Today we left Enraku and were heading for Kanazawa, which meant we had an opportunity en route to stop and check out some saké breweries. A few years ago we had such a great time doing the rounds of some nine saké breweries near Nara (south of Osaka) and found some favourites that we are able to get back home so we thought we’d try that again. First stop was going to be the Masuda Sake Brewery – most famous for the Masuizumi their
The pics that show up when you search a place are often quite handy so you know what you are looking for…
Anyway, you’d think this wouldn’t be too difficult a task… look up the brewery, find an address, type it into Google maps (and the car’s archaic GPS unit for good measure) and off you go! Oh if wishing made it so! We found the general area okay thanks to the aforementioned navigational devices, and then seemed to be stumbling around a bit lost until I saw this door – and remembered seeing it on the images that popped up on Google Maps. Awesome – we are in the right place. So I asked a guy who obviously worked there, who happened to be passing by, and he directed me slightly down the road to a doorway….
Which I duly entered – only to discover it was-someone’s private residence and I was fucking trespassing!!! Jesus titty fucking Christ! The guy was gesturing at this doorway but was trying to tell me to go around the corner and and down the next block?! Between Mr K and his moving violation and me now accidentally trespassing – we won’t be allowed back in Japan! 
On the corner of the next block – totally not visible at all from where the ‘helpful’ worker was pointing was one of the buildings that I saw on the Google Map. 
For anyone who is curious – the sugidama is literally a cedar ball hung outside the brewery and it serves as a sort of street sign for saké breweries letting people know when there is fresh saké available. When the brewing season begins, the saké makers collect hundreds of sprigs of soft green cedar and cut them into a sphere. They then hang the cedar ornament of whatever size outside their establishments, usually above their entrance. This is quite a large one.
Eventually we ends up at the right spot – which was sporting only a small sugaidama in comparison. 
Yes. This is the right place. The Masuda brewery has a long history, as many of them do, which speaks to how the family started their brewing up in Hokkaido and moved south after some disastrous seasons of foul weather. Starting up a brewery in Toyama they wanted to sell their products here in the refined tea houses frequented by the geisha and their clients, so they came up with the name, Masuizumi as the most refined and auspicious version of the Masuda name – from what I was told, it was this name change that helped sell their products in the tea houses. #marketingwins 
When I entered I was greeted by this explanation of how a saké tasting worked in this particular brewery – and even after I received and English ‘version’ of the ‘instructions’ and a translation from a staff member embellished with enough gesticulation as to almost be interpretive dance… we still coudn’t make head nor hide of it!
And I can’t read a lick of kanji… when it comes to saké I know that I like ones on the dry end of the scale, not to heavy on the aroma. Definitely nothing sweet or cloying (some are downright syrupy), and I quite dislike saké that feels like it should be labeled ‘vodka’ or tastes of grain spirit. Over time I’ve learned that I like the junmai gingo or junmai daiginjo and I have been to enough breweries and tastings to have some favourites.But this? Who can tell one from the other.
Oh and they had FIVE fridges this size all full of different offerings that you could try. Some of this fridge was full of vintage saké and limited edition runs which is a bit of a bitch because two of the ones I liked in this fridge aren’t even available for sale! 
I tried about nine in my 15 minutes and took some photos of some favourites. I gotta say it was a lot of fun… there were a couple of other guests there who were also talking and laughing (in English) about tasting against the clock – they turned out to be Japanese and Croatian but both living and working in Berlin at the moment. We tried to divide and conquer a little but just ended up telling each other which ones to try. 🙂 
It was good fun – I bought a nice bottle of junmai daiginjo to take away and couple of little cups as a memento. Then we ventured south in search of the next brewery – which was the Yoshino Tomo brewery. 
Thankfully a little easier to find. Definitely not as slick an operation as the Masuda brewery and we walked in and were hard pressed to find anyone to show us around or give us any information. 
This little tanuki was by the door with a big ‘Welcome’ sign but to be honest it wouldn’t have surprised me if we were trespassing again – the welcoming committee was non-existent and we couldn’t seem to get any help at all.
After poking around for a while and using Google Translate to decipher many many labels, we decided to bail out and took some notes of anything we might like to try down the track from the supermarkets. Seemed easier!
