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Japan wide listings

13 November 2009
Sandaya Kihachiro beer overlooking Kobe Port Tower

Sandaya Kihachiro beer overlooking Kobe Port Tower

The Japan wide listings are a work in progress. I’ve not travelled everywhere in Japan so I am relying on beer lovers like yourself to get in touch and let me know of bars with craft beer that I don’t have listed.

Over the next few months I’ll be trying to expand the listings by looking for bars in places not covered and to include breweries with bars on premises.

This page covers the whole of Japan excluding the bars covered in the Tokyo and Yokohama and Osaka listings. It includes only bars which have craft beer or, at the very least, Belgian beer – it’s not meant to be a complete listing of gaijin bars!

For more ideas/options read Finding good beer in Japan.

(NS) = Smoke-free bar.
(WIFI) = Free WIFI.

Japan Beer Map

Japan Beer Map

Okinawa (not shown on map):

  • I’s Public Ale House, Chatan: Website, Google Map
  • Helios: Brewery in Okinawa – main website, beer website. They have a bar in Naha (Website, GR Navi, Google Map). Helios is the only Japanese brewery I have contacted that refused to allow me to feature the brewery on Beer in Japan – every other brewery has been happy to do talk about their beer and brewery if they’ve had the time. Given that they open their Sake distillery to the public and are happy to talk about sake, I can’t help but wonder why they want to hide their beer brewery.

Amami Island (not shown on map):

  • Wachi and Bar Gecko’s, Amami City: Website, Google Street View (opposite Urban Box, 2nd floor). Wachi has a branch in Kyoto also.

Sapporo:

Akita:

Morioka:

Sendai:

Hiroshima:

Fukuoka:

See this page for more on Fukuoka. Some of the info may be a little inaccurate/out of date – I’m told Bravo! sells imported beers from Nagano Trading, for example – but it’s a good blog post.

Kagoshima:

Detail for Kansai and Chubu

Central area - detail

Central area - detail

Kobe:

  • Sapporo: English website and coupon, Google Map. There are other branches in Kobe but they don’t brew on premises – see the New Munchen Japanese website for info.
  • Cafe de Brugge: Website seems broken, Google Map, Equiv listing
  • Kobe Sandaya 三田屋, #13 on the 3rd floor of the Mosaic shopping center that overlooks Kobe port. Google maps link here. It serves Sandaya’s own Kihachiro beer on draught - and it’s pretty good beer. As well as being able to drink inside the restaurant, there’s a take-away window for beer so you can drink outside on the stepped decking overlooking the bay – very nice. I’ve never eaten inside the restaurant – it’s a steakhouse. Kobe Sandaya has other places in Kobe – I assume they all have the same beer.

Nishinomiya:

Kyoto:

Nagoya:

  • Craft Beer Keg, Nagoya: Website, Google Map – newly opened in September 2009. Photos here. I visited here when I was in Nagoya – 10-12 taps, all with Japanese craft beer. Around 800 yen for 9oz, 1200 yen for 14oz. Definitely the bar to visit for craft beer in Nagoya.
  • Don Juan: Website, Google Map. One of the few places open in the afternoons at weekends. Only one craft beer tap – when I was there it was Racer 5. A pint was 950 yen but had a huge 3cm+ head. Second pint I asked for a small head and was told I would have to pay 100 yen more because the head was priced into the 950 yen. I appreciated the honesty and at 1050 yen for a properly poured pint – just 1cm of head – it wasn’t a bad price. Good food but be prepared to wait. Nice place to relax on a Sunday afternoon with a book, a pint, and some good food.
  • Moku Moku. On the 13th floor at Nagoya Station. Serves beer and food made by the Moku Moku farm in Mie-ken. You can only drink the beer if you eat at the buffet restaurant (around 2000 yen for 90 minutes – beer is extra). I wanted to try this place but they wouldn’t let us reserve a table by phone and said we would need to wait up to an hour if we arrived at 1pm. We were told that if we arrived after 3pm we could probably get in immediately – but they neglected to tell us they close at 4-5pm and we arrived just after 4pm. Even if we’d arrived at 3pm, we would have had to pay for a 90 minute buffet to drink the beer when there wasn’t 90 minutes left. I can’t understand why places close for an hour midday, especially somewhere that insists you pay for a 90 minute buffet. An option if you’re at Nagoya station anyway and can match with the weird hours and don’t mind waiting.
  • London Pub Towser: Website, Google Map – I’ve yet to visit here but I have been told there’s a 550yen per person charge here.
  • Seijo Iishi: Website. Now that Okadaya is gone (they’ve opened Keg instead), this is your best choice for buying takeaway craft beers. The range is very limited but it’s better than nothing. Nagoya station, just outside the Hirokoji side exit. There are a few other locations in Nagoya also – search for 名古屋 on this page.

Okazaki City (not shown on map):

  • Zig Zag (WIFI): Website (English!), Google Map. About 30 minutes south-east of Nagoya by express, 5 minutes walk from Okazaki JR station. Tap beers are the big names - Sapporo, Guinness, Hoegaarden White, Leffe Brune, and Bellevue Kriek or Bass Pale Ale (Kriek is definitely the better of those two) – but there’s a range of Japanese craft beer in bottles from the likes of Ginga Kogen, Nagahama, Kinshachi, Baird, and Isekadoya. There are also a number of Belgian bottles. No cover charge, free WIFI, bilingual staff, and the counter area is no-smoking. Open only Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, from 5pm.

Numazu (not shown on map):

  • Taproom (NS): Website contains map and directions.

For listings in Osaka, click here. For listings in Tokyo and Yokohama, click here.

Outside the areas listed above? Try Finding good beer in Japan for pointers.

Note: Google Maps often offers discount coupons.

Please do get in touch if you know any bars which can be added to these listings.

The page is not meant to list every bar in Japan. Rowdy gaijin bars, meat markets, bars with rude staff, bars which have nothing more than Kirin + Guinness, etc are not included here. No bars have paid or offered any incentives to be included on this list.

Japan wide listings removed from BIJ

  • I’ve been told Okadaya (store) in Nagoya no longer has craft beers. Instead they are selling beer online and through Craft Beer Keg, which they manage (see Nagoya listings above). Website, Google Map for Okadaya.