Although there are several areas in Japan that are well-known for their sake, Kobe produces the majority of sake in Japan. Naturally, during my day in Kobe, I wanted to visit some sake places. In the Nada district of Kobe, there are a whole bunch of sake breweries to visit.

Seika had to work today, so I stuck to a couple of sake brewery museums rather than visiting any hole in the wall places. I wanted to learn about the history and sake making process as well.

Historically, sake needed wintertime conditions to be made, but now it can be made year-round. I saw the methods and machines used in sake making in the past, as well as some machines of today.

Sake is made from water, yeast, rice, and koji (mold). The process begins with polishing rice, which is washing the rice so the the outer layers of the grains are washed away. Then steaming, and cooling, and the mold cultivation process, and so on…ok, let’s try the sake!

Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum

All these sake breweries had soft serve ice cream available! It was amazake soft serve, which is a sweet sake ice cream with less than 1% alcohol content. It contains amazake, using rice koji, sake lees, and honey. It was like vanilla soft serve, but had a bit more of a balanced sweetness like a sweet rice or bread.

Hamafukutsuru Sake Brewery

I opted for a paid tasting to try some unique and recommended sakes. When I was purchasing the sake tastings, I used Google translate to ask the employee how many would be recommend without it being too many, and he said it was no problem and to order as many as I like. I chose 3 different flights, and he didn’t seem shocked when I ordered that many. However, when I was served my drinks, some others were like “Wow you really like to drink!” One flight included 3, another had 2, and the last had 1. I was worried it might be too many, but I took my time, and I managed it fine.

Kobe beef!

I visited a teppanyaki restaurant to enjoy certified Kobe beef in Kobe. Some places in Kobe claim to have “Kobe beef” because technically any beef in Kobe is Kobe beef, so I made sure to go to a certified place.

I went to a restaurant around 3pm, but some restaurants are closed from 3pm to 5pm. Luckily, they had an opening for me.

I ordered the Kobe Beef Finest Fillet Steak (A5) meal. WOW!

Teppanyaki is one of my favorite foods in America. It was cool to see how it differed in Japan. I love the tenderness and attention that my chef gave to my food that he cooked. Each cut and flip of an individual piece of food was done with such care. My chef added the food to the plate bite by bite as it was done cooking. He even advised me on what flavors to add to each item and how to enjoy it the most. This meal was very very good! It was more expensive than the other meals, but so worth it!

The seasonings for the meal included fried garlic slices, sea salt, pepper, wasabi, soy sauce, and miso. The vegetables included a shiitake mushroom, eggplant, sweet potato, asparagus, and bean sprouts. The ambiance was fancy.

Takoyaki at home!

I returned home for dinner to a takoyaki making experience with Seika’s family. So cool!!! Takoyaki is a Japanese street food from Osaka. Osaka truly has so many creative and delicious foods! I saw takoyaki stalls on the street, but to make them at home is so cool and fun!

The family had the griddles set up where you add the batter and whatever toppings you like. Octopus is the most common filling, and there’s also pork, green onion, etc. They had 4 different types of cheese as well to add inside, probably because I love cheese. How kind!

You let it cook for like 5 minutes, and then you roll them by using turning picks so they become round. Once they are cooked, you take them off the griddle and top them with the brown takoyaki sauce, kewpie mayonase, and katsuobushi (dried bonito fish flakes).

Takoyaki retain their heat pretty well, so we made sure to let them cool enough. The batter makes it fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside. Takoyaki is yummy!

Seika said they make takoyaki together maybe once a month. It has joyful, conversational vibes similar to how a pizza night would feel in America.