Kawasaki

Can’t believe it’s our last day in Japan. It’s hard not to be sad or regret that we don’t have more time. Ended our Japan trip in the best way possible: a trip down to Yokohama for the Kirin Brewery Factory Tour!

We love beer and brewery tours in general, and Kirin has a special place in our hearts because it’s how we teach people to pronounce Kieran’s name 😅 When we get a, “What was that?!” or “Huh?,” we tell them “It’s like the Japanese beer Kirin, but spelled with an E.”

Our morning commute was a bit wild with heavy rain and major train delays! The rain was so bad they shut down the train line; we grabbed a taxi halfway through our trip. And because it’s rude to eat on public transportation, in taxis, and while walking, we scarfed down our breakfast outside the factory under an overpass.

The Yokohama Factory tour centered on their Kirin Ichiban brand (Kirin Number One), which is the only major brewery brand to use the first press wort rather than the second. It’s a fantastic deal at 500 ¥ which is around $3.5 USD for a 90 minute tour and 4 beers. The factory is immersive so they let you touch, smell, and taste barley and hops as well as the first wort and second wort pour before the alcohol is added. You can definitely tell the difference in flavor between the 1st and 2nd.

The tour was mostly in verbal Japanese but they had videos with subtitles and an extra English pamphlet card so we didn’t miss anything.

At the tasting, you get to try four different beers: the Kirin Ichiban, the Ichiban without carbonation, the Ichinan Premium, and the Kuronama (dark beer). And yes we had to get merch to bring home. When the tour was over, we visited their beer hall and tried three more beers: the Jazzy Berry sour, After Dark dark beer, and the Brau Meister. We were toasted so went home and got a big nap.

Since it was our last night and we had cash to spend, we absolutely had to get sushi one last time and hit the arcade. So we metro’d to Akihabara (again) and stopped in Kanda for an excellent locally owned conveyor restaurant. It was so high quality for a conveyor restaurant and we got our last sake pour too 🥲

Still whooped Kieran in Street Fighter II and he whooped me in Mario Kart. Also I killed it on one of claw machines and got three weird corn snacks!

We walked to the station and heard the Tokyo metro jingle one last time. Kieran was very solemn and could tell he was sad to be leaving. Comforting to know that it won’t be our last time in Japan (maybe a Japow 2026/2027 ski trip or Snowkkaido - Okinawa Honey Moon).

Sayonara Japan and Arigato Gozaimasu for the memories we will cherish with our friends and ourselves ❤️🇯🇵❤️

Food:
Sushi
Beer

Spots:
Yokohama
AkihabaraRead more