The Distillery is located right next to the Yamazaki JR train station. It’s a short ten minute walk down a nice lane double backing along the tracks. On the way there’s a master of tea ceremony residence. The area is renowned for its pure water suitable for making Japanese tea as well as whisky. Maybe that’s how those cool Taiwanese cats figured out how to mix green tea with whisky. Crossing a few set of train tracks is the entrance to the Distillery grounds. There is a small administration building for booking tour times (reservation in advance is highly recommended due to popularity of tour) and getting the tickets and English audio guide for the tour. We waited for our 230 pm tour to begin at the visitor center.

There’s the obligatory history of the distillery exhibit with an assortment of old posters and bottles. Quickly passing through we came…