Published on Oct, 2023

Our party had a great evening. Ian took us to a new sake bar. We had a lot of food and sake. He also showed us around Golden Gai for a bit and recommended some places for us to grab drinks at while we are in Tokyo. He showed us some other spots in Shinjuku and gave us some history. 3-hours is a short time. Next time we will book a longer tour.

Published on Aug, 2023

Hiroto did a great job showing me around Shibuya and lined up two unique spots to taste local beers and plenty of sake.

Published on Mar, 2023

Our guide was knowledgeable about places to go off the beaten path and flexible. We were able to try a large variety of sake as well as try a number of different Japanese foods and snacks. He met us on time and left us off in the perfect spot to continue our night. Overall great experience.

Published on Jan, 2020

We highly recommend this tour. Sami took us to several locations for sake tasting which always included some type of food to go with it. And the final spot allowed you to taste a huge variety with as much as you wanted! Sami was a font of info and provided us with lots of specifics about sake and many other things about Tokyo. At our request she even took us to the Hachiko statue which thrilled our daughter. All in all a really great experience.

Published on Dec, 2019

We enjoyed Sami, our tour guide for the City Unscripted Sake Tasting Tour, immensely. She was new to guiding tourists, but you certainly would not have known it. She took us to four local bars to experience the sake and local pub food. For anyone planning to visit Tokyo, this is a tour that we highly recommend. It gives you a great insider’s perspective of the food and sake scene – but you must be willing to be adventurous with your food. Some of the food that we tried is not for the faint of heart! Our first stop was at a neighborhood sake bar that frowned upon tourists, but since we were with Sami, we were welcomed. I tried to take a photo, but that is considered very rude and unacceptable – they made sure that I was brought up to speed about the rules quite quickly. Everything was in Japanese, so we are not even sure what the name of this bar was. We liked that there was no seating. Everyone just stood around small tables eating and drinking. We tried both Junmai-shu and Honjozo-shu sakes, both cold sakes. These sakes were served in a chilled glass within a pine box. It is customary to overpour the glass so that it spills into the box – that spilled sake is for drinking as well. In addition, we sampled motsunabe (a tripe stew prepared with a base of soy sauce, garlic, chili pepper or miso, topped with cabbage and chives); chicken yakatori (grilled chicken skewers covered with tare, a sweet soy sauce and mirin mix); tsukune (Japanese chicken meat balls on a skewer, coated with sweet sauce); and fried tofu in a miso glaze. Our next stop was just down the alley, at a little local joint where we could watch the cooking. They were a little more accepting of tourists and we snapped a few photos. In addition to both a cold sake and a hot sake, we sat on a little picnic table and sampled another array of interesting foods including motsunabe (tripe stew garnished with konjac and tofu); a beautiful tuna tartare ball served with chives and a perilla leaf; hard boiled quail eggs on a skewer; shiro (pig colon seasoned with salt and citrus soy sauce served on a skewer); grilled tan (pork tongue served on a yakatori skewer); and a breaded fish cake. Here, Sami presented me with a beautiful artisanal sake cup for an early birthday present – what a surprise! Next up was a sake bar specializing in taruzake or cask sake. The sake is stored in a cedar cask to improve the flavor – and it really was quite good. These glasses were served in a natural pine box which added additional flavor as well. Sami continued to order too much food, but she was committed to making sure that we truly got a taste of Japan. At this bar, we sampled kamaboko (a cured, processed seafood product created by forming pureed deboned white fish into loaves, then steaming them until they are firm); motsunabe (tripe stew served with carrots, onions, and chives); a sampling of nigiri sushi including ika (squid), hotate (scallops), and maguro (bluefin tuna); fried saury (Pacific mackerel pike); and korokke (Japanese-style ham and cheese croquettes). We could absolutely not eat any more food at this stage, a fact that seemed to make Sami a bit sad. However, we were able to stop at one more sake bar to try nigori sake (unfiltered milky sake) and a Sho Chiku Bai Shirakabegura brut sparkling sake. What a fabulous end to a truly incredible three-hour tour!