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Jan 10, 2011

99 bottles of sake on the wall

I'm probably the millionth blogger to post this picture and this title, but so be it. It is what it is: 130 varieties of sake in little dispensers, on the wall. This is Ponshukan, a sake shop tucked deep in the back corner of a market in Echigo Yuzawa train station in Niigata. It's not especially well signposted; I never would have known it was there if a friend hadn't told us it was a must-see. For 500 yen, you get five tokens and a little ceramic ochoko or two to drink from. Each token gets you one choko-full of any of the sakes. Four that we tried were smooth and delicious; one tasted kind of fishy. If we'd had a little more time at the train station, I would have tried the sake onsen next door, too. You're not supposed to drink before you bathe, but I guess it's okay to bathe in what you drink. Drink or soak in sake: either one's a nice way to relax before a 90-minute shinkansen ride back to Tokyo.

1 comment:

Sarahf said...

Looks like a fun way to spend time waiting at a train station.

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