Experiences / Dining
A guided sake tasting
日本酒のテイスティング にほんしゅのていすてぃんぐ
Food · Rainy day
Six glasses in a row — a dry junmai, a fragrant daiginjo, an unpasteurised nama, an aged koshu, a cloudy nigori, a sparkling — poured by someone who explains rice polishing and the difference between the brewers' regions, in a specialist bar or the tasting counter of a department store's sake floor. An hour; then you can order in an izakaya with confidence. Nihonbashi's brewers' antenna shops and Shinjuku's Isetan counter are the easy starts.
- How to arrange it
- Department-store counters need no booking; specialist bars book online and run English sessions on set evenings.
- Price band
- ¥¥
- Allow
- 60 min
- Where
- Nihonbashi, Shinjuku, Ginza
Where to book it
Nihonbashi
Hasegawa Saketen Nihonbashi
長谷川酒店 日本橋店
¥¥ · 45 min · English: partial
A long-running sake, shochu and wine specialist shop with a standing bar attached, in the Nihonbashi district rather than a tourist-oriented pop-up. Bottles are chosen by an in-house sake specialist across its seven Tokyo shops, so the by-the-glass flight at the counter reflects genuine retail expertise, not a fixed tourist tasting set.
Ginza
IMADEYA Ginza
いまでや 銀座店
¥¥ · 60 min · English: yes
IMADEYA is a long-established sake and shochu retailer whose Ginza Six shop pairs a curated bottle shop with a kaku-uchi (in-store tasting bar) counter, letting visitors taste sake by the glass poured by staff who also sell the bottles. The multilingual retail site makes it one of the more accessible sake-tasting stops for non-Japanese speakers.
Nihonbashi
Toyama Bar (Nihonbashi Toyama-kan)
とやまバー（日本橋とやま館）
¥ · 20 min · English: partial
Part of Toyama Prefecture's own antenna shop in Nihonbashi, this counter bar pours sake from 17 breweries in Toyama so visitors can compare regional styles side by side rather than relying on a single restaurant's list. It functions as an official prefectural information point as much as a bar, aimed at casual, no-reservation tasting.
Named operators, each verified against its official site. We list the booking route and whether English is spoken; hours and prices live on the official site. All operators
Places
The Isetan food hall伊勢丹新宿店の食品フロア
The most complete depachika in Japan — wagashi, bento, French pastry, sake, and a fruit shop where a melon is a gift.
45 min · Shinjuku-sanchome (Marunouchi / Fukutoshin / Shinjuku lines), direct
The old shops of Nihonbashi日本橋の老舗
One thing, made for centuries — knives, chopsticks, seaweed, dried bonito, paper, brushes, all within four blocks.
90 min · Mitsukoshimae (Ginza / Hanzomon lines)