Kizakura Kappa Country

If Fushimizu Brewery is the place for factory tours, Kappa Country is the place to drink, eat, and immerse yourself in culture. It is a facility converted from the former main brewery in Fushimi, and it includes a 160-seat restaurant, an attached beer brewery and sake brewery, a kappa museum, and a shop.

Since the 1950s, Kizakura has used kappa as its mascot, and it became famous nationwide for kappa commercials drawn by well-known illustrators such as Shimizu Kon and Kojima Ko. Since kappa are water spirits, they are a perfect fit for the brewery in Fushimi, a town known for its famous water. The museum displays a wide range of historical commercial footage and folklore materials about kappa, and admission is free.

The Kyoto Beer tasting set is 700 yen for three 120 ml pours. In addition to the standard Kölsch, Alt, and Kura no Kaori, you can drink draft versions of the Devil's Beer series, including Red Session IPA and American Black Ale. There is also a sake tasting set with nine varieties for 1,950 yen, so you can hop between sake and beer from the same brewery.

The killer menu item here is the sake lees ramen. The rich broth blends Fushimi water, chicken stock, and plenty of sake lees, topped with charcoal-grilled chashu and Kyoto leeks. It started as a seasonal item, but became so popular that it was promoted to a year-round menu item for 890 yen. Sake lees-marinated fried chicken and cream cheese marinated in sake lees also go well with beer.

The building is great too. The dramatic timber framework of the former brewery remains intact, and the high ceiling creates an open feel. In the sake brewery, which has operated since 1933, Nanbu toji brewers work on the mash in winter, and limited-release sake shipped directly from the brewery can only be drunk here. It is about a 7- to 8-minute walk from Keihan Chushojima Station, and is also included in the walking route along Fushimi's brewery street.