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My trio to Japan April 2025

For the photo gallery, click here

Ten years ago, I had the pleasure of discovering Japan during two Business trips.
I had very fond memories, from a cultural as well as well as from the whisky side.
For a special occasion, we decided, as a family, to go to Japan for our “summer vacations”. As Japan is a rather warm and humid country, April is a very good month from a climatic perspective and it is the period of the sherry blossom.

Considering the circumstances of the trip, the whisky side is more limited than my other whisky reports.

Probably due to the  Universal Exposition at Osaka starting on the week end of our Eastern vacations, finding  a flight to Tokyo was not straightforward, nor accommodations in our first location, Kyoto. Since 2015, a few things have changed and I am very grateful to Boris for his “Ultra List” to facilitate the travel such as registering online before the travel to the immigration service or apps like Klook for booking train tickets.

A few months before our journey, our booking with Lufthansa was fair from being relaxing, with our initial flight to Frankfurt being cancelled with no alternatives and two days later, a new flight  to Frankfurt was added, but with a landing time AFTER the take off time for the flight to Tokyo. Finally, two weeks before our trip, I could not find any flights associated to our booking, due to an operator error, as we were apparently booked on two flights to Tokyo on the same day.

With exception of very strong turbulences in Frankfurt, the flights went rather smoothly.
After buying the necessary IC card (SUICA), Klook gave me some troubles, as the app kept changing the travel date during the process. The JR pass is markedly more expensive than in the past and buying individual tickets for each fare was the best value solution.

 

Kyoto was for over 1000 years the capital, before Edo (now Tokyo) became the new capital. To visit the maximum of sites of cultural interest, we booked with Getyourguide the 1-Day UNESCO tour. A very nice, but intense day trip. The following days were more relaxed and I managed to find some time to visit the Whisky Spot Chalim’s toybox, a whisky bar with several hundred’s whisky bottles, with a good mix of Japanese and Scotch single malts. It is centrally located, close to the castle. I started with a Highland Park Single Cask for Modern Malt Whisky Market 2022, a lovely rich Highland Park, on honey and nice round fruity flavours. The  Springbank 21 YO for Malt House was an excellent whisky, rather smoky and peaty, on rancio and meaty flavours. The Yuza distillery Single Cask was a light, smooth and floral whisky, rather alcoholic and finally, the Akkeshi single cask for Kimura was a very good peated Japanese whisky distilled on Hokkaido, with a rich maritime peat smoke and thick dried fruits. Very good.

My selection of whiskies at Whisky Spot Chalim’s toybox in Kyoto

On my way from Kyoto to Himeji, I stopped at the Yamazaki distillery. Due to the Osaka exposition, all tours for the distillery were booked months in advance, but thanks to the help of Misako, I could get a private tour to the distillery with Mr Nakamura. Mr Nakamura is now retired from the distillery after having spent 50 years working at the distillery and completed a master of brewing and distilling at the Heriot-Watt Institute in Edinburgh. At Yamazaki, not only the Yamazaki single malt is produced there, but all the vatting for Suntory whiskies. All the single malts and the Hibiki are bottled on the site, while the other blends are sent close to Chita distillery for bottling. The Yamazaki 12 is made from principally from ex-bourbon casks, with some ex-wine and ex-Mizunara casks. The 18 Y0 is made mainly from ex-sherry casks (circa 80%), while the 25 YO is mainly ex-Mizunara casks.

The former malting floors at the Yamazaki distillery


The Mizunara oak is coming from the island of Hokkaido and they manufacture between 100 and 200 casks per year. Suntory has their own cooperage and since last year, they have reopened malting on site. At Yamazaki, they have two mash tun, a stainless one and a wooden one. The wort coming from the stainless steel one is charged into the stainless steel washbacks, while the produce from the wooden one is moved into wooden washbacks. Brewer and distiller’s yeast are used for the 72h fermentation. Then, distillation takes place to 6 different sets of stills, allowing the production of a light and heavy style of spirits. The light style is mainly filled in ex-bourbon casks, while the heavy style is filled in ex-sherry or Mizunara casks. During a short period of the year, they are using peated malt, distilled in the heavy style and filled in sherry or Mizunara cask. After my tour, I could taste the components of the Yamazaki 12 YO, as well as the 12 YO neat and as Highball. I had a very good time at the distillery and thank you Mr Nakamura for your time and patience. Before leaving, I stopped at the bar to taste the distillery exclusive, a Yamazaki sherry cask with peat malt. A very good, rich, complex and fruity Yamazaki. I really liked it. Unfortunately, it is limited to 1 bottle per person and the bottles are only 18 cl in size.

In the evening, at Himeji, I could take finally my first hot spring bath, which is always well appreciated after walking at least 8 h per day. In the next morning, we ensured to be at the opening of the gate at the Himeji castle, which was a wise decision. During this period of the year, schools are organizing their excursions and shortly after we left the main keep, a flood of tourist and students was coming. I had the pleasure to have lunch with Johan Leutwiler, the first foreign katana-kaji (sword maker) in the history of Japan (for more details, you can read this article: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/03/24/japan/swiss-swordsmith-hiroshima/). Our next trip was to Kanazawa, but it proved to be rather challenging, as we had not booked in advance and all speed trains (Shinkansen) were booked until late in the evening, so we had two regional trains, before taking a Shinkansen for the last leg.

Using Klook up to Kyoto was straightforward, as the app allows you to reserve train 10 min before the departure and you receive a QR code allowing you to go through the gate and this operated by JR Eastern Railways. Kanazawa is part of the JR Western Railways and Klook give you a QR code that needs to be read on a ticketing machine to issues your tickets (a set of 2 per journey) . A more cumbersome and time-consuming process.

