Guests spending the night at Kurabito Stay areable to enjoy Saku sake whenever they want.
The brewery also holds a sake-tasting seminar.

TAZAWA Marika runs Kurabito Stay.
She hopes that her work as an independent
female entrepreneur will inspire other women in
outlying parts of Japan.

EXPERIENCE SAKE BREWING
AT THE WORLD’S FIRST

SAKE -BREWERY
HOTEL
Japan’s border control measures against COVID -19 have ended.
As inbound tourism recovers, a sake-brewery hotel in the city of Saku in
Nagano Prefecture is garnering attention. We delve into a new kind of tourism
that emphasizes firsthand experiences and interaction with local residents.
In Japan, visitors can enjoy
the country’s unique culture andabundant natural surroundings
without worrying about public
safety or access to transport. Japanwas ranked number one out of 117
countries by the World Economic
Forum for the first time in the 2021
Travel & Tourism Development

Index, and on April 29 of this year,
ended its border control measuresagainst COVID-19.
If you’re planning a trip toJapan, you should definitely visit
the outlying regions; there arealluring places throughout thecountry featuring beautiful nature,rich history, and unique cultural

Saku

heritage. One such place is Saku,
a city in Nagano Prefecture that ishome to Kurabito Stay, the world’s
first sake-brewery hotel whereguests—who come from all over
the world—can try their handat making sake while staying at a
traditional brewing facility.
TAZAWA Marika, who wasborn in the prefecture, runs
Kurabito Stay. After working
for a travel agency and a wine
trading company elsewhere, shereturned to her home prefecture

to work in local government
as a quasi-civil servant for thenationalgovernment’s
local
vitalization cooperative program.
Meanwhile, she studied tourism
management at a destination
marketing organization (DMO)
leadership school sponsored by theprefectural government.
Tazawa had first learned about
the problems of mass tourism
when working as a company
employee. The competition to sell
travel packages at low prices wasputting financial and other strains
on certain destinations, resulting
in lower tourist satisfaction.
Wanting to put an end to thatvicious cycle, Tazawa looked to theEuropean towns she had traveled
to so many times since her student
days. She said, “People in Europe’sregional cities are proud of theirhometowns and their history.
That’s why they’re very lively andnot selling themselves short.”
Inspired by wine tourism, athriving business in Europe, sheenvisioned creating a tourist area
based on sake. “Sake is unique toour country. After visiting over
1,000 tourist destinations in 50
countries around the world, I wassure that making sake in a historic
brewery would be a one-of-a-kindexperience that would inspire therest of the world,” she said. Thereare 13 sake breweries in Saku, allwith a long history. Tazawa took
over an old building attached to
one such brewery that had formerlyserved as sleeping quarters forbrewers, and converted it into ahotel, launching operations inMarch 2020.
Hotel guests at Kurabito Stay canenter the operating brewery andjoin in the actual process of making
sake for sale. Priced at 55,000 yen
for one night, it’s not on the cheapside, but many people come for theunique experience. Among them
are numerous repeat customers.
Simultaneous interpretation in
English is available—the hotel
thus has a good reputation amonginternational travelers, with 70%of the guests currently comingfrom abroad.
“We focus on attracting one

Left: Guests can mingle around the large round table on the first floor of Kurabito Stay. Guestrooms
are on the second floor.
Right: Formerly serving as brewers’ accommodation attached to a venerable sake brewery thatremained in business for more than 330 years, Kurabito Stay has been renovated into a hotel.

A brewer offers instruction to a guest in
making sake using methods handed down fromthe Edo Period (early 17th century to mid19th century). Depending on the season,
activities include such processes as washing
rice, making the yeast mash, and so on.

person who will stay for 100 hours,
rather than 100 people who will stayfor an hour each,” said Tazawa. The
hotel serves breakfast (and dinneris included in some plans), but forother meals, guests receive a map of
the neighborhood so they can visit
nearby establishments on their own,thus helping the entire community.
“It makes me happy to hear a guestsay that this is a nice town.”
In the future, she plans to offer
cycling tours to allow visitors toenjoy even more of Saku’s scenery,
as well as an academic course toteach them about sake brewing
in depth. Indicating her desire
to expand the business, she said,“There are other sake-producing
regions in Japan with long histories
like Saku’s. I’d like to be involved inregional revitalization centered on
breweries in other communities.”
When you come to Japan, why
not spend more time in one place
to experience a facet of the culturethat has been nurtured and passed
down over generations?