Michi-no-Eki Namie

Suzuki Shuzoten once called itself the sake brewery closest to the sea in Japan. The 2011 tsunami took its buildings, and it carried on brewing Iwaki Kotobuki in exile in Yamagata. At Michi-no-Eki Namie it brews in Namie again, for the first time in about ten years. In the Nariwaikan hall you can see how the sake is made, taste a flight and buy freshly brewed bottles.

The main building does the everyday work. The food court serves Namie yakisoba, made with thick noodles, and seafood bowls with local fish, and the Inaho counter stuffs the yakisoba into bread rolls. Obori Soma ware, the Edo-period pottery with the running-horse design, fills one corner with pieces from nine kilns, and you can book a pottery session. There is also a Muji shop, the first in any roadside station.

Namie is on Route 6, about 10 minutes from Namie IC on the Joban Expressway and roughly 15 minutes on foot from Namie station. The station is closed on the last Wednesday of each month. The station opened as part of the town's return, so it doubles as a good place to ask what else in Namie is open.