Another mid-afternoon bar experience where we were the only customers. The owner used to work at Star Bar and lamented at how touristy it’s gotten. The most interesting aspect was using room temp and close to freezing spirits in cocktails, my first was even the same bottle while K’s Old Fashioned was a mixture of different ones. A few slices of Japanese ham went well as we talked with the owner about how much fun we’ve had exploring different cocktail bars and the precision that all the bartenders put into making drinks.
Refreshing gin cocktail
Aviation
Asked to end with his favorite sherry and it was on the sweet side but not too much. Very good
He’s one of, if not only, certified sherry pourers in Japan
We collect one cup sake jars to use as at home for wine and other booze so of course we had to hit up Buri Bar that has a whole range to pick from. The sake generally isn’t very good but we learned here that if cold enough you can smack the top and it will turn into an adult slurpee that was a lot more palatable. Thankfully they had some food options besides the complimentary mixed nuts and got some pretty good yakitori to help stem the effects of 3 sakes for me and 2 for K in 40 minutes.
After 15 nights and 8 hotels, granted two were in Kyoto, finally made it to Tokyo for this final stop on this epic journey. Unfortunately my long train journeys weren’t over, after getting to our hotel at 3, at 5 when we were heading out for sightseeing and a few bars realized didn’t have my camera in my bag. After panicking for 10 minutes calling the Hyatt I was able to grab a hold of the Tokyo hotel manager just before he left and he talked to the rental car company who had the camera. I had to wait until 6 to catch a train back to Mishima and was back in Tokyo at 8:18, pretty darn good for being 135km from my camera.
Roast beef sandwhich and hydration on the way back to Mishima
While was in transit looked at the bars around Tokyo station that we had bookmarked and Star Bar was our choice, it was good but mostly tourists and we found better bars in subsequent days.
The small city of Gotemba that was our gateway to Mt Fuji had a lot to offer besides beautiful views. There was a massive Premium Outlet and this distillery that uses the water than filters through Mt Fuji over 30 years. While unique, we felt the whiskey wasn’t as refined as Yamazaki or Nikka which isn’t surprising given that this distillery was only set up in 1973.
The Uniqueness of Mt. Fuji Distillery: Unlike any other distillery in the world, Mt. Fuji Distillery is capable of producing four different types of whiskies: a Scotch style malt whisky and three types of grain whiskies, namely American (Bourbon), Canadian and Scotch style grain whiskies. Since its establishment, Mt. Fuji Distillery has been refining its whisky making in a wide variety of styles by integrating Kirin’s own brewing technology with expertise in meticulous crafting based on the aforementioned World’s leading whisk(e)y production methods. The house style of the whiskies is known for “Pure & Mellow,” referring to their purity in flavor, exquisite depth of character, and smoothness. The small city of Gotemba that was our gateway to Mt Fuji had a lot to offer besides beautiful views.
In looking for an early opening bar found this unmarked 4th floor bar that is marked on Google with 4.8 rating. Like many of our other bar adventures in Japan we were the only clients there and the cocktails were exceptional. He was an expert and breaking down huge blocks of clear ice with an ice pick and really cool stamps to imprint on them, even had one of the distillery used for one of my drinks.
In researching best Kyoto bars found Nokishita711 and was very intrigued by the concept. Turned out be a small place, just one table with four seats and we shared the experience with an American couple on a 24 day Japanese honeymoon. There wasn’t much alcohol in the cocktails which was fine, I was more there to see how this chef turned bartender took foods and converted them into tasty drinks and paired with small bites. It was a very cool experience and all the cocktails were very good as well as the food. The sea urchin cocktail and deer taco were my favorite items. It’s such a unique experience would say a must do on a visit to Kyoto. Liquid Cuisine Our cocktails are “extract-ology”, not mix-ology We are making cocktails with meat, fish, vegetable, botanical and bug by extracting various methods We’d like to pay our respects to all life and existence
Table was at the back with kitchen on the left. Walls were covered in pages from mostly medical textbooks.
Both nights we went to a bar for a few drinks and after having gone to more in Osaka and Kyoto they are all similar. They have 8-10 counter seats and only a few had tables, they all play jazz, the bartender pulls the bottle and places in front of you then makes the cocktail. A very relaxed and fun experience especially in 3 out of 5 bars we’ve been the only customers. Very high attention to detail and precision in making them leads to a very well balanced and clean taste, wish more bars in the US were relaxed like this.
Barmillion – Asked for a gin cocktail and got some smoke infused
Bar Cherokee – forget what this was but it was delicious
K ordered an Old Fashion and after the liquid was set on fire the bar assistant placed in a ice block and turned for 30 seconds to chill
Random Eating Adventures 
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