Reservations:
1) Make reservations at https://www.suntory.com/factory/hakushu/ as
far in advanced as possible to secure desired date and time. Only one reservation is needed as you can select up to 8 additional guests.
2) Choose the 1,000 yen 80 minute tour. The other one at 2,000 yen is too long and all you will be thinking about after the first 30min is, “when is drinking time?”
3) There are tours on the hour starting at 10:30, with the last at 2:30. Do not choose the 2:30 tour because you will have little time to enjoy the paid bar, which was the highlight of the trip for me.
Shinjuku Station JR East entrance/exit. The ticketing and travel service center is through the doors and to the right.
Getting there from Shinjuku Station:
4) Use hyperdia.com or google maps to plan out your travel time. Enter Shinjuku JR station as your starting point, Kobuchizawa station (the station closest to Hakushu) as your destination and your desired destination time (about 45 minutes before the start of your tour). The train you will be taking is the Super Azusa.
5) If at all possible, go to any JR ticket office and reserve your tickets to Kobuchizawa one or two days in advance. If not, plan on arriving at the JR Shinjuku stations at least 45 minutes before your departure time to comfortably reserve your ticket and board the train on time.
6) Once at the JR ticket office, reserve a ticket for Kobuchizawa station. Request a window seat on the left, the scenic side of the train. I had a window seat on the right and all I saw 90% of the ride was a green blur, as we were so close to the mountains.
Ticketing and Travel Service Center. Get your Tokyo Wide rail pass and Super Azusa reserved tickets here.
7) If you’re not lucky enough to have the awesome tourist visa only JR rail pass, your round trip ticket will run 10,200 yen. But there’s a hack for any foreign passport holder. Go to a main JR Ticketing and Travel Service Center at Haneda Airport, Tokyo, Shinjuku, Shinagawa or Ikebukuro station and request a Tokyo wide pass for 10,000 yen. Not only will this take care of your reserved round trip ticket, it will also allow you two additional days of free travel on JR trains, even bullet trains within Tokyo and the surrounding regions. By the way, most all staff in the station speak conversational English.
You will be taking the Super Azusa from tracks 9 and 10 bound for Kofu and Matsumoto.
8) With your reserved ticket in hand, and about 20 minutes to spare, head to the nearest convenient store or Ekiben shop (train bento) and purchase food and drinks for the 2 hour ride. Please note that, although comfortable, the Super Azusa trains are old and have no power outlets. And, most of the ride is through mountainous regions, so you may or may not get cell or data reception.
9) Once at Kobuchizawa station, catch the free- weekend-only shuttle (the schedule is on the website), or hop a 15 minute 2,000 yen taxi ride to Hakushu. If the driver doesn’t understand your pronunciation of Hakushu, as he didn’t mine, yell “Suntory time!” All will be well.
At Hakushu:
10) When you arrive at Hakushu, by pass the official looking tent with paper applications and go directly to the welcome office window and state the name on the reservation. That tent wasted 10 minutes of my life. After checking in you will be given one of three types of wearable pass cards. Yellow means you are the designated driver and get juice instead of whisky. Orange means you are underage and get juice instead of whisky. And green means, as you said to the taxi driver, Suntory time!
The scenic stroll to the Hakushu Whisky Museum, the tour’s starting point.
11) After you check in, you will take a 5 minutes stroll to the Hakushu whisky museum, the starting place for the tour. The stroll is beautiful but I swear there was a dead animal somewhere as a foul smell loomed. I hope for your sake that smell is gone by the time you visit.
12) At the entrance of the Hakushu whisky museum there are free combination lockers. This would’ve been good to know because I had a lot of things and stored them in the paid lockers at Shinjuku station. The lockers were about the size of rolling carryon luggage, but a little taller and a little skinnier. There were about 30 lockers available and less than five were in use. So, feel free to use more than one if you need.
13) Next, staff will greet you and give you your audio guide as the entire tour is delivered in Japanese. These audio guides are the size of first generation cell phones and are used in the same way. They do have headphone jacks so bring some if you’d like. Again, this would’ve been good to know before I came. To be honest, I just turned it off and put it in my pocket. You don’t need to understand Japanese to understand the tour. There are simple signs, charts, sounds and smells to keep you up to speed.
