So my planned 2nd trip to Japan next year is being postponed until a later date but hey that just gives me more time to find interesting things to do while there.
The first time we went we hit up a lot of the standard tourist spots which I dont regret at all since they were super fun and interesting but now Im hoping we can find things more specific to our particular interests this time around. And being a cook working my way to being a Chef how food is made is incredibly fascinating to me.
None of us speak Japanese outside basic travel phrases and a little cheat booklet for reading signs and menus and I dont think any of us will be able to get fluent enough to properly translate for the others by that time. So Im hoping to see if there are any Miso making places that offer tours in English or maybe at least a pamphlet that we can use to follow along? I tried google searches but they all seem to come up with the same suggestions and as far as I can tell from reviews (some VERY old so not sure if its still true or not) they dont have any English options.
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The cities we will be in when we will have time to make a day trip or special outing to go for a Miso tour are:
Hakata, Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Kyoto, and Tokyo.
We are hoping to be in Japan from early May to early April, not sure if that would change anything. Thank you for any advice and suggestions.
3 comments
AirBNB has a section for activities, including brewery tours, in English. They’re hosted by locals.
It’s not for everyone, but it’s a place to start.
I visited a miso brewery in Matsumoto last January that holds English tours. Matsumoto isn’t on your list, but perhaps with planning it could be added? I highly recommend it even without the miso tour! It’s connected to Tokyo by either direct train or bus, and also works well as a day trip from Nagano.
The Isshi miso brewery in Matsumoto offers miso lunches where each part of the meal contains miso; e.g. there is a miso-based pork stew, a miso dressing for the salad, rice balls with miso dips, even miso ice cream! You can opt for a tour of the brewery after lunch, in either Japanese or English. I was the only person on the English tour, and halfway through found out the man giving the tour was the president of the company! He spoke fairly good English, and while some of the tour did sound heavily scripted, he was able to understand and respond to my questions and the tour overall was very interesting. He also had various pictures and graphs on laminated cards to give you visuals at certain points. The brewery sells lots of different miso products, including some sweet items.
Here is the brewery’s official English website: [http://ishiimiso.com/english/guide1.html](http://ishiimiso.com/english/guide1.html)
Here is the website I used to book the lunch: [https://matsumotoexp.com/activity/miso-brewery-tour](https://matsumotoexp.com/activity/miso-brewery-tour)
And here is the blog post that I found out about the lunch and tour through: [https://visitmatsumoto.com/en/history/ishii-miso-brewery/](https://visitmatsumoto.com/en/history/ishii-miso-brewery/)
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