Masataka taketsuru on hokkaido buffet

Few trains stop in Yoichi. The small station stands frozen in time. Not many people make it up here, let alone in the middle of winter.

It’s a pilgrimage of sorts. Of the few arrivals, everyone is here for the same reason: whisky.

The snow-covered town 1,059 kilometres north of Tokyo is home to Nikka’s whisky distillery, the oldest one in Japan. Coming here is the only way to taste some of the Japanese whiskies that are not sold any more.

A Love Affair

Yoichi is where Japan’s whisky craze started. Back in 1936, Masataka Taketsuru, the founder of Nikka, embarked on his quest to produce whisky for Japan — a country that mainly drank sake and shochu.

Taketsuru was born into a family of sake brewers in Hiroshima who had been producing sake for generations.

Masataka taketsuru on hokkaido buffet price

But instead of following his family tradition, Taketsuru had a more adventurous plan. In 1918, he headed to Scotland to learn everything about whisky making. In his notebooks he meticulously