Have to say it would have been easier to do a 15 min speed tasting with only one fridge full of varieties to try and sample!
I have seen the Kisaki pink in the shops before so now we have a bit more info, it might be worth giving some of these a try. At least the labels are distinctive so we’ll be able to recognise them easily.
Oh look… there is the Masuizumi Junmain gingo at Lawson’s that I just bought at the last brewery, for JPY400 less than they charged at the tasting room! Oh well, live and learn. 🙂 
Next stop was a roadside services for lunch – and I have to say, even dodgy roadside food here is better than a lot of the cheap and cheerful Japanese restaurants that we have at home. I’d go so far as to say convenience store sushi is better than most Australian sushi trains restaurants. 😐 Disappointing but there you have it. This katsudon meal with miso soup was roughly AUD$10 – and it was delicious.
Speaking of roadside rest stops – I saw this in the ladies restroom… a urinal for small boys who might be accompanying their mothers to the bathroom:
I mean, seriously?! You can just tell someone (who takes pride in their work as a bathroom attendant!) is carefully swapping out the display for each season as well… it’s lovely, I appreciated their efforts… at home, we’re happy if there isn’t pee on the floors at roadside servos.
Next brewery for the day was the Fukumitsuya Saké Brewery. This places was founded in 1625 and they are a 14th generation family brewery. Super impressive history; though I do wonder at family businesses like this – how much pressure is there for someone to take on the family business? Whether they want to or not.
Traditionally saké has always been consumed fresh – it wasn’t aged or cellared and was believed not to ‘cellar well’. Hence the sugaidamas to they’ll the town that there was a fresh batch of saké ready for purchase. The Fukumisuya brewery was the first saké brewery in Japan to start cellaring and selling aged sakés. A practice they started back in the late 50s/early 60s after the 12th owner of the brewery spent some time in Europe and came home to start experimenting with aging saké in both room temperature and in cold cellars. Even then, they seem to only age the saké for about three years – or 1000 days (probably because it sounds neat for the marketing!).
Here, I met a lovely woman who had been living in the US for a number of years and her English was exceptional. We had an in-depth discussion about the various types of saké, and she led me through some tastings. She gave me a pile of information on different varieties and practices that various different breweries were engaging in. 
Turns out, that without even realising it – I have developed a taste for ‘purest saké’ (because of course I have… champagne tastes on a beer budget my entire life!). Meaning that the sakés I have found I enjoyed the most are the ones with the least amount of additives. Anything with ‘junmai’ on the label is pure saké, made only with rice, natural waters and koji (koji being a fermentation culture). Which totally explains (for me, at least) why I dislike some saké because it’s too sweet, (likely has sugar added), or to strong in it’s alcohol taste, (likely has grain alcohol added).
Their website has an excellent link to the saké brewing process.
After this we head off to find our machiya where we will be based for the next few days.
This mural is called a Fusama painting and it was apparently created by Kahoolawe Ueshima, who is a well known local arts who works in the ParalymArt collective – I have no idea what that is, but it appears to be a significant art community according to our host. 
The view from upstairs down into the living space.
Lovely tatami bedroom – I love the smell of the tatami mats.
We have a cute, private little garden space; I love the rain chains and have often wondered if they would look out of place in suburban Brisbane. lol
Keeping it old school… complete with emergency contact numbers list… it probably needs instructions for Gen Z on how to dial it. 😛 
Now to sit down to do some serious work, which of course requires – saké!!! Kanpai.
The lobby was lush, and set a beautiful warm and welcoming tone to the ryokan.
Our rom was on the 11th floor with a large deck and garden that overlooked the gorge. The living room was set up for day use with some low chairs and tables on a large tatami mat space. 
Just past that was a sectioned off area with a dressing table and basin, fitted out with all sorts of amenities (toothbrush kits, hair brushes, shower caps, razors, shampoo, conditioner, lotions, face mask treatment things – all individually wrapped)…
…opposite that is a pair of low chairs and a table for reading, relaxing or sitting and having a drink.
The bath was so inviting we jumped in almost as soon as our attendant left the room. 41C and absolutely divine. The rail trip up to gorge was great and it’s mostly a summer activity (closes down from end of November until April in fact) so it was rather cold sitting in the open sided carriages for quite a long time today.
