Wineshark Japan Journey - Hizen Hamashuku 肥前浜宿

After checking out from Oncri, we drove to Hizen Hamashuku 肥前浜宿. There are not that many public parking facilities in the vicinity, so we decided to park at Hamamachi train station 肥前浜駅, then walked to the historic town.

Since Kamakura 鎌倉 and Muromachi Periods室町時代, the place had been a busy port. It became even more prosperous in Meiji Period 明治時代 with sake production, supported by its economic power as a post town, abundant underground water, and high-quality rice. Many large sake breweries were started then and continue to operate today.

On the first stop we came to Fukuchiyo Sake Brewery 富久千代酒造, with their famous and award-winning sake Nabeshima 鍋島. With the door closed we waited outside a while before a friendly staff came out informing us that the brewery is not open to public and also does not handle retail customers. It was disappointing but he kindly shared with us a shop nearby which can purchase their sake.  

Decided to first take a walk at the famous ‘Sake Brewery Street’, there were a lot of beautiful, historic buildings on the two sides. There are some Western-style buildings along the street, creating an interesting contrast with the traditional Japanese buildings just adjacent or opposite.

The historic post office is an example of such Western architecture, with two floors, signature Western window shutters, and an arched canopy at the entrance.

As it started to rain quite heavily, we decided to enjoy a cup of coffee to wait for the rain to stop. Seeing Café Brew is opened, we went to this cafe operated by Fukuchiyo Brewery. Really comfortable and soothing, the café has a long table, which must cost a fortune being made from a single piece of wood.

Even though the staff did not speak much English, she was very friendly and helpful, interacting with us to the best she can. The coffee was also fantastic, and served in a very beautiful ceramic cup that we can individually choose from an assortment in the display case, with each one of them apparently of high value. But the bill was very reasonable at 1,600 yen for two. A definite recommendation.

The sake shop which the staff at Fukuchiyo referred us was in fact the historic building of Iimori Shuzo 飯盛酒造. I ended up buying three bottles of sake, including 東一 純米大吟醸, 肥前蔵心 権右衛門 純米大吟醸 and 鍋島 大吟醸, at a very good price of 12,980 yen.