I Drink Alone
I like that the school year in Japan is ends in Spring. It's the time of new beginnings. It's the time of rebirths. Flowers. Cleaning. Bunnies. Resolutions.
With my general freedom in Japan, I've done a lot of ambitious categorical things: trained for a marathon (will train and run again this year), made 16+ dolls that fill my bedroom shelves (more to come), memorizing 2042 kanji in 8 weeks, getting all my fillings replaced, and other various adventures.
This Spring brings me well past my halfway point in Japan. I will be here for 36 months. I have 16 1/2 remaining. So I've been thinking about things I want to accompish before I leave. This week marks the beginning of one new project I'm excited about: Whisky Wednesdays.
Japan has probably the cheapest liquor in the world. A society that has never viewed drinking as sinful but as an integral part of life and celebration (especially religious celebration), and some of the lowest alcohol import tariffs in the world, make liquor the logical bang-for-your-buck drink in Japan. You can buy almost every liquor in Japan at retail cost (shelf price) for less than you can in the US for wholesale cost (how much the distributor pays)! Absolut for $9.40? Grand Marnier for $22.00? Macallan 12yr for $26.80? Ok!
That last one is especially shocking. That's HALF the cheapest retail price you could probably find anywhere in the US. Japan is a whisky drinker's dream. For whatever reason, you can even get whisky in Japan for less than you can in Scotland!
I never drank whisky in the US. My palate wasn't mature enough to handle it, but mostly because it was prohibitively expensive. $30 would get you bad single malt whisky (but a super-premium vodka). And the good stuff starts at about $50. Why waste your money? But since I've been in Japan, I've started drinking whisky, Scottish single malt whisky to be exact. And, oh!, it is the nectar of the gods. You cannot dismiss whisky until you've tried the good stuff. It's so complex and alluring and delectable.
So, every Wednesday for the next 50 odd weeks, I will be buying a new bottle of single malt whisky. In the end, it will cost me about $2000. But that's a lot less than the ~$4000 it would cost me in the US. (I'll probably start carrying a hip flask if I go out so I don't have to pay for drinks since I'll have plenty of my own...). One blessing is that my favorite alcohol and import supplier, Liquor Mountain, is on my daily school route. And, gasp!, they carry 57 different single malt whiskys! That's what I call coincidence. Or irony. Maybe divine intervention? The road to alcoholism...?
I'll describe more and provide links later.
Wednesday, March 14th:
Cragganmore 12yr
Speyside
Malt Maniacs Avg: 81
Whisky Mag: 9.00/8.75
$29.50(at 118yen)
$44.99 at Mission Liquor in US
mixmastermick
P.S.- I've submitted a request to start single malt whisky group. I'll post all these tastings on my blog also though.
P.P.S.- Scottish whisky is spelled without the e, that's why I haven't been writing whiskEy.
I like that the school year in Japan is ends in Spring. It's the time of new beginnings. It's the time of rebirths. Flowers. Cleaning. Bunnies. Resolutions.
With my general freedom in Japan, I've done a lot of ambitious categorical things: trained for a marathon (will train and run again this year), made 16+ dolls that fill my bedroom shelves (more to come), memorizing 2042 kanji in 8 weeks, getting all my fillings replaced, and other various adventures.
This Spring brings me well past my halfway point in Japan. I will be here for 36 months. I have 16 1/2 remaining. So I've been thinking about things I want to accompish before I leave. This week marks the beginning of one new project I'm excited about: Whisky Wednesdays.
Japan has probably the cheapest liquor in the world. A society that has never viewed drinking as sinful but as an integral part of life and celebration (especially religious celebration), and some of the lowest alcohol import tariffs in the world, make liquor the logical bang-for-your-buck drink in Japan. You can buy almost every liquor in Japan at retail cost (shelf price) for less than you can in the US for wholesale cost (how much the distributor pays)! Absolut for $9.40? Grand Marnier for $22.00? Macallan 12yr for $26.80? Ok!
That last one is especially shocking. That's HALF the cheapest retail price you could probably find anywhere in the US. Japan is a whisky drinker's dream. For whatever reason, you can even get whisky in Japan for less than you can in Scotland!
I never drank whisky in the US. My palate wasn't mature enough to handle it, but mostly because it was prohibitively expensive. $30 would get you bad single malt whisky (but a super-premium vodka). And the good stuff starts at about $50. Why waste your money? But since I've been in Japan, I've started drinking whisky, Scottish single malt whisky to be exact. And, oh!, it is the nectar of the gods. You cannot dismiss whisky until you've tried the good stuff. It's so complex and alluring and delectable.
So, every Wednesday for the next 50 odd weeks, I will be buying a new bottle of single malt whisky. In the end, it will cost me about $2000. But that's a lot less than the ~$4000 it would cost me in the US. (I'll probably start carrying a hip flask if I go out so I don't have to pay for drinks since I'll have plenty of my own...). One blessing is that my favorite alcohol and import supplier, Liquor Mountain, is on my daily school route. And, gasp!, they carry 57 different single malt whiskys! That's what I call coincidence. Or irony. Maybe divine intervention? The road to alcoholism...?
I'll describe more and provide links later.
Wednesday, March 14th:
Cragganmore 12yr
Speyside
Malt Maniacs Avg: 81
Whisky Mag: 9.00/8.75
$29.50(at 118yen)
$44.99 at Mission Liquor in US
mixmastermick
P.S.- I've submitted a request to start single malt whisky group. I'll post all these tastings on my blog also though.
P.P.S.- Scottish whisky is spelled without the e, that's why I haven't been writing whiskEy.