Ultimate Guide to Kitakata

In Kitakata, which has prospered from its brewing industry since ancient times, you can visit old houses designed with the distinctive Kitakata storehouse architecture and traditional soy sauce and sake breweries indispensable in Japanese cuisine. Also sample the famous local dish of Kitakata ramen.

Day 1

9:30 AM

Kitakata Station

Walk over from Kitakata Station to the Wakaki Shoten Brick Storehouse which will take about 20 minutes. You can also take a taxi from the station.

10:00 AM

Wakaki Shoten Brick Warehouse/Showa Warehouse

Visit Wakaki Shoten which is known as a venerable soy sauce brewery and then tour the stylish brick storehouse including the elaborately designed tatami room. You can also purchase homemade soy sauce and miso.

10:15 AM

Kitakata Kurazashiki Art Museum

View Japanese art ranging from the Taisho Era to the early Showa Era. Since it is a small art museum, the works are displayed in a genuine storehouse tatami room so that you can appreciate the old paintings within the environment of a traditional Kitakata setting.

11:00 AM

Yamatogawa Brewery/Northern Museum

Visit the long-established Yamatogawa Sake Brewery. Along with enjoying the panel displays of the sake brewing process, you can sample and purchase products at the sake tasting corner.

11:30 AM

Rekimichi

Enjoy the sight of shrines and old houses as you walk along the Rekimichi (a historical street) toward Kai Honke Kurazashiki.

11:40 AM

Kai Honke Kurazashiki

Visit Kai Honke Kurazashiki, an example of architecture representing the storehouse culture of Kitakata. The stately tatami room that has been called “supreme” within the storehouses of the Aizu district cannot be missed.

12:15 PM

Yamanaka Senbei Honten

Drop by the 110-year-old Yamanaka Senbei Honten which provides truly hand-grilled rice crackers. Grilled over charcoal, you can even try your hand at making the crackers.

12:30 PM

Kitakata Ramen

Have lunch at any of the over 100 shops serving Kitakata ramen within the town. You can enjoy the rich ramen flavored with special soy sauce.

13:55 PM

Kitakata Kura-no-Sato (Warehouse Village)

Valuable storehouses and wealthy farm residences were moved from the city to recreate a landscape of the past. The storehouse culture and history of Kitakata are introduced in an easy-to-understand manner.

14:40 PM

Kitami Hachirobei

Visit Kitami Hachirobei Shoten, the venerable lacquerware shop. Along with the shopping, you can view lacquerware in the 2nd floor exhibition room. At Nuri-no-Sato, the adjacent café, you can have coffee and cake on examples of that lacquerware.

15:22 PM

Kinomoto Lacquerwares and Crafts

Handmade wares of the Aizu-Kitakata district are sold. The Kiri-no-ko dolls are popular as chips of Aizu paulownia wood are kneaded into clay and then hand-molded. In the 2nd-floor Kiri-no-ko Doll Museum, you can view a display of these dolls.

15:42 PM

Okuya Peanut Factory

Not only specializing in peanuts, other candies made from beans are sold in great variety. The peanut soft-serve ice cream made from peanuts grown on contract farms is very popular.

9:30 AM

Kitakata Station

Walk over from Kitakata Station to the Wakaki Shoten Brick Storehouse which will take about 20 minutes. You can also take a taxi from the station.