It’s hard to find new online shops to buy beer, besides looking at breweries, but we keep trying and we found Kameya, an online retailer that uses the Rakuten store as one of their outlets for their shop. We came across it while doing a search from some Shiga Kogen limited edition beer and boom, this place had what we wanted in stock.
Kameya doesn’t have a specific region of breweries or regions of Japan that the specialise in; however, they have been very good at getting us some limited edition beers from breweries we like. Breweries that we came across include Coedo, Kiuchi Brewery, Baird Beer, Yo-Ho Brewing, Shiga Kogen, Ishikawa Shuzo, among others. There aren’t any options to select beers or breweries by region, instead you’re just given the choice of the breweries that they have in stock at any given time.
While the range of beers is good, there is one major problem with Kameya and that is that all beers are sold in pairs. If you don’t mind having two beers of each, then it isn’t a problem. Shipping is also reasonable though it’s based on the amount of cases you order, so make sure you fill up the case to the brim. Shipping to Kanto is ¥540 per case, while the outlying areas of Okinawa and Hokkaido are ¥1080 and ¥848 respectively, which we think is ok but not as good value for money as other online stores.
The ordering process is simple enough on Rakuten though their main store requires you to sign up to a membership. In terms of payment, all credit cards are accepted, as well as bank transfers, and also the much needed cash-on-delivery is present as well. It does require you though to either be able to understand Japanese or have some online translation tool to help you out.
Kameya also has their own website that has a much narrower range of craft beer than their Rakuten store too along with two bricks and mortar stores with one in Mitaka and the other in Sagamihara.
Kameya Details
Online store (Rakuten): https://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/yunyuusyu/
Online store: http://www.kameya.jp/
