JR East View Tourism Launches Two-Day Akita Oga Tour Featuring Ine to Agave and Sanaeburi Distillery

JR East View Tourism & Sales has planned a two-day, one-night tour in Oga City, Akita Prefecture, visiting the increasingly popular craft sake brewery Ine to Agave and Sanaeburi Distillery, which works on circular, sustainable alcohol production. The tour offers programs designed to let participants experience the worldview of these producers more deeply. Ine to Agave is working to connect the town of Oga to the future through craft sake. Through a special talk by representative Shuhei Okazumi and a town walk guided by Ine to Agave staff, participants can learn the stories and ideas behind each glass of sake and feel how Oga is gradually changing. Lunch will be served at MATCHAINA, an evolved town-style Chinese restaurant born from Ine to Agave’s town development project in Oga. A special menu prepared for this tour will be paired with drinks from Ine to Agave and Sanaeburi Distillery, offering a new pairing experience with casual Chinese cuisine. The tour also includes visits to the Namahage Museum and Oga Shinzan Folklore Museum, where participants can experience Oga’s distinctive Namahage culture and the regional culture created by the overlap of sake, food, and local climate. Tour overview: The course is titled “A New Journey Beginning with One Glass: Two Days Meeting the Makers and the Climate of Oga, from Drinking to Enjoying〈Ine to Agave / Sanaeburi Distillery〉.” The departure date is July 4, 2026. The tour starts at Oga Station and ends at Akita Station. The price per adult is 34,800 yen for double occupancy and 39,800 yen for single occupancy. Capacity is 20 people, with a minimum of 18 participants required. Lottery applications are accepted from May 15 at 10:00 to May 31 at 23:59, and winners will be notified by email on June 2. Because the tour includes alcoholic beverages, participants must be 20 or older. The seven highlights are: a special lecture and tasting comparison by Ine to Agave president Shuhei Okazumi; a special visit to the normally closed Ine to Agave brewery in a renovated former station building; a visit to Sanaeburi Distillery, which extracts alcohol from sake lees, a byproduct of Ine to Agave’s brewing, and creates new value through circular production; lunch at MATCHAINA, where fermented flavors and spices come together, paired with two drinks from Ine to Agave and one from Sanaeburi Distillery; a visit to Takinokashira Spring, the brewing water source for Ine to Agave; an encounter with Namahage culture at the Namahage Museum and Oga Shinzan Folklore Museum; and accommodation at Hotel Kinoshita Akita Oga Ekimae, newly opened in March 2026 with large public baths and both low- and high-temperature saunas. Ine to Agave is a craft sake brewery founded in Oga City, Akita Prefecture, in autumn 2021. Craft sake is a new category of alcoholic beverage based on sake production techniques, with additional ingredients used to create new flavors. The company sees alcohol as a form of regional media. To bring people to Oga and encourage them to enjoy the area in person, it has developed restaurants, a food processing facility, a ramen shop, a hotel, a distillery, and a snack bar within three years of its founding. Its goal is to preserve Oga for the future, starting with craft sake. JR East View Dynamic Rail Pack, a web-only individual travel product that lets customers freely combine JR rail travel and accommodation, can also be used together with this special tour and is recommended for travelers who want to spend extra time sightseeing in Akita before or after the tour.