Japan’s first proper spirits competition, the Tokyo Whisky & Spirits Competition was held over two days: March 11-12, 2019. Let’s run through some of the numbers: 3 tasting sessions split across 2 days 527 entries across 126 categories. 50% whisky, 20% gin, 30% other 32 […]

Gin-Posium Japan 2018 was held on November 25, 2018!

Last weekend was that time of year again! Whisky Festival 2018 in Tokyo. This year’s festival was held over two days for the first time, but as I had other obligations on the 25th, here’s my report from the 24th. Jump to:Introduction: The future of […]

JR East Japan Hotels Group held their first-ever Craft Cocktail Competition this past Monday, September 24. The event was a showdown of 13 different bartenders assembled from various Metropolitan Hotel properties, where each developed a unique cocktail and offered it to both judges and event […]

Gin Live Tokyo 2018 was held for the first time on July 28, 2018! While the scale of the event was somewhat smaller than last year’s Gin-Posium, it was a great opportunity to get caught up on some of the latest offerings from both domestic […]

GINfest Tokyo was held for the first time ever this year out at Tennoz Isle! Over this past weekend, around 3500 gin lovers made their way to the event, which featured around 100 different types of gin from both within and outside of Japan. While […]

Tokyo International BarShow 2018 was held May 12-13 at Tokyo Dome’s Prism Hall. Now in its 7th year, this year’s BarShow was the biggest yet, with 48 booths, and also the most popular. A record 12,300 people attended — over 1000 more than last year. […]

Chivas Regal sponsors a yearly award ceremony here in Japan called the “Chivas Gold Signature Awards” for people that have contributed to society through business. Now in its 8th year, 2018’s ceremony took place at Roppongi’s Grand Hyatt hotel. Once again Chivas Regal’s Chief Blender […]

The Japan Gin Association held the first ever Gin-Posium Japan here in Tokyo this past Sunday, December 3rd at Toyocho’s Hotel East21. Despite being the first year, the event brought in around 600 attendees from both industry and the public. The first part of the Gin-Posium […]

This past weekend it finally happened! The event I’ve been on about for several months now: Tokyo Whisky Festival 2017! Plain and simple, if you even remotely consider yourself a fan of Japanese whisky, you need to find a way to attend this event. I […]