Despite spending time living in Europe, there are still regions that remain unvisited on my travel bucket list. The non-exhaustive list includes: Santorini and the Greek Islands, Normandy and Northern France, Cinque Terre and the Italian Coastline and the Whisky Regions of Scotland. Unfortunately these destinations more often than not took the backseat to the twenty-something life experiences that Europe has to offer (think Pamplona Bull Run and Ibiza). I confidently reasoned these destinations could be appreciated irrespective of age and would be experienced at a later stage in my life.
Recently there has been an the explosion of award winning whiskies from both Taiwan and Japan making Asia now a reputable player in the the world of Whiskies. It was decided that Japan, home of Suntory and Nikka would be a fun side trip to experience an Asia based Whisky tour. We managed to get cheap flights from Hong Kong to Osaka for 1200 HKD. Unfortunately, the main distillery in that region also happened to be closed during this time of the year for annual maintenance. Not to be discouraged we managed to visit a handful of local Whisky bars and even managed to find some non-export priced age whisky!
The trip, my first foray into the world of Air BNB found four grown men sharing a one bedroom apartment in the Naniwa-Ku district just outside of Namba. The days involved eating. Lots of it. A typical conversation that would take place went along the lines of "If we have [dinner/lunch] in 4 hours, we can most likely have another meal in 2 hours time, take a nap and then go out to eat again". I repeat. Non-stop eating. Most of the time was spent in Osaka, with one day out in the Bamboo forest of Asashiyama, Kyoto.
Recently there has been an the explosion of award winning whiskies from both Taiwan and Japan making Asia now a reputable player in the the world of Whiskies. It was decided that Japan, home of Suntory and Nikka would be a fun side trip to experience an Asia based Whisky tour. We managed to get cheap flights from Hong Kong to Osaka for 1200 HKD. Unfortunately, the main distillery in that region also happened to be closed during this time of the year for annual maintenance. Not to be discouraged we managed to visit a handful of local Whisky bars and even managed to find some non-export priced age whisky!
The trip, my first foray into the world of Air BNB found four grown men sharing a one bedroom apartment in the Naniwa-Ku district just outside of Namba. The days involved eating. Lots of it. A typical conversation that would take place went along the lines of "If we have [dinner/lunch] in 4 hours, we can most likely have another meal in 2 hours time, take a nap and then go out to eat again". I repeat. Non-stop eating. Most of the time was spent in Osaka, with one day out in the Bamboo forest of Asashiyama, Kyoto.
Asashiyama, Bamboo Grove
CoCo Ichibanya, Katsu Curry
Koyoshi Sushi
Matsuzakagyu Yakiniku M
Otsuka Steakhouse
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