Originally Posted by invalyd

Wasn't talking about you specifically, just addressing the post above and some common themes of this thread.

Knowing you're based in Boston would have helped, quite simply you will have a much easier time finding it for retail near your home rather than spending your whole time in Japan trying to track down a needle in a haystack , unless of course that was the sole purpose of your trip.

As I mentioned above, spend your time and money at one of the amazing whisky bars and hunt when you get home. You can likely grab a Y18 airport duty free bottle on your way home due to lack of travelers, not retail but certainly nowhere near the 80k you mentioned.​​​​

There's WAY more Yamazaki 18 to be found at close to retail in the Boston/NYC area than in Japan.
If you don't speak Japanese, that will be make it even more difficult.

I just recently scored 6 bottles of Chichibu US edition for retail price ($250, feel free to Google market rates) from a wine shop in Boston and I dont even live there.