A sake town where boats glide past breweries
Fushimi, in southern Kyoto, became one of Japan's great sake towns thanks to its soft groundwater, so good that the town's name was once written with characters meaning "underground water," and to its river port. Ride a small boat down a canal lined with white-walled breweries and willows, then tour a brewery and taste local sakes side by side. It is a short train ride from Kyoto Station.
Small roofed boats, modeled on the jukkokubune that carried sake and rice between Fushimi and Osaka in the Edo period, float down a canal past white brewery walls and willows. The 50-minute round trip stops at the Misu lock, where you can get off and look around. It does not run in winter or in late August.
A museum in a 1909 brewery of Gekkeikan, a sake maker founded in 1637, with old brewing tools on display while sake is still made in the brewery next door. Entry includes a tasting of sakes made with the local water, and a souvenir; payment is cashless only.
A chicken restaurant run by the makers of Shinsei sake in one of their old brewery buildings. Have yakitori and kamameshi, rice cooked in a small iron pot, with undiluted sake fresh from the brewery. Expect a line at lunchtime.
An alley of small eateries where you can drink sake from Fushimi's breweries in one place. Order the tasting set, a small glass from each brewery lined up in a row, to compare them.
Legend says that in 862 a fragrant spring welled up here and healed the sick who drank from it, giving the shrine its name. The water, one of Japan's 100 best waters, is said to come from the same source as Fushimi's brewing water, and locals come to fill bottles with it.