Saijo Sake Brewery Tour, Hiroshima — walk the Sakagura Street with an English guide (book)

What to expect

Saijo isn't in Hiroshima city — it's the historic center of Higashi-Hiroshima City, reached by a direct JR Sanyo Main Line train from Hiroshima Station in about 35–40 minutes, with services roughly every 20 minutes. What's waiting at the other end is Sakagura Street, a row of working sake breweries behind namako-tiled walls and brick chimneys stamped with brand names, dating back over 300 years — recognized as one of Japan's 20th Century Heritage sites and designated a national historic site in 2024.

Two official English-guided tours run from Saijo Station, right at the brewery street: a 3-brewery tour (¥5,500, tax included) runs every weekday from 10:30 to 11:50 AM and includes tastings of five different sake. A fuller 7-brewery tour (¥7,700) runs only on Mondays and Fridays, 1:00–3:00 PM, and includes nine sake across all seven participating breweries. Both are led by an English-speaking guide — this isn't a self-guided pamphlet walk, and it's a genuinely rare chance to taste across breweries that don't all pour on the same day otherwise.

Choosing between the two tours

The 3-brewery tour is the easier one to slot into a trip: it runs daily on weekdays, and you can often still book as late as 9 AM the same morning if space remains. It's shorter, cheaper, and still gives you five sake and a real introduction to the street's history and architecture. The 7-brewery tour goes deeper — nearly double the tastings and every brewery on the street — but its schedule is fixed to two afternoons a week, so it needs planning around your itinerary rather than a same-day decision; book at least a few days ahead. Both tours strictly enforce Japan's drinking age of 20 and over, so bring ID.

If Saijo is one stop in a wider sake-focused trip, our sake tasting in Kyoto and sake brewery tour in Takayama guides cover the other two cities we've verified — each has a different format (single-venue tasting in Kyoto, a mountain-town brewery visit in Takayama), so comparing the three is a genuinely useful way to plan a sake-focused itinerary across regions.

Etiquette in brief

Multiple tastings in one sitting call for pacing — breweries pour small measures precisely so you can sample widely without overdoing it, and it's completely normal to leave sake unfinished in the cup rather than drink every pour. Because not every brewery offers tastings on a walk-in basis, the tour's fixed schedule and guide are what make visiting several in one outing realistic at all.

Getting there

Both tours meet at Saijo Station, right where the brewery street begins, so there's no local transport to sort out once you arrive from Hiroshima. If you want to turn Hiroshima into a two-experience day, our Kumano brush-making workshop — reached from Hiroshima Station in the opposite direction — makes a good contrasting pair: a slower, hands-on craft to balance the brewery walk. For more experiences across the country, see our best cultural experiences in Japan guide.