Tokyo Private Sake Tasting Tour: A Tailored Shinjuku Experience with a Local Guide
3.8
12 Ratings
Shinjuku City

Experience a private sake tasting tour in Tokyo’s vibrant Shinjuku district. Explore with a local guide, sample different varieties of sake, and learn about the different ways to enjoy this traditional Japanese rice wine.

Duration: 3 hours
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • Shinjuku Golden Gai - Join a sake-loving host in Shinjuku and taste your way around some of Tokyo’s favorite sake bars
    IMPORTANT: As this is a private and personalized experience, the places you visit may differ from those listed and these will be chosen by your host based on your interests and preferences.
  • Sake Bar Otonari - Visit three…
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What's Included
  • 3 hours walking tour, exploring highlights and hidden gems
  • 6 sake samples and one accompanying dish to share at each bar
  • Hotel meet-up (available on request for central location)
  • Private and personalized walking tour with a passionate local
What's Not Included
  • Additional Food and Drinks
  • Transportation (primarily a walking experience however public transport may be used)
  • Tickets to any attractions
  • Gratuities (optional)
Additional Information

Join one of our friendly guides on a journey through Shinjuku as you taste various versions of Japanese rice wine, commonly referred to as sake! Choose to experience this either in a cozy izakaya (a traditional Japanese bar, which translates to ‘stay in sake shop’) or a standing bar (known as a tachinomiya) that accommodates only 10 people at a time….

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Location
Shinjuku Tourist Information Center
(The host will be waiting by the main door, the tourist center is located close to JR Shinjuku Station South East Exit) After booking, you can adjust the meeting point to fit your preferences with the help of our Experience Planners.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
3.8
(12 Ratings)
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Tamika_n
Oct 4, 2023
Fun - 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.
Review provided by Viator
Richard_t
Aug 4, 2023
Great guide, tons of fun - Hiroto did a great job showing me around Shibuya and lined up two unique spots to taste local beers and plenty of sake.
Review provided by Viator
Brian_d
Mar 3, 2023
Perfect start to my trip in Japan! - 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.
Review provided by Viator
Arlene_b
Jan 22, 2020
Great Personalized Sake Tour - 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.
Review provided by Viator
Jenblair25
Dec 7, 2019
Sake Tasting Tour - 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!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Mack_w
Jun 2, 2024
Saito, our guide, was an... - Saito, our guide, was an excellent conversationalist and really helped us enjoy our evening. Even though it was only myself, my partner, and Saito, it still felt very full of conversation. However, it wasn't the sake tour experience that I was hoping for.
Review provided by Viator
Itrac
Jan 6, 2020
Super Fun - But Nothing Learned About Sake - While this was definitely a bang for our buck (lots of sake!), I wish we could have learned more about sake. Our tour guide started the tour with "I don't know anything about sake. I don't drink it much." Great...? I was glad that we went still, we went to a lot of cool places that we wouldn't have otherwise known about, but it really just felt like a really expensive walking "open bar" as opposed to learning about sake & culture, which is what I thought the price would have covered
Review provided by Viator
Jane_r
Apr 19, 2023
Not worth it - Hello, This tour was extremely problematic. First of all Viator should not offer a sake tour before 5:30. I signed up for a late afternoon tour and found out 30 min before the tour that almost nothing was open. Then our guide, Marc, had basically no knowledge of sake. He brought us to a cute bar which had quite a bit of sake and we were able to try several types but were not given any information at all. We then went to a few other bars/restaurants for bites. The food and atmosphere was fun but it was more of a food tour. Not a sake tour! Do not book hoping to learn anything!
Review provided by Viator
John_m
Feb 25, 2024
Don't waste your money! - The guide, Steven Tawanda, was very personable and tried to please. He did not know anything about sake. We were supposed to go to a "stand up sake bar" to learn something about sake. Instead, we were taken to an all-you-can-drink sake place, full of young people getting wasted. And you know what you are served at an all-you-can-drink place? Cheap swill. We've had enough decent sake to know the difference. No one explained anything about the sake we were tasting. Stephen could only tell us where it was from if we asked him to read the bottle. I tried twelve sake (a SIP) and there were only two that were drinkable--and they weren't great. A HUGE disappointment and a total waste of money.
Review provided by Viator
James_s
Feb 19, 2024
Experience was not... - Experience was not planned out at all and every location that was offered it was not confirmed that we would get in. Highly recommend booking multiple days in advance.
Review provided by Viator
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