"Shogo was a great guide! Very knowledgeable and engaging. I feel much more comfortable selecting a sake after this experience."
Kyoto · Fushimi · 400 Years of Sake
Kyoto Sake Tasting — Inside Fushimi's 400-Year-Old Breweries
Walk Fushimi's brewery district — Japan's second-biggest sake-producing region — with an English-speaking guide. Six tastings, food pairings, and centuries of craft in one three-hour walk.
Likely to sell out
From
$85
per person
Free cancellation
- 4.9 / 5 762+ Reviews
- 3 hours Duration
- 15 Categories All Kyoto Experiences
- English Guides Local Experts
- Free Cancellation
The Experience
What Makes This Fushimi Sake Tour Special
Seven tastings, brewery walk, food pairing, and insight into how Kyoto's soft water makes a different sake to Niigata's.
Highlights
- Choose sake with confidence through an expert-guided tasting
- Discover how sake is made and what shapes its flavor
- Taste different sake styles side by side and discover your favorite
- Learn to read sake bottles and menus so you can order with confidence in Japan
- Learn how to enjoy sake in Japan — from hot or cold to food pairings and more
What's Included
- Certified sake expert as your guide
- Sake tasting (10+ types selected by a certified sake sommelier)
- Otsumami (traditional Japanese appetizers) for food pairing
- Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum entry fee and guided tour
- Sake cheat sheet and tasting note to help you choose your preferred sake
- Guided sake tasting held in our own dedicated tasting room
How the Kyoto Sake Tasting Works
Four steps from Fushimi Momoyama Station to your seventh tasting.
Meet in Fushimi
Meet your guide at Fushimi-Momoyama Station or Chushojima Station (15 minutes from central Kyoto via Keihan line). Your guide explains why Fushimi became a sake capital — soft spring water, easy river transport to Osaka.
Visit Your First Brewery
Walk into one of Fushimi's historic brewery streets. Visit an active brewery — see the wooden fermentation vats, rice-polishing machine, and the sugidama cedar balls that hang outside breweries to signal new-batch readiness.
Taste Seven Sakes
Taste across the full spectrum — junmai, honjozo, ginjo, and daiginjo grades — plus aged koshu and sparkling sake. Your guide explains polish ratios, the yeast strain differences, and why Fushimi's sake is sweeter than Niigata's.
Food Pairing
Finish with Kyoto-style food pairings — yuba (tofu skin), pickled vegetables, grilled fish, and local nukazuke rice-bran pickles. Three-hour tour ends with a list of sake to buy and pack home.
Photo Gallery
Fushimi Sake Country — Through the Lens
Cedar sugidama brewery balls, wooden fermentation vats, tokkuri pouring jugs, and Fushimi's willow-lined canal — captured by our guests.
Book Your Experience
Check Availability & Prices
Select your preferred date and time. Instant confirmation — free cancellation up to 24 hours before departure.
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Guest Reviews
What Visitors Say
5/5
from 762 verified visitors
"This was so great. You learn so much about the history of the brewery, how they make sake and taste so many to learn your preferences. Mayo was the best guide. She was really nice and funny and made everyone feel welcome. You should do this even if you don’t think you like sake."
"Kataro was a fantastic guide. This is a great tour and we all learned so much about sake. The food pairings were eye opening. Take this tour if you love sake."
"Amazing experience!!! Kyoko was our guide and she was absolutely brilliant - so engaging, fun, and she was just a great teacher. It’s also very worth it in terms of the amount of drinks/food you get - and she was also able to arrange a vegan friendly option for me last minute. Would highly recommend this experience to anyone coming to Kyoto!!"
"Ask for Kyoko!!! Kyoko was a phenomenal sake guide and sake sommelier! Knowledgeable, friendly and impeccable English! 10/10 experience! we'll be back for the advanced sake your."
"Informative and great guide! Spent a lovely day learning about sake, tasting different types and paring those with food. With this knowledge we really look forward to the restaurant tonight."
"I did this tour last year when I was in Kyoto and I loved it so much when I came back with my friends I made sure we all did it again. kyoko was a great guide very knowledgeable about the sake history and the making process. She also helped us understand the difference between sakes and how to read labels so we can pick the one we like. The food pairing was also a great way to look at sake in a different light. I would highly recommend this tour to anyone asking what to do in Kyoto."
"Shogo our guide was great. He really knows about the process of making Sake as well as what to look for in a good Sake. The tasting part of the tour was well done as well as we were able to learn about food pairings etc. if you are interested in Sake and how to enjoy it, this tour is a must!"
