Niigata, Japan's snowy coastal prefecture, is famed for its premium sake and centuries-old brewing traditions. Here, travellers can pour their own samples at the station, ride a retro sake train and meet pioneers shaping the drink's future.

The concourse of Echigo Yuzawa Station is a dizzying crisscross of shops and commuters but a glowing display of sake bottles immediately catches my eye. Beside them, a life-size mannequin stands precariously, grinning and waving a large brown bottle triumphantly above his head. I already know where I'm going first.

I'm in Niigata, Japan's undisputed sake capital – a snowy coastal prefecture famed for its centuries-old brewing traditions. Here, sake isn't just a drink; it's a way of life. And, for me, a ticket to ride the rails.

This seemingly "merry" mannequin is the welcome to where my journey begins, in one of Japan's most remarkable tasting spots: Ponshukan, a sake museum and shop with a self-service bar offering more than 100 regional varieties. Visitors pay for tokens and a tiny ceramic cup, then face a vast wall of sake-dispensing machines. It's like something out of an amusement arcade, except every play here wins a prize – sake.

I'm joined by Professor Ryoji Ito from Niigata University, a local entrepreneurship expert and proud sake enthusiast. "This is the oldest brewery in Niigata," he tells me, pointing at a machine labelled Yoshinagawa, a brewery founded in 1548. At the press of a button, a stream of clear, chilled sake pours out. A dangerous convenience, I joke, if you love sake as much as I do.

"Kanpai [cheers]", rings out as we toast over an aged sake barrel. It's easy to forget I'm in a railway station.

Niigata residents drink more sake per capita than anywhere else in Japan. The prefecture is home to 80-plus breweries – more than any other region – and remains one of the country's top producers. Thanks to heavy snowfall, soft, mineral-rich water and a rice-growing tradition stretching back centuries, it's become a global centre for premium sake.

But Ito is just as excited about what's coming next.

Niigata is now a national zone for agricultural innovation and a hotbed for startups. "One thing is Sake AI," he says, pulling out his smartphone. "You say if you like sweet or dry, and the app picks your perfect match." A kind of Tinder for toasts.

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Sustainability is also shaping the next chapter. Ito tells me how at Uonuma, an aquaculture farm, sake lees (sake's byproduct) are repurposed to feed soft-shell turtles. Another company,

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