Lighthouse kanazawa bar, with many other interesting bottles hidden behind the curtains

Kyoto is considered as the most traditional of Japan (it has been the capital of the feudal Japan before Edo (Tokyo) became the capital, and Kanazawa the second one. When we arrived there, we could discover a very modern city. On the next days, we could visit old Samurai and Geisha houses, the samurai district and some Geisha district, as well as a lovely tea house. One evening, I went to the Lighthouse whisky bar (https://lighthousekanazawa.wixsite.com/lighthouse), and was surprised to discover that they had two Casks of Distinction, a 30 YO Linkwood and a 32 YO Cragganmore for Japan.  The whiskies were decent, but unfortunately, far from being exceptional.  The 15 YO Bowmore for Feis Ile 2022 was better, with a nice mixture of tropical fruits and nice smoky flavours. My last dram was a very good Ben Nevis 1994 for Whisky Jury, very fruit, rich, intense and complex. The selection of whiskies in this bar is rather exceptional. It is however rather hidden, with no signs outside and you need to slide the door if it is open or not.

My selection of whiskies at Y's Land Bar Ian in Tokyo

After these few days spent in Kanazawa, it was time to leave for our final destination, Tokyo.
Tokyo is best for shopping and its selection of whisky bars. My first whisky bar was Y’s Land Bar Ian, a bar with lots of rarities. I could taste there an excellent Clynelish 1974 Signatory, a nice light Rosebank 1980 from Cadenhead’s, an excellent old Springbank 5 YO Black label and a very intense, rich and complex Glenlivet 1971 Speyside from Kingsbury. With over 1000 bottles, it is one of the biggest whisky bars in Tokyo. The Mash Tun is unfortunately closed for good.

Some of the whiskies tasted at Aloah in Tokyo

The next bar I visited was Aloah, with a very wide range of whiskies, Scotch, Japanese and US. My first one was the Suntory Pure Malt, in fact a Yamazaki single malt, rich, spicy, intense, slightly salty, with lots of dried fruits. Excellent. The Akkeshi Single Malt for Bar Minmore and Rudder was very good, very peaty, rather clean and intense. The Rare Character for Aloah is a whiskey produced in Indiana, rich, smooth, slightly spicy, with a nice balance, on cinnamon, orange and a very pleasant mouthfeel. The Clynelish 18 YO Old Malt Cask for Shinanoya was clean, farmy, intense, complex, rather citric and moderately waxy. Very enjoyable. The next one was a Millstone 26 YO for the Whisky Exchange. Patrick Van Zuidam is producing excellent whiskies, and I was curious to taste this bottling, my oldest Millstone so far. The whisky was mellow, very complex, rich, floral, on dried fruits, coca, slight nutty and with a nice fruitiness, with a lovely smooth, complex and rich fruity mouthfeel, without any blemish of age. An excellent one! The Yoichi Peat and Salty is a distillery exclusive, light, salty, clean, peaty, with some vanilla and sea brine. Very good! Finally, I tasted the Bruichladdich for Aloah anniversary, a lovely, rich, intense and fruity Bruichladdich, matured in ex-Riversaltes wine cask. The dark and thick fruity flavours from the wine cask worked very well with the round and intense Bruichladdich. A very nice surprise.

A very nice Glen Mhor for Charles Mackinlay at The Crane bar in Tokyo

 

Afterwards, I moved to the nearby The Crane bar, to taste a light, elegant old style of Glen Mhor 10 YO Charles Mackinlay, rather mineral and chalky, before tasting  the Glen Albyn 10 YO for Giaconne, an excellent, complex, rich, mineral, rather smoky and herbal whisky. The Crane has a stunning selection of old whiskies. It can be rather pricey, but very few bars in the world have some many old bottlings. This was the last night in Tokyo and enjoyed a smooth trip the next day home.

I flew with Lufthansa to Tokyo and I enjoyed the extra space offered in the return flight with ANA. With Lufthansa, in economy class, my knees were touching the front seat, but with ANA, the extra cm made a huge difference. Should I return to Japan, I will definitely look for an ANA flight.

I had lovely vacations in Japan compared to 10 years ago, a very appreciable improvement is the metro on Tokyo, where you can tap your Suica of credit card to travel. In some cities like Kyoto, the SUICA card is the best solution for traveling, unfortunately, the system is not widespread. In a city like Kanazawa, 4 different companies are running the public transportation system and they have different operating systems. Prices for public transportations are very cheap, with a typical ticket for Tokyo metro costing around 200 Yen (circa 1.2 euros). Local trains are fairly cheap, but express trains can be rather expensive  and the JR pass  even more. Hotels in Japan were rather cheap, except of Kyoto, probably due to the Expo in Osaka. Prices in restaurants are very variable. In Himeji or Kanazawa, you can have great meals for less than 20 euros per person, but in Kyoto or Tokyo, in the touristic areas and hotels, you can have “canteen-like” food for over 50 euros per person. 

Drinks are very cheap, with water and soft distributors in each street corner for 100 to 150 yen (0.6 to 1 euro per 50 cl bottle). Also, it is easy to find public toilets, which are all free and very clean. Finally, there is a lot of staff in hotels and train stations, which is very handy, as the process for train tickets depends on the railways network that you are using.

In terms of shopping, there are plenty of nice whisky shops in Tokyo, but it is worthwhile to compare the prices, as the differences can be very significant (up to 3x) for whiskies. For other products, in some touristic areas, it can a real rip-off. For instance, my son who loves Pokémon cards saw boosters at 2000 yen (circa 12 euros) in Asakusa shopping areas in several shops, while the same boosters were selling for 180 euros in the official Pokémon shops. The same applies for other products such as knives.

Patrick, April 2025