Back inside off the vestibule, (yes there is an entrance space that is most aptly described as a vestibule!) is the interior actual bathroom area… which consisted of three more rooms! A dressing room, a separate toilet and another shower and cypress bath area. 
This bath is set into the floor and fully 70cm deep. The whole space is made of our cypress and smells amazing.
After our dip in the onsen we caught up on some emails etc for a while until it was time to go to dinner – which was being served down the hall in a lovely private dining room.
Our meal consisted of some assorted amuse bouche type things – one of these was tofu with a walnuts in an unknown but delicious sauce, another was some pickled something or other with some Imari, and the third was a mushroom tofu thingamebob that was fantastic. 
A grouper soup…
Lily bulb and some fresh sashimi served with irizake dipping sauce…
Female snow crab… 
Karaage shrimp!
Grilled black throat fish with miso yuan and some heavily marbled waguy beef to cook on a black stone. 
Then a small bowl of local Toyama rice (which apparently is some of the best in the country and explains why there are so many saké breweries around here) served with some red miso soup filled with mushrooms. 
Finally topped off with some fresh fruit – I have to hand it to the Japanese, even though I come from the sub-tropics and fresh fruit is plentiful year round, the Japanese have amazing quality fruits.
When we got back to the room, our attendant had made up our futons for the night and we let dinner settle and then hightailed it back into the onsen for another soak!
This warning is sign says “water!”, but is presumably meant to be read more like “WATER!” to let hapless passers-by know that there may be water in the rice paddy fields? The roads are all largely built up on banks about 3-4 feet above the level of the rice/water but I imagine plenty of people end up driving into the drink with the way people habitually speed around here. There’s some legislative loophole here where the police can’t have speed cameras as it is illegal to film someone unless they are engaged in illegal activity. So the convention (ie: the internet) says that you can do up to 39km per hour over the speed limit in a 100 zone, and up to 29km per hour over the posted speed limit in a 60 zone before the cops will care at all; because that is the limit where disqualification of license is the penalty. The result of which is EVERYONE is doing 70 in a 50 zone and so on… 
This is the first ‘fish market’ we visited – the Shinminato Kittokito Fisherman’s Market. We did not stay long,… there were no workmen sorting and slinging about their fresh catch. There were no barrels and barrels of fish splayed out on ice waiting to be auctioned – so we determined it is a ‘tourist fish market’. A suspicion that was borne out when a bus load of Chinese tourists came in and started shoving each other out of their way to get to a large and very modern canteen. Not a bad spot if you want preserved fish products and souvenirs, but the place doesn’t even smell like fish and there isn’t any seabirds anywhere! 
There is plenty of shopping here to lighten your wallet, and it is redeemed a teeny bit by having an amazing little saké shop.
I had heard (read: saw someone raving about it on a YouTube video), about the famous shrimp flavoured ice cream here and felt that must be pretty weird so naturally had to buy one to try it.
Mr K said “That is the most Instagrammable thing I have ever seen you do – spend 350JPY on an ice cream because someone else on the internet did!” To which I replied, it’s only the most Instagrammable thing you’ve ever seen me do if I buy it, take a photo, post it on bloody Instagram and then dump it!” Which wasn’t my intention, but I have to say it tasted bloody ordinary, so most of it did unfortunately end up in the bin. Whoops! 
And he has the audacity to pick on me and my ice cream… exhibit A, if it may please the court:
Yep! Okay, this is definitely a fish market. Fresth fishy smell -check. Wet concrete everywhere – check. Seabirds squabbling all over the place – check! We arrived around 1pm and all the auctions for the morning’s catches were over but the restaurant was busy as all giddy up – as promised. So we took a number and waited to be called. Which took about 20 mins given the time of day.
Inside was a modern hustling restaurant that seated about 60 and was half closed off (I think it’s off season now for visitors). Mr K liked the robot waiters, I was drooling over the menu. 
Some boring non-descript fish and rice for Mr K, which was served with a optimistically labeled bottle of ‘SAUCE’ that turned out to be ponzu. LOL.
Naturally, when there is no soft drinks on the menu (that one is able to decipher) saké is the go-to whether it’s lunch or dinner (hell, I’d probably have saké for breakfast if it was an option…). I have no idea what brewery it came from but it was very quaffable. 
