Four breathtaking beer gardens to visit before summer ends in Japan (or put on next year’s list)

Spanning from the north of the country to the south, these might be four of the best places in all of Japan to enjoy a cold one.

One of Japan’s favorite things to do on a hot summertime day or evening is to head to a beer garden and knock back a cold one. But as fun as Japan’s seasonal open-air drinking venues are, sometimes they don’t quite have the elegant, beautiful scenery you’d expect from a “garden,” since of lot of them are just concrete plazas on the rooftops of downtown department stores.

It’s a different story, though, with Hoshino Resorts’ Zekkei Beer Gardens, or “Beer Gardens with Perfect Views,” as the luxury hotel group also calls them. Sure, you could say that beauty, as a subjective concept, is something that can’t ever be “perfect,” but it’s pretty easy to make a case that the views at the beer gardens we’re looking at today are all top-tier.

So as August winds down, let’s take a look at this quartet of breathtaking places to toast the last days of summer, plus take a moment to remember that one of them will also be open for part of the fall.

We start at Hoshino Resorts Risonare Tomamu in Yufutsu, Hokkaido Prefecture. With its wide-open spaces, Hokkaido is Japan’s leading dairy producer, and in keeping with that reputation this Hoshino Resort has a Farm Craft Beer Garden. And yes, the cows actually are involved in the beer-making process. Hoshino has teamed up with five Hokkaido craft brewers to make special beers for the venue, one of which is Milk Hop, an IPA made with milk from the resort’s cows.

Heading south and onto Japan’s main island of Honshu, Hoshino Resorts Risonare Nasu, in the mountain retreat town of Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture, also has an agricultural theme going with its Rice Field Beer Garden.

The sight of the stalks of rice, growing tall and starting to get a tinge of golden color as the harvest season approaches, promises to provide a uniquely relaxing ambiance as you enjoy a drink in the middle of this 8,500-square-meter (91,493-square-foot) field.

In addition to local craft beers, the beer garden’s bartenders can also whip up strawberry cocktails, as the berries are Tochigi is one of Japan’s most celebrated producers of the tart/sweet berry treats.

Continuing south, we come to the Hoshino Resorts Risonare Atami in Shizuoka Prefecture.

The city of Atami has been a beachside travel destination for generations in Japan, and the Cancan Beer Garden offers sweeping views of the sea from the hotel’s rooftop. The Cancan Beer Garden gets its name not from the French cabaret dance, but because it has a wide selection of canned Shizuoka-area craft beers plus a lineup of gourmet canned foods, some of which are used in making the beer garden’s special burgers.

And finally, we go all the way south to Okinawa Prefecture’s Yaeyama Islands and Hoshino Resorts Risomare Kohamajima’s Perfect View Beer Garden on the Sea.

Yes, it really does live up to its name, as this is a beer garden where you can soak your feet in the ocean waves!

Once again, locally made craft beers and snacks made with regional ingredients are available. Oh, and they do offer draft beer too, poured by staff wearing beer backpacks, similar to the ones used by vendors at Japanese baseball games, who’ll wade out to you when you need a round.

There’s still time to visit all of these beer gardens, as Hokkaido, Tochigi, and Shizuoka ones are running until August 31, while the Perfect View Beer Garden on the Sea, thanks to Okinawa’s tropical climate means the weather will be warm enough for it to continue all the way until September 30. Both the Okinawa and Tochigi beer gardens are for resort guests only, and, the Cancan Beer Garden is vague on the issue, but the Farm Craft Beer Garden is open to day visitors as well as hotel guests.

Related: Farm Craft Beer Garden official website, Rice Field Beer Garden, Cancan Beer Garden, Perfect View Beer Garden on the Sea
Source, images: PR Times
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