(Kyoto, Japan). After a quick breakfast of tasty treats from the local convenience store, we checked into the Hiiragiya Ryokan (review here) before heading out to the Yamazaki Whiskey Distillery for a tour. (Tip - Reservations are required for the free tours. We had our concierge do it for us since there didn't seem to be a way to book online. If you don't get a reservation, you can't go on the tour but you are still able to go to the gift shop and the tasting room.)
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| A tasty donut - how do they keep them so fresh and yummy? |
During the walk between the ryokan to the train station, we cut through the Nishiki Market - which is a food lover's haven! Although we had a train to catch, I still managed to have a yummy fishcake (with sweet potato) snack and I made a mental note of all the places I wanted to try later. If you love trying different foods and treats, you should definitely spend a few hours at Nishiki Market.
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| Adorable little candies and treats. |
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| Dried fishies. |
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| My fishcake with sweet potatoes, etc. - soooooo good! |
The train ride was picturesque and took about 30 minutes (if I remember correctly). Upon arrival, we noticed a few English signs with arrows indicating the path to the whiskey distillery. There were also other tourists who looked quite determined so we just followed them, and it totally worked out! The local village looked quite quaint and I wished we had time to explore a little but we had a strict reservation time.
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| There it is! |
The self-guided tour was interesting - I think I enjoyed seeing the old advertisements for the whiskeys the most. The actual guided tour was in Japanese - but we were able to listen to a translation on a hand-held device.
Although I can't be 100% certain, I'm pretty sure the Japanese version was much more detailed and interesting. Regardless, it was an educational tour - but I'm not sure it's really vital if you simply want to try some whiskey. The tasting that came with the free tour was pretty basic. My husband and I love Yamazaki whiskeys and we had particular ones we wanted to taste and try, so we headed to the tasting room which had a large selection of Japanese (and other) whiskeys.
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| At the end of the tour, they take you to this lovely park area - the water is crazy clear - and this is the water they use to make the whiskey. |
I think I mentioned this in a previous post, but when we were in Tokyo we noticed it was impossible to find the Yamazaki 12 or 18 to purchase or to taste. Several bartenders and shopkeepers told us that they were sold out -which seemed incredible, but as we discovered - it was true. Even at the Yamazaki distillery they did not have any bottles of the 12 or 18 for sale - other than miniature bottles of Yamazaki 12. At least they still had the 18 and 25 for tastings - so we enjoyed a few snifters in the outdoor tasting area, which was very picturesque. We also met other whiskey lovers from Malaysia and from Chicago, and it was fun swapping stories about our travels in Japan.
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| Ahhh! the gold at the end of the rainbow! |
A bit sleepy from the whiskey we decided to return to the ryokan to formally check-in. We knew we had a multi-course kaiseki dinner that evening so we didn't want to eat a huge lunch. Instead we snacked on a multitude of street food at Nishiki Market - roasted eel, miniature octopus stuffed with a quail egg, pastries, etc.
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| Nishiki Market - an arcade of joy. |
At the ryokan we were treated to lots and lots of tea. There was the welcome tea, the afternoon tea, the resting tea ... I'm making up the names but basically there was lots of tea which we enjoyed while unpacking and taking turns in the hot hot bath.
This was the end of our trip and we simply wanted to relax. Dinner took a long time and was absolutely lovely. (For pictures, see here.) After so much food and more bathing, there was not much else to do other than to drift away on my bed of clouds.
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