This is what the Nihonsakari brewery opening looked like around lunchtime on Saturday, February 25. This is my third straight week covering events as Shachomi!
So, let me tell you all about what I experienced that day!
From Route 43 toward Yomisuji. You can kind of tell there are a lot of people, right?
The entrance is actually the front entrance of Nihonsakari’s head office. As you can see, there was a huge line.
This line.
It stretched alllll the way down Yomisuji
And alllll the way along Sakagura-dori too
How long was the line?
In terms of distance, it was a line of about 300 meters.
We’ve photographed all kinds of lines at Nishitsu before, but this may have been the longest in Nishitsu reporting history.
This line was for the paid tasting reception (1,500 yen). Once you finished checking in…
You got a cute little choko glass with the Nihonsakari logo, some palate-cleansing water, and a wristband that let you taste up to five cups.
As I walked through the factory, which had a wonderfully Showa-retro feel…
There was this super photogenic Nihonsakari neon sign!
This mirror and Nihonsakari neon sign had such a deep retro charm too.
Continuing farther inside…
Whoa!
It was packed and buzzing!
That sake in the front is the really tasty one with amazing value, isn’t it?!
And then,
the food, which everyone’s curious about,
featured
shops from Nishinomiya
so it had
a super local feel～
There was a food truck from “COFFEE HOUSE FIELD,” a Nishinomiya coffee specialty shop along Route 43,
FamilyMart was selling all oden items for 100 yen each, I think it was a nearby store
and Rengakan’s Hanasakari head chef was selling special kasujiru soup.
Wellness Hanshin, which runs concession stands at Hanshin Koshien Stadium, was selling foods that looked perfect with sake,
and I had a jumbo yakitori skewer～
It really was jumbo!
Manpuku, the takoyaki shop from Hanshin Nishinomiya’s Chuo Shotengai shopping street, was there too,
and so was “Kakinoha Sushi Honpo Tanaka,” located inside Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi Station. It sold out the fastest.
Shachomi spotted something interesting.
A bottle-can stacking game??
You could win a prize based on how many you stacked in 15 seconds!
I wanted the Nihonsakari Special Set. But I modestly aimed for the Onikoroshi keychain.
Shachomi’s challenge
Yes! I can do this!!!
Well… you know…
Even if you lost, you got one raffle ticket. Honestly, this Nihonsakari raffle ticket might have been what I wanted most.
First prize in the raffle was a tasting comparison set! Six 720 ml bottles!!!!!
Now I really wanted to aim for the gold one!!
But even if you didn’t win, you still got two bottles of Onikoroshi.
There was a stage in the back, where the sake-tasting comedy duo “Nihonshu” was really getting the crowd excited～
There were two kinds of lucky bags, with 200 limited-edition items on sale. A warm sake bottle?
This Nihonsakari item! It’s the industry’s first warm sake bottle can. Sake made exclusively for hot vending sales. Where can you buy this?
Now then, time for the long-awaited tasting!
A shot of the crowd being way too big.
The end of the paid tasting line is somewhere in this photo. Could you find it?
There were 10 varieties, and the lines were probably split into about three sections. The liqueur section was pretty open, but I think I waited around 20 minutes to reach the middle area with all the different kinds!
They pour it for you like this! Also, isn’t that spout thing amazing? I want one.
