Reposting my last trip report from japanesewhiskyreview:
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Flew to Tokyo over the Labor Day weekend for a quick whiskey hunt and Hakushu Distillery visit. Mostly hit the places suggested in whiskey Richard’s Aug 2019 “where to buy” guide. Unfortunately didn’t find much I wanted to buy at the price points I wanted to buy at. Here’s the haul for the trip:
Kanosuke New Born 2018 – Whiskey Plus – $30
Akkeshi New Born Foundation 4 – Yoshiike Ueno (also widely available at Bic) – $39
Taketsuru 17 – Mega Donki – $224
Hakushu Distillery Exclusive – Hakushu Distillery – ¥1440
Yama 12 Mini – Hakushu Distillery (combo pack with smoked bacon) – Forgot
Hibiki 17 Mini – ANA F cabin – Free?
I arrived at Hakushu Distillery at 10:30am, and as I entered I saw Japanese customers on their way out, presumably having visited just to buy at the gift shop. So visit the gift shop right at opening if you want a shot at the 18/21 or 25/30 range bottles. Even Hibiki Harmony, of which there were 17 bottles at 10:30am, was all gone by noon. The highlight of the distillery visit and maybe the entire trip was having 15ml pours of Yamazaki 25, Hakushu 25, and Hibiki 30 for ¥8700 at the distillery bar.
On Tuesday I had a choice to either head to Narita early in the morning to check duty free or go to Ginza Mitsukoshi to participate in a Suntory aged whiskey purchase lottery. These are the same “airport exclusive” bottles sold at airport duty free (e.g. Kacho Fugetsu) and at the same MSRP. Since I had just two weeks earlier gotten two bottles of H21 and one bottle of Hakushu 18 from Narita relatively late in the day (once at 11am, and once at 2pm) I decided to head to the lottery event. Unfortunately my number was not drawn until the very last bottle, and only Hakushu 18 was available, so I decided to pass. Didn’t have any luck at the airport either– all the good stuff had been picked clean. Such is the whiskey hunting life.
On my flight back I had the cabin attendant pour the John Walker King George V and took the Hibiki 17 to go.