Toei-Cho's Moriyama Sake Brewery..I think.

You know, when you live in a town of 4,000 people--it's easy to think that you have seen all that it has to offer and know every spot in town. You can imagine my surprise when I was told a few weeks ago that there was a very old sake brewery operating here in town, close to my apartment. At first I thought that my understand was a little off, since there was no way that I could have not seen said brewery.

Nate came up to visit during the final days of spring break. We planned on hiking around, exploring a bit, and trying to scare up something to do that was interesting. It was also a welcomed getaway from the ladies. Every man knows that sometimes it's good to have some boy time and get away from the nag...lovely time spent with our women.

I had heard that the local sake could be found at Lics, the only combini in town that happens to be about a 30 minute walk from my apartment. Nate and I both love a brisk walk, and the great weather was perfect for a stroll across town. We made it to Lics, and I inquired of the lady behind the counter as to which sake was the local one, made here in town. (It was the plan all along to ask about the location of the brewery, and try to sneak in there for a behind the scenes tour.) The lady at Lics told me that they did not sell the sake, but that we could in fact buy the sake from the brewery--located across town in the direction from which we had just come. She gave us a map and we were back on our way.

As we grew closer and closer to my apartment and stomping ground, I was getting more and more skeptical about there being an ancient brewer of Nihonshu in the area. However, armed with a map and his alcohol radar--Nate spotted the familiar sake brewery chimney among the trees in the distance. We took a tiny side road (which I had never been down before) and found ourselves standing smack dab in front of the Moriyama Sake Brewery. (Not sure of the real name, Robert--any help???)


We opened the old wooden door that appeared to lead into a shop and yelled, "Hello~!!" Not a soul was to be found, but we looked around and saw several different types of sake bottles all around. I yelled again and an old man appeared out of a side door, Moriyama-san. Of course he was surprised to see a couple of gaijin standing in his little shop, but he was excited at the same time. I asked him if they made ji-zake here and he assured me that this was the case. Then, without us asking, he asked us if we wanted a tour. Mission accomplished.

Moriyama-san took us inside his facility which in a word was old. Everything was old. This stands to reason, since his family has been making sake in the same buildings for about 300 years. Stop and think about that one for a second. He gave us a tour of the place, showed us his artisan well, and let us taste some of his product that wasn't quite done fermenting yet. We drank a cup of this alcoholic oatmeal and then headed back to the shop. Nate and I picked up a few bottles for the girls back in Toyohashi, and Moriyama-san gave us a bottle free to drink that afternoon. He wanted us to have a hanami out in front of his brewery--but we told him we'd try for another day.

We headed back to the apartment, dropped off some of the sake, and headed down to the creek to drink a bottle of his 19% "heavy sake" in the Old Style. I wish it had been warmer--because I assure you towards the end of the bottle--Nate and I would have been swimming. There's always next time.

We finished up the bottle just in time to head back to the apartment, pack up, and head to the station to catch the train back to Toyohashi. We had an hours wait at the station for the next train, so lucky for us I had brought a bit of the Workin' Man's Sake (Onikoroshi) with us to sip on during our repose. We caught the train and made a scene all the way back to Toyohashi, as we quickly disposed of the Onikoroshi, laughed, told loud nasty jokes, and pissed on war veterans' graves.* When I got back to Toyohashi, my girlfriend picked me up....and was not as impressed as I was about the day's events....to say the least.


*Not literally of course.