Fermented Food Tour by Local Railway in Maebashi, Gunma

From soy sauce to miso paste, fermented food is an important part of Japanese cuisine. Many fermented foods make up the key flavors of Japanese food that we all know and love. Rich with culture and history, these traditional ingredients and dishes have continued to be made the same way over centuries. During this fermentation-focused tour, you’ll learn all about different Japanese fermented foods as you explore the Maebashi and Kiryu areas in Gunma by train. Traveling around on the local railway as transport between venues, you will travel through local cities in Gunma, exploring local fermented food businesses. Riding around between locations by rail, you can soak up the local scenery and enjoy the area’s lush countryside.

You will visit a soy sauce factory to learn everything you need to know about soy sauce, its history, and its production. Inside the original building, you will discover that they are still using barrels that are over one hundred years old, the same age as the business itself! The barrels have influenced the flavor throughout the years, and have since become an essential part of making the factory’s different soy sauce styles. With this long-running legacy, taste the difference of this special local soy sauce for yourself with a product tasting session.

After your stop at the soy sauce factory, you will visit a natto (fermented soy) business that’s run by a local family. You may have seen natto with a traditional Japanese breakfast or at the supermarket. They are stringy fermented soybeans, and with their distinct flavor and texture, they are a very divisive Japanese food! You can learn how they process regular soybeans into this sticky breakfast food, that is traditionally paired with rice (and sometimes a raw egg!) Try it for yourself as you prepare a batch of natto and wrap it using wara (straw) in a traditional technique. Enjoy supporting this local business as you learn everything about natto.