"Kyoko is actually my favorite tour guide I’ve ever had. She’s so bubbly and lively! She has a great sense of humor and if anyone is from the US, you’ll appreciate her because she lived there and she speaks like she’s from there! She’s a wealth of knowledge and shred so much insightful history with us, we learned a great lots and I only hope that you are lucky enough to have her as you guide!"
"Kyoko was an amazing host - bubbly and very knowledgeable about sake. Highly recommended!"
"Perfect experience!!!!! A must do in Kyoto and Chika is totally awesome!!! Muito obrigado! 🇧🇷"
"Mayo was amazing! Very knowledgeable and funny, overall great experience. Will recommend to others traveling to Kyoto."
"Mai was brilliant and it was a nice way to be introduced to sake, understand its historic role and how its brewed. It was also a great way to connect with other travellers."
"Kyoko did an amazing job! She has great knowledge about sake and a great sense of humour as well as taste! Thanks again!"
"Kyoko was an amazing guide. So knowledgeable and made the history and information interesting and easy to learn. Fabulous experience and highly recommend to anyone who wants to learn more about sake and learn to tell the difference between the different kinds!"
"Miyuki was an enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide for this fantastic tour. As someone who doesn't drink a lot of sake (or make that Nihonshou!) it was really interesting to learn about the history of the drink and the Gekkeikan family, as well as understand the effect different levels of polishing had on the overall taste. One of the best tours we've had during our time in Japan!"
"Our guide Masa is genuinely enthusiastic in introducing the wine and dine scene of Kyoto to us. Love the whole experience. Kyoto is such a romantic city that a guided walking tour at night seems most suitable."
"The tour was a mix of informative and fun. The exploration was unexpectedly fun. And especially we got very lucky with a fantastic group of folks."
Read all 762 verified reviews
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Browse All Kyoto ToursFAQ — Kyoto Sake Tasting Tours
Everything you need to know about Kyoto sake brewery tours.
Fushimi has four things other regions lack: soft spring water (the Momoyama aquifer), cool winter temperatures for fermentation, river transport for historical shipping to Osaka, and 400+ years of continuous brewing. Fushimi is Japan's second-biggest sake region after Niigata.
Typical tours visit 2–3 active breweries out of Fushimi's 24 remaining sake houses. Brand names you may recognize: Gekkeikan (the world's largest), Matsumoto, Kizakura, and Tamanohikari. Each brewery has distinct water profiles and house styles.
Most sake tours include 5–7 distinct tastings, covering the grades: junmai (pure rice, more umami), honjozo (rice + small alcohol addition), ginjo (polished rice, fruity), daiginjo (highly polished, delicate), aged koshu, and often a sparkling sake.
No. Tours include a beginner-level introduction — rice polishing ratios, yeast selection, koji mold, and fermentation temperature. By the end you'll understand the difference between futsu-shu everyday sake and premium daiginjo, and why prices vary from $5 to $100 a bottle.
Most include Kyoto-style food pairings — yuba (tofu skin), pickled vegetables, grilled fish, wagyu beef skewers, or Kyoto tsukemono pickles. Izakaya crawl tours include more substantial bites across multiple pubs. Check the tour description for specifics.
A sake tour is educational — brewery walks, production explanations, careful tasting notes. An izakaya crawl is social — hopping between Gion or Pontocho's traditional pubs with the local crowd, ordering food and drink, less teaching. Sake tours average 3 hours; izakaya crawls 2–2.5 hours.
Partially. Most brewery tours welcome non-drinkers at a reduced rate — you still learn production, smell the brewing, and eat the food. For non-drinkers, the Fushimi Sake District walking tour (no tastings) is a better match.
Yes. Breweries sell bottles at the tour end — expect 20% cheaper than Tokyo retail. Japanese customs allows 3 litres of alcohol for outbound travelers. Packaging: most breweries offer free gift-wrapping. Shipping internationally requires a formal exporter — ask at the brewery shop.
Shinshu (new sake) season runs December to March — you'll see breweries with fresh cedar sugidama balls hanging, signaling the new batch. Summer tours focus on aged koshu and sparkling summer sake. Tours run year-round with minor seasonal variation.
Pour for your tablemates, not for yourself — it's polite. Receive sake with both hands on the cup. Smell before sipping. Rinse with water between different grades. Don't add ice to premium sake. Your tour guide walks you through all this at the first tasting.
Still have questions? Email us at info@thingstobookinkyoto.com