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| Saijo, Hiroshima |
Hiroshima isn't only known for its dramatic past and lousy baseball team; the area also has the accolade of being known as Sake Town. There are a couple of towns near to the city that are very well known for their excellent sake, and we took a train out to one of them.
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| Saijo, Hiroshima |
Saijo is only a small town, but it is home to eight sake breweries, seven of which are in one street, Sakagura-dori, or Sake Brewery Street. We visited the breweries that were open, and tried plenty of different sakes. Most weren't really our favourites, (we seem to like those from the Kyoto area best of those we tried,) but they were definitely good quality, and are regular prize winners.
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| Saijo, Hiroshima |
The secret is apparently in the water. The quality of the water is an essential factor for good sake, and you will generally find breweries exist only where the water is good. The water here is known as miracle water, and is called shikomi-mizu, a medium hard type that is perfect for sake.
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| Saijo, Hiroshima |
It varies slightly at the different points along the street where the breweries are, so the sakes are a little different too. The breweries make efforts to preserve the local forests and mountains through which the waters come to develop their sought after qualities.
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| Saijo, Hiroshima |
Some of the breweries have excellent buildings too, and it is lovely to see all of the tall brick chimneys marking the sites. It would be great to be here in October for the sake festival.
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| Matsuo Shrine, Saijo, Hiroshima |
And of course, in a town where sake is so important, there has to be a shrine dedicated to the stuff, the Matsuo Shrine.
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| Matsuo Shrine, Saijo, Hiroshima |
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| Matsuo Shrine, Saijo, Hiroshima |
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| Matsuo Shrine, Saijo, Hiroshima |
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| Matsuo Shrine, Saijo, Hiroshima |
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| Hiroshima Beer Festival |
Back in Hiroshima city, we had an opportunity to partake of alcohol of another kind, as we happened to be in town for the Hiroshima beer festival. We were pretty impressed with some elf the Japanese brews on offer, taking a particular liking to a smoky beer from Fujizakura Heights.
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| Hiroshima Beer Festival |
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| Hiroshima Beer Festival |
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| Hiroshima Beer Festival |
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