Fukuyama Kurozu Tsubobatake

Kurozu is black rice vinegar, and Fukuyama has been making it the same way since around 1800: steamed rice, koji and spring water are sealed into earthenware jars, the jars are set outdoors, and nothing else is done to them for one to three years. No tanks, no temperature control, no stirring — the fermentation runs on sunlight and the local climate, which is why Fukuyama, sheltered on Kinko Bay and facing Sakurajima, is where it works.

What you come for is the sight of the jars. Thousands of black amphorae stand in rows across an open hillside above the sea, an arrangement called a tsubobatake, a jar field. Sakamoto Jozo's information centre sits among them, is free, and takes about forty minutes with an explanation of what is happening inside. There is a restaurant doing kurozu cooking with the bay and the volcano in front of it.