My wife and I left our house early this morning.

First on the list was the kama matsuri or pottery festival featuring local pottery from Naruto.

There was a lot of different styles of pottery. There were huge pieces and small pieces and everything in between.






We ended up buying a nice bowl





and some containers for kitchen utensils.






From there it was down the street to the matsu ura shu zo sake factory.






We got there early (it still wasn’t 10 AM, the scheduled starting time) so we took a quick trip to the nearby soy sauce factory. The products from this factory are really delicious and the staff are really friendly.












We picked up some of their miso. It’s so good with a lot of different foods. Then it was back to the sake factory.







Events including making mochi, or pounded glutinous rice,







a sake tasting contest (I only was able to correctly match one sake out of five) and a free tasting of the company’s various products.







By chance we also picked up a huge bunch of fresh basil leaves that were available to everyone. We took these home and made pesto and had some with dinner.







When leaving, we received a small bottle of sudachi shu, or sake flavoured with sudachi, a local citrus fruit similar to a lime, and 2 drinking glasses.







The people at all these events were helpful and friendly. If you’re in town next time their on, please come and join in.