And then… the main events! The mixed sashimi platter full of all good things.
And a yellow tail platter full of, well, yellow tail. BEST SASHIMI I have ever tried in my entire life. Quite five times better than anything Sono in Brisbane has ever served. *chef’s kiss* totally worth the mystery drive and the wait above the busy fish market. Don’t be taken in by Tourist Fish Market in Toyama, people!
Himi Banya-Gai. This one is sooo touristy it even comes with its own tourist information centre, a government looking facilities block and about seven fishy canteens, a glass shop, shops full of pastries and preserved fish products – so much so you feel like you are in the food hall of a major department store.
This is what passed for premium fresh yellow tail here: some weird foil wrapped packets labeled 1st class, 2nd class and 3rd class yellow tail. And all for way more than what we paid at the port. 
The squidly products looked interesting, but without refrigeration to take them with us, they stayed in the shop. 
All pre-packaged fish products. 🙁 I’m sure it makes a nice trip out here if you live in the area to stop up on pantry staples, but I’m so glad we found the port restaurant for some super fresh offerings. 
Ah, finally some fresh fish – for you to buy and take home and prepare…?
The original castle was built in the 1500s but this building is a replica re-built in the mid-1800s after an earthquake, which is quite a common story with Japanese castles. 
From there it was back to our lodgings at the Dormy Inn Toyama and would you believe it? More saké was on the menu, and tonight a cheap and dirty take-away curry for dinner. Long day was long.
I had a feeling this gorgeous weather wasn’t going to last and it turned out I was absolutely right. 
Me in the car: “There’s some snow on those mountains; I bet it’s chilly up there.” #famouslastwords
We have noticed that Sondora shows us the topographical /literal map of things and sometimes it looks like spaghetti junction, and no sooner does that happen than you get on a highway and it turns into a graphic representation of the destinations rather than a literal visual description (*think of a London Tube map compared to the A-Z). 
And then suddenly, it was fucking snowing! Mr K says he saw a monkey run across the road in front of us – but I think he was pulling my leg and just wanted to have one up on me. 
Beautiful!
We noted that Sondara was showing some pretty spaghetti/worm like road maps coming up – just what you need when it is unseasonably and unexpectably snowing on what you thought might be a fairly uneventful drive. 
Then we came out of a tunnel and we were up in the mountains and it was a winter wonderland! OMG – so beautiful. I haven’t seen such gorgeous scenes since we did Christmas in Canada in 2017.
It was just so beautiful… 
We stopped at a Okuhida Onsengo Kamitakara restop which had these weasels everywhere as a mascot – and we expected to find it full of weird Japanese weasel mascots and of course, fried chicken… instead we found : 
As quickly as we entered into the snowy altitudes we were returned to the autumnal glacial alluvial valleys again. 
We eventually made our way to the Dormy Inn in Toyama City – which I guess is like an American Holiday Inn or an Australian Rydges… there wasn’t much happening here by the time we arrived quite late in the day, but we did find an nice izakaya open and managed to have a nice fishy dinner. Below: miso crap, sashimi plate (salmon, snapper and yellowtail) and some sea cucumber). 
Our room was on the top floor and by Western standards it was huge – by Japanese standards it was downright palatial in its generous dimensions. 
Generous sitting area, dressing room, shower space, and on the balcony…
… another delightful onsen bath. Here the water temperature is coming out of the ground at a blistering 60C, but thankfully the were well located taps to choose the correct amount of fresh piping hot onsen mineral spring water and cold water so you could adjust the bath temperature to your liking. And if you think I didn’t bring a waterproof bath thermometer with me – you’ve obviously never met me! I’m a particularly anal retentive traveller. 
Maybe this is the advantage in booking a trip so far in advance – by the time you arrive you have largely forgotten what you have booked! The view from the huge living room picture window was magnificent. 
Shaba-Shabu… always delicious, but part of me kinda resents having to cook my own food when I’m dining out! 😉 
Unagidon was an nice unexpected surprise… it was sitting in a large clay pot simmering away when we walked in. It was not as sweet as they serve it back home; delicious. 
Then there is still more… desserts still to come. 
And I say desserts… for there were several.