14) After you are settled, take some time to browse the whisky museum as it is not a part of the tour. Yet another thing I would’ve liked to know ahead of time.
15) The tour will take approximately 50 minutes. The other 30 minutes will be reserved for the free tasting. Feel free to take as many photos as you wish.
The free whisky tasting:
17) The free tasting includes light snacks, three 15ml drams (whisky pours) and one 30ml dram for something special. The non-drinkers get juice. I tasted it and it’s pretty nice. If you are a light drinker or haven’t eaten recently, I recommend eating all the non-chocolate snacks. Pocket the chocolate; it will come in handy later. Also, the staff won’t be offended if you don’t finish all your samples. Just make sure to taste a nip of each.
The free whisky tasting and snacks.
18) Optional: cozy up to a group that has a designated driver tag. You may get lucky and hitch a ride back to the station. If you do this, please make sure to pack little gifts from your hometown to reciprocate the nice gesture. I brought little packets of macadamia nuts. This made me a rock star amongst the staff and other guests.
Sporting a nice little buzz, it is time for the piece de resistance, the paid Hakushu bar.
The Paid Hakushu Bar:
19) This was definitely the highlight of the tour, maybe my life. The paid bar is located right next to the tasting hall but is much smaller, darker, and vibrating with greatness. Unlike the gift shop, the bar is cash only. I was very lucky to have generously filled my wallet before I arrived.
20) Pass out your gifts to the bar staff before you order so that they may be more liberal with their pours. Again, this is optional as it is a rather tacky move. If the bar is busy, you will be limited to three pours per order. Don’t worry because you can return to the bar as many times as you wish.
21) If you follow Suntory whisky prices, you’ll soon realize that everything is ridiculously cheap. Here is the snapshot of the menu:
The Suntory page of the menu. The also have other whiskies on the menu. Sorry about the photo quality, I was beyond loose when I took it.
22) For the ultimate tasting I recommend getting the Hibiki 21, Hibiki 30, Yamazaki 25, Yamazaki 18, and the Mizunara 17 component for Hibiki 17. And, due to their flavor profiles, I suggest drinking them in this order. You will see why. Also, this is where the pocketed chocolate comes into play. Use the chocolate as a palate cleanser between drams. Start with a nibble of chocolate, then take a sip of water, swish it around, and finally take your first sip of the Suntory liquid gold. Ration your chocolate so that you can repeat this process between each dram. If money is tight, all Japanese whiskies that aren’t priced at 100 yen are amazing deals. If you’d like stay in the bar and drink till closing, around 4-4:30 p.m., you are welcomed.
The ultimate tasting.
Getting back to Shinjuku:
23) If you didn’t score a ride from the natives, you’ll have to ask a staff member to call you a taxi. After entering the cab state your destination, Kobuchizawa Station. Kobuchizawa is pronounced ko-boo-chee-za-wa, five syllables, easy.
24) Once back at the station, wait for your reserved train or reserve one from the ticket counter. Don’t worry too much about planning the train back. The longest you’ll have to wait is an hour for the next Super Azusa. Now all you have left is the two hour ride back to Shinjuku. Take a nap and I hope you dream of the dream that you just experienced. And there you have it! You got your reservations, your ticket, 20,000 yen, small gifts, headphones and this guide to help you make the most out of your Hakushu Distillery tour. If you have any questions, or if you want insider information on how to possibly score a rare Suntory bottle, please shoot me a message. Kanpai and Aloha!
Update-12/4/2017: 1) the bar no longer sells rare bottles to take home 2) the Hakushu gift shop is run by an outside vendor, not Suntory 3) there’s a delicious cheap standing soba restaurant in Kobuchizawa station 4) there’s an awesome Japanese restaurant called 松葉 (Matsuyo)if you need to kill time. Just google “Kobuchizawa izakaya” and this should pop up. The ramen is to die for.
Ramen, 3 sticks of yakitori, an appetizer and tea came out to ¥1000.
alohawhisky 