sake i've tasted the the polishing ratio sake from 30 to 100 and i find my my personal favorite is uh 100 sake 100 pressure that means no no polishing brown rice sake and And the best balanced ones are either 80 % or 90%. That means the brewery is very good at brewing sake with lower polishing ratio.

28:27Frank Walter:In general, most of the breweries are making premium sake with high polishing ratio, So like 30 to 40%, 30 to 40%. That experience changed my mind that it's not a matter of polishing ratio to determine that it's premium or not. It's how the brewer extracts the good part of the rice.

29:08Cindy Bissig:it's kind of geeky but yeah no i totally agree and i think this might be a nice bridge to my my last input to this episode which is technically not sake but it's craft sake and toboroku which is actually probably one of my favorite toborokus um called happy taro i know you know this very well as well because we went there together a couple of years ago um which i really really loved because I think it's located in a really great village of Nagahama which has like a beautiful castle and it has a beautiful small merchant district where they have a lot of glass shops galleries workshops you can make your own glass there as well and then hidden in a is it the department building?

30:04Frank Walter:Yes, it's the department building.

30:06Cindy Bissig:So inside the department building we find Happy Taro.

30:10Frank Walter:And the concept of the department store is craft and natural. They say there are multiple shops of craft textile and craft bags and natural food and organic food. And the Dobroku matches both of the concepts. both craft and nacho.

30:35Cindy Bissig:And it's great because Kotaro Ikechima-san, he's generally in the shop. He's the maker behind the brews and you can also do a tasting there. So it's quite a nice little getaway if you're looking for something that maybe is a little bit more, let's go and go to an old town, do a bit of culture, craft, and then have a drink as you're going along. And you can maybe even pick up a nice sake glass or two. It's a good place to also bring home something that you can use at home to enjoy your sake in the future. And Ikejima-san brews plain sake.

31:18Frank Walter:The plain sake is available all the time. and he also makes the special sake with special flavor like tea flavor and like special kimoto method. The special sake is with sub-ingredients. I like his way of brewing that every time he brews sake, sub-ingredients, he just don't procure he just don't buy the sub ingredients he always built strong relationships with the producers of sub ingredients that's a good part good but I like that he's well building the connection with the people that produces some ingredients and he puts the the he's not only his thoughts but also the the philosophy of the the producers of like tea and the berries to the dobrok and i think he calls

32:33Cindy Bissig:like the plane is like playing toporoku and then the other one is called something happy something happy yes yes yes which i think is quite cute yeah and i guess now we talked a little bit about glasses and i think although it is peripheral to sake but for anyone that is really into their cups or their pottery um we cannot not mention that Shiga prefecture also has its very own pottery town called Shigaraki. It's quite difficult to get to now, I have to say. I think trying to go will set you at least an hour and a half back. I'd actually say generously probably more likely to with the connection and everything.

33:23Cindy Bissig:But if you're into pottery, it's very worth seeing for one, because it is where all the tanuki come from. So it's quite spectacular to see all the streaks lined with massive tanukis. And then the pottery is really special as well as it is more towards an earthenware, like earthy colors. It's rather rough, has a natural texture. They're really special to drink from, especially when you have also maybe a warmer sake or a nigiri. or then again if you have a double rock these cups are really quite stunning to to have in your

34:02Frank Walter:cupboards yes yes i completely agree with you that there are like there are theories to choose uh appropriate cup for the types of sake whether the fruity sake for the glass but i i always select sake cups according to the the feeling from sake so this sake should fit or this sake wants to fit in this cup or this cup that's the fun part of selecting your cup and sake and in the the center of Shigaraki Yaki Pottery I I recommend to visit Shigaraki traditional crafts center, Shigaraki Aki Museum so in Shigaraki region there are many potters and they have their workshop with along with small shops and it is it's worth visiting the town too if you were interested in seeing and shopping the pottery?

35:18Cindy Bissig:Yeah I think the charm of these pottery villages is really that you get to walk around, go into different workshops and then you see beautiful pieces that you'll never see anywhere in the shops in the bigger cities because they actually never make it that far and then price point if you feel like buying a couple of things it's always worth to come to these small villages because a lot of the items are much cheaper and you have so much more choice um i do have to add it is a dangerous place if you if you do like pottery you will need an extra bag on your return trip to your home and you might be able to find even the

36:03Frank Walter:experimental works of the potters. I think the good part of the pottery village is you would experience the different generations so sometimes the family-run workshops has two sections of father and son.

36:25Cindy Bissig:Yeah so I mean again like Shiga really is a great place because it has a wide variety of sake but But it also has these little other hubs that you can go visit and get your feel of culture and maybe even get a sake souvenir to sip your Shiga sake from in the future. So this might be a good place to slowly wrap up this episode. Umiyo, thank you so much for joining us and also for sharing your expertise. I know there is much more. Much more, yes. I know we could have probably talked for quite some more time. So we'll have to figure out another way of pulling you in for something else. But it was really interesting to hear your favorite spots, although they might not be as accessible to foreign tourists.

37:20Cindy Bissig:But that being said, I also know that you and many other sake enthusiasts do sake tours. and if you would like to share where people can find you if they would be interested of maybe joining you on something that you organize where can people locate you or get in touch

37:44Frank Walter:i have a website of uh called sakeconcierge.com and uh there are some contacts via social media or contact form. There are pages that describe the short introduction to the sake tours too.

38:07Cindy Bissig:So maybe we can also share your Instagram account? Yes. So people want to maybe send you a message there?

38:12Frank Walter:Sure, sure. So my Instagram account is sakesom underscore umio. S-A-K-E-S-O-M-M underscore U-M-I-O.

38:22Cindy Bissig:Perfect.

38:23Frank Walter:Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Arigato.

38:27Cindy Bissig:Thank you so much, both of you. So yes, this was this episode of Sake on Air. We will be back soon with more sake and chocho related topics for you to tune in to. Feel free to also rate us on your podcast platform of your choice. It is tremendously helpful for us to create better content. And also let us know if you have ideas or feedback for us. We always love to hear from you. Thank you so much for listening to Sake On Air. We will be back very soon. And until then, kanpai!

39:07Frank Walter:Kanpai! Kanpai!

39:09Takashi Eguchi:Sake on Air is made possible with generous support of the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association and is broadcast from the Japan Sake and Shochu Information Center in downtown Tokyo. It is produced by Export Japan. And our team is Shuso Imara, Justin Potts, Arlene Lyons, Cindy Bissig, Chris Hughes, Chris Pellegrini, John Gottner, Marie Nagata, Miho Ota, Rebecca Wilson-Lyne, Sebastian Luan, and me, Frank Walter. Until next time, Kanpai!