Friends who went to Asakusa for drinking called me and tried hard to make me go to join them. But, I turned down their invitation. It was thought that I was to drink no alcohol that day.
However, I finally went out for dinking to Fussa, the next town.
The izakaya we visited was formerly called "Aguraya" and is now called "Lucky Sakaba." All the sake this izakaya carries are those with the brand names of "Kasen" or "Tamura," which are from Tamura Syuzoujou, a local sake brewery in Fussa City.
The woman who first became interested in going to this Lucky Sakaba was Employee A (she calls herself by this name in her blog) working for Ozawa Syuzou. "Is it all right for an employee who is working for Ozawa Syuzou to benefit Tamura Syuzoujou?" mischievously I asked her. "It is important to know what sake our competitor is making" was her reply. Well, it seemed to make sense.
After being seated at the counter, we first ordered "Kasen Tokubetsu Honjozo Nama" (嘉泉特別本醸造生), and fresh young ginger sticks and some skewers of yakitori to be paired. It is quite a refreshing experience to drink summer nama sake while gnawing on a ginger stick.
After the nama sake, we ordered Tamura (田むら). There are two types of Tamura from Tamura Syuzoujou. The difference is the rice to be used. This time, we ordered the Tamura made from Yamasake No.4 rice (山酒4号). This sake looked a bit cloudy and I believe ordinary Tamura is not cloudy. So, I wondered if this was a special version of Tamura, and asked a waiter why the sake was cloudy. According to his explanation, the glass that was quite chilled, and the chilled glass made the sake look cloudy. But actually, the sake was obviously cloudy. Anyway, it was good sake.
Then, we had Kiwametsuke Karakuchi (極め付け辛口). It was apparently regular sake. Low-priced sake from this brewery is also nice. A rich and complex taste often found in low-priced sake is difficult to find in high-end ginjo sake. Lately, I often have experiences in which I really think regular sake is better than ginjo sake.
When we drank Honjozo Maboroshi-no-sake (本醸造幻の酒), I felt I was quite drunken. So, we quitted drinking and went home.
This Lucky Sakaba seems to offer skewered foods such as yakitori as main selling menus, and their foods and sake are reasonably priced and nice. For example, 300-ml bottle of Kasen Honjozo Nama was 900 yen.
Finally, at the end of this post, I present the movie of the Tamura Syuzoujou. This movie was taken in October of 2009.
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