Day 101: Sake, Sake, Sake
So apparently it's always cloudy in Niigata in the winter. The thought of non-stop cloudy days for months seems a bit depressing, but on the upside at least they can get through it with some of the nation's best sake and rice, right?
We really wanted to go to this famous fish market outside of Niigata but without a car it was going to be near impossible. Hours on the train plus a bus plus a taxi? No thanks. We decided to go to a more local market which was walking distance from the hotel, which left more time for a seafood lunch and some wandering around before a sake tour. Busy-ish day!
The view from our hotel over a grey Niigata.
You can't tell here, but it was super windy and a bit rainy (AKA, my least favourite weather conditions) so after one broken umbrella, some half hearted running and a pit stop at a liquor shop we found ourselves at the market. And it was cooler than we expected. There were a few restaurants and cafes set up in old shipping containers which included American BBQ, coffee merchants, and a few other bits and pieces. Not bad, Niigata!
We stopped in at this cute little cafe who seemed really into their coffee (but not in a snobby way).
And they made me this! Also, shout outs to the camo mug.
Hectic fishing boat.
Daikon drying in the sun.
And the fish market! It was pretty quiet, which is a nice change from the crazy markets and shops in Tokyo.
Dem crabs.
This place does everything with Niigata rice... onigiri, rice bowls, just rice. Rice, rice, rice.
A pre-lunch yaki onigiri (made with Niigata rice).
After we'd finished at the markets, we headed to the other side of town to check out this sushi restaurant for lunch. Now, I'm a terrible person and I have no idea what this place was called and I didn't Instagram is so I can't tell you what it is. I'm sorrrrrrrryyyy!!!
Anyway, we got our own private room and ladies dressed up in kimonos served us. I had no idea it would be so fancy!
I had to have some sake to accompany lunch and it came out in this amazing cup and saucer. I WANT THIS.
Ze lunch. It cost about ¥1,500 and had some amazing sashimi, pickles, miso and, of course, Niigata rice. So good.
Come to me, my pretty.
Doing my best to taste the difference between the variation of rice. I'm not doing too well, tbh.
You have to walk past the kitchen to go into the eating area. They had a lot of their ingredients displayed so you could see what was going into your meal.
Just wandering around on the way to the sake brewery.
Imayo Tsukasa is a sake brewery in Niigata which makes award winning sake and also runs daily tours in English. After taking off our shoes and putting on some slippers (they don't allow outside shoes on in the brewery), we met our American tour guide who was also their marketing guy who took us around the brewery.
He showed us the original parts of the brewery and showed us how they make the sake these days.
As much as we loved our tour guide, he had no idea how to use a camera so all the photos he took of us were blurry. This was the least blurry of the lot!
And so the sake tasting begins. I've not done a sake tasting properly before and so many sakes taste more or less the same to me, but after doing this I was able to taste the differences between them.
We ended up buying one bottle and also trying our hand at the lucky sake machine where you insert a coin, open the ball and see which coloured token you get. Adam got the one he wanted and I wasn't all the fussy, but they made for very good company on the train.
One of the best things about Niigata is the sake tasting room at the train station. Make sure you leave some time before you get on your train to do this!
For ¥500 you get five tokens where you can choose from around 120 sakes to taste. Put your token in the vintage vending machines and get your tasting. Easy!
So many different sakes line the walls, each of them with details of where they are from, their sweetness/dryness level and alcohol content. I loved this place!
There were also a range of salts and miso pastes you could try too.
Getting to know the local Niigata culture, one sip at a time.
In hindsight I should have purchased these drunk salaryman figurine and phone dangles.
Token in, cup under the tap, press the yellow button and drink up!
After a few delicious sakes, we had to jump on the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. Before this, we got ourselves a train snack (of course), this one being the biggest and best onigiri I've ever had. We were in a conbini and were thinking about getting one of their onigiris but being in Niigata that would have been a huge waste of an opportunity so I wandered off and found an onigiri bar that made onigiris fresh to order. They were absolutely massive, filled with an ingredient of your choice and served to you still warm. Oh god it was heaven.
Look at that serving of salmon! Onigiri is one of my favourite things and this is my favourite of all the onigiris I've ever had.
