Kunimare Sake Brewery （国稀酒造株式会社）| Mashike

"Kunimare Sake Brewery （国稀酒造株式会社）" is the northernmost sake brewery in Japan, founded in 1881.

Their facilities have been nicely preserved and

we can feel the 19th atmosphere!

Let's enter it!

Before the brewery tour, we enjoyed the souvenir corner inside.

They sell a wide variety items, of course, including sake, but

Look at the sake kasu (sake cake) ice cream! Yummy x 2!!

I've found another ice cream here!

 This sake bag is very cute!!!

Aprons and happi coats with the company logo look cool!

Do you know Kiyomi Mikuni （清三　三國）, a famous French chef? He is from Mashike, and they sell his products including curry soup.

Wow! They also sell sake ramen!

We have to buy some of their sake after tasting all of them at the end of the brewery tour!

The sake brewery tour started!
First, the history of this brewery was explained.

Taizo Honma, from Niigata, established a kimono boutique in 1874, and then expanded his business to a general store, the transportation industry, the herring fishery and a sake brewery.  At that time, this town was flourished because a lot of herring was caught around here. Although the demand of sake was very high, it had to be imported from Honsyu, the main island of Japan. Therefore the price of sake was very high. Taizo brewed sake himself so as to meet the demand of the fishermen working for him.

Look at the most delicious pyramid in the world! Hahaha! We use this special sake in auspicious occasions such as wedding ceremonies.

Then we learned how to make sake.
Rice, an ingredient of sake, is riced and steamed here

River-bed water from Syokanbetsu Dake （暑寒別岳） is used for sake in this brewery. This is super-soft water, which has little minerals, and perfect for sake-making. We tried it!

There are sake tanks.

This is a presser in use.

This is the original version, which was used in the 19th century.

We observed freshly-pressed sake!

Voila!
It's tasting time!!!! We can try all of them!!!

Wow! Wow! Wow! We were so excited to try each of them, and compare with each other!

I love daiginjyo （大吟醸）, the highest grade sake. Actually we drank a lot! Hahaha!

How wonderful the tour is!

Last, but not least, we took some pics with this drunken beer!

■Where is "Kunimare Sake Brewery （国稀酒造株式会社）"?

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