Yamagata Sake Museum and Yukemuri Bar Tsumami

Museum and Bar in One!

The Yamagata Sake Museum features high-quality Nihonshu (Japanese alcohol) from Yamagata and it also has a bar and restaurant, called the Yukemuri Bar Tsumami. Visitors can drink and learn at the same time! However, the restaurant is only open from 5:00pm- 10:00pm, but the bar is open from 11:00am-10:00pm. MUSEUM: It’s very small. Don’t expect to do a lot in here, except drink and look at the visual-aids about Nihonshu or buy some omiyage. You can have a free shot of Nihonshu as long as you have ‘a ticket,’ which you can get at the Zao bus station. Some hotels also have it, so just ask if it’s available. Once ticket, is only for ONE PERSON and you could only use it ONCE. BAR & RESTAURANT: Almost half of the area is allotted for the bar and restaurant. We went here for dinner and at first we were the only ones there. After a couple of minutes, few people arrived, but it wasn’t crowded. The food was nice, but some of them were a little bit salty. However, it’s a perfect combination with Nihonshu. If you don’t fancy that drink, they also serve juice, soda, beer, wine, and different kinds of cocktails. However, a lot of their drinks were SOLD OUT. SERVICE: They have a foreign staff that could speak very good Japanese. We didn’t talk to him in English, so we don’t know if he could speak it very well. VERDICT: If you are staying in Zao, especially close to the bus station (it’s only a 10 min walk from it), I highly recommend going here. The ambiance is very chill, plus you can try a lot of Nihonshu!