＊Discover Sake and Kanji: A Unique Cultural Experience



Join me for an unforgettable tour that blends sake tasting with kanji writing. Explore Himeji’s finest sake and learn to write sake-related kanji and your own name!



＊What to Expect



・Guided Sake Hopping


Visit three top sake spots in Himeji, each offering a unique sake selection and insights into production, grades, flavor profiles and cultural significance of sake.


・Kanji Writing


Practice writing sake-related kanji and write your name in kanji during the tour. Take home your beautifully written kanji as a souvenir.


・Variety of Sake


Enjoy diverse sake styles and deepen your knowledge.


・Delicious Pairings


Savor local food paired with your sake at each stop.



＊Tour Schedule



・Daytime Tour: 1pm - 5pm

・Night Tour: 6pm - 10pm



We’ll start at Himeji’s top brewery for a kanpai with a selected aperitif sake.

At the second bar, practice kanji and enjoy various sake styles.

We’ll finish at a local izakaya, where you’ll continue kanji practice and taste more sake with delicious food.
Use your new skills to confidently choose and order sake in Japanese!



＊Other Things to Note



・Food and drinks are not included

・Tasting locations may vary



＊Additionally, I can offer personalized tours of Himeji Castle and sake brewery visits in the Nada region for an extra fee. Feel free to ask about these options when booking.

＊Let's visit 酒蔵 -sakagura-(sake breweries)  in 灘五郷 -Nadagogo-!


灘五郷 -Nadagogo- consists of five villages, which are 西郷-Nishgo-, 御影郷 -Mikagego-, 魚崎郷 -Uozakigo-, 西宮郷 -Nishinomiyago- and 今津郷 -Imazugo-.

It would be great if I could guide you to all the five villages in one day, but unfortunately, because the region is too vast and each village has quite a lot of breweries to visit, I’ve come to the conclusion that it would be difficult.

Instead, I decided to divide one big tour, which covers all the five villages, into three different tours.

Even though what each tour provides is slightly different, I tried my best to make sure that you will have almost the same experiences such as visiting several breweries and gaining a lot of knowledge about sake, tasting different styles of sake at each brewery we stop by, and having delicious lunch at a brewery.

Here are the three different tours I’d like to suggest.

⑴ 西郷-Nishgo -/ 御影郷 -Mikagego Tour

＊available except for Wednesday

＊If you want to gain basic knowledge about sake and enjoy drinking moderately, I recommend you should join this tour

・Price：¥ 25,000/ person

・Duration：6 hours（11am-5pm Japan Time)

・Location：Nada, Hyogo

・visit 4 breweries（one of them has a great museum to explore)

・have lunch at one of the breweries

・tasting several different styles of sake at each brewery

 

⑵御影郷 -Mikagego- / 魚崎郷 -Uozakigo- Tour

＊available except for Tuesday

＊If you want to have a deeper understandings about sake and try tasting a lot of sake, I recommend you should join this tour.

・Price：¥ 25,000/ person

・Duration：7 hours（10am-5pm Japan Time)

・Location：Nada, Hyogo

・visit 4 breweries（3 of them has great museums to explore)

・have lunch at one of the breweries

・tasting several different styles of sake at each brewery

 

⑶ 西宮郷 -Nishinomiyago- / 今津郷 -Imazugo- Tour

＊available except for Tuesday

＊If you want to  have a deeper understandings about sake, visit a lot of breweries and taste many different styles of sake, I recommend you should join this tour

 

・Price：¥ 25,000/ person

・Duration：7 hours（10am-5pm Japan Time)

・Location：Nada, Hyogo

・visit 6 breweries（one of them has a great museum to explore)

・have lunch at one of the breweries

・tasting many different styles of sake at each brewery


Other things to note


・The  food and drink are included in the price

・Make sure to wear sneakers on the day

Hi, I'm Kazuaki Kaneda.

Please just call me Kazu. 

Thank you so much for visiting this page!

It's very nice to meet you.

Let me introduce myself briefly.

 I was born and raised in Himeji, Hyogo.

Have you ever heard of it?

Himeji is located pretty close to Kobe and Osaka.

It's not a so-called big city, but it's a beautiful place and easy to live in. 

The city is famous for Himeji Castle, the only UNESCO World Heritage castle in Japan.

Also, there are lots of nice izakaya(a kind of bar serving drinks and food) and sake related spots, so if you're interested in sake, I highly recommend you should come!

I have seven years of experience working at a local sake brewery.

Plus, I’m certified as an international sake connoisseur, so I’m confident that I can provide you with deeper insight and knowledge about sake.

Let me help you have a wonderful sake experience while you're here in Japan!

I was born and raised in a small city, called Himeji in Hyogo prefecture in Japan.

I spent my whole school days in the city. As a kid, I was pretty active.

I’d often go outside and enjoy playing sports with my friends. 

I was especially into baseball and basketball.  I studied hard as well.

I made it to a college without any trouble.

After graduation, I earned my first job.

Everything went smoothly up until that time.

As I started working as a door-to-door sales rep in the education industry, I found that things would never be the same.

I couldn’t adjust myself to the new environment and ended up quitting.

After that, I realized that it was not something I really wanted to do and thought to myself,

“ I’m going to do what I really want to do from now on.”

and I decided to challenge myself to become a pro freestyle basketballer.

In my 20s, I put in a lot of time and effort in basketball to realize my dream.

While chasing the dream, I was working at a pizza shop and a bento (lunch box) store to make a living.

After working the night shift, I went to a park near Himeji castle every day and practiced till I got drenched in sweat.

I really enjoyed doing what I love.

But, I found that it was tough to bring myself to a pro level.

And as the time went by, I started thinking this way,

“Okay, maybe it’s not for me... I love basketball but it's not something I can do for a living. I did all I could, so I have no regrets. I need to find something else I can be as passionate about as I’m about basketball to live my life.”

Before I turned 30, I decided to move on to the next chapter.

When I was 29 years old, I changed direction and decided to take English seriously to get some English-related jobs because English was the only thing I had always been interested in aside from basketball.

But, my English back then was not good enough to get a job.

So, I took a break from working at those 2 stores and took an intensive English program to study hard for two years.

It was tough but I loved it.

I thought I found my passion after basketball.

After the program, the passion led me to becoming an English teacher and teaching 300 students for six years.

I liked being a teacher and the experience motivated me to teach Japanese to people from abroad.

I had a 5-year-experience of teaching Japanese to 500 students from more than 10 countries.

While doing those 2 language-related jobs, I also worked at a local sake brewery for 6 years. (The brewery was looking for somebody capable of English.) 

Interstingly enough, I didn't know anything about sake up until seven years ago, when I started at a locl sake brewery. 

Because my role there was to explain about sake and give a short tour within the brewery, I had no choice but to study sake.

As I read some sake books and watched videos, I was getting interested in sake little by little. 

Also, one bottle of sake I happened to drink on New Year's day had a huge impact on my relationship with sake. 

Thanks to the bottle of sake, I came to appreciate sake even more and started working on it even more passionately.

I still vividly remember the day like yesterday. 

In fall of 2019, I met a guy from the Netherlands.

I found that he loved sake and we hit it off pretty quickly. The next day, we went to a sake bar that has more than 300 selections of sake to choose from.

He looked so excited about having those many choices of sake.

We tasted more than 10 different styles of sake that night.

I still vividly remember him looking so happy every time he had each sip of the sake.

Thanks to the Internet, we still keep in touch with each other and talk about anything like, how things are going, family stuff, jobs, and of course sake too. 

He often tells me how much he loves to visit Japan and enjoy sake again like we did at the cool bar in Himeji.

One time, when we had a chat online, he said,

“I haven’t opened the bottle that I bought in Himeji. I keep it for a special occasion.”

I was like in my mind, 

“What? It’s been a month already since you left and you love sake so much.

You still keep it ? Why??”

He told me, 

“Sake is really difficult to get in the Netherlands. Compared to Japan, there are a lot fewer selections of sake to choose from and sake is much more expensive here.”

After having this conversation, the outbreak of COVID19 hit the whole world. 

Because the disease went so viral, the prospect of his making a trip to Japan remained unclear and this ongoing situation was likely to continue for a while... 

My sake tour and workshop also stopped

This has disappointed him badly because he thinks not being able to visit Japan means he will have to put up with a situation where he drinks only limited brands of sake that are available at supermarkets or liquor stores around his place.

I felt really sorry for him because I know how much he loves sake. 

Up until then, sake was more like for myself. 

However, knowing the fact that it's difficult for him to enjoy sake back in his country inspired me to do somethig for people like him. 

Also, I’ve come to think that there must be a lot of people like him, who want to drink sake but almost give up doing it thinking that there’s nothing they can do about it for now.

This motivated me to challenge myself to write my first original book to make their sake-lives at home better.

After the book, I kept thinking about what I could do for someone like him, those who are intersted in sake.

It was challenging but, at the same time it was a lot of fun to keep figuring out a way to make difference.  

Before I knew it, sake also became my passion just like basketball and English.

After 2023 started, the COVID situation started to get better and better.

By the time summer arrived, it felt like everything got back to normal again, which led me to restarting my sake activities for the first time in four years!

Since then, I've got to know quite a lot of tourists from overseas through my sake tours.

I usually prefer leisurely traveling to immerse myself in the local culture.

Kazu-san’s tour was beyond my expectations!
With his extensive experience of sake making and tasting, he thoroughly prepared a 171 page PowerPoint, even though I was the only participant on the tour!

It was more than just sake tasting and learning about the different types of sakes.
Through sake drinking, I got to learn more about the Japanese customs (I.e., overfilling to show generosity), etiquette when ordering food and drink, and everyday phrases when roaming around Japan. He also regularly checks in to see how I felt about having more drinks.

He speaks very good English for a self-learner!
You can tell that he is a dedicated learner by making quick journal entries on his phone through our conversations and setting English as the default language on his phone.

I was asking quite a lot of questions, all of which he elaborately explained so well. He really is passionate about sake that he wants to spread it with others from all around the world!