We were given a free day in Sapporo for our last day and so my dad and his friends decided to head to the Nikka Whisky Yoichi Distillery. I decided to join them instead of going around Otaru or shopping around Sapporo. It was quite far from Sapporo so heading towards the distillery actually took up the whole day.
From our hotel, we walked towards Sapporo Station and took the train to Otaru.
We didn’t take a direct train from Sapporo to Yoichi because we had to drop some of my dad’s friends at Otaru.
Otaru is at S15 so you have to pay 640 Yenget your ticket at the JR express booth. You can select english and hit 640
there are different trains headed to Otaru, read the sign and take the rapid airport one
Arriving at Otaru:
There are also some some sceneries you can enjoy at Otaru if you would want a different view outside of Sapporo.
Since we weren’t able to catch the connecting train from Otaru to Yoichi and the next trian was so late, we decided to take the bus to Yoichi instead.
As you exit from Otaru station, turn to your right and you’ll see the bus terminal.
we had to line up at lane 5 since it was the one headed for Yoichi
book your bus ticket from the machine (there’s only one machine so it’s hard to miss it). click english and look for page 2 from the choices, you’ll see Yoichi Station • Yoichi Station Crossroads with 430 Yen on it. Click that one and pay the amount.
You will get down at Yoichi Station Crossroads. I can read Chinese so it helped me when the LED board flashed the stop on the screen but if you don’t know how to read Chinese, keep in mind that the stop has 7 characters and the 3rd to the last word olooks like a plus sign (+). When you see that go down.
See that teal circle? That is where you’ll get down. You’ll be coming from somewhere from the lower part of the map.
As soon as you get down, you’ll already see Nikka Whisky Yoichi Distillery.
If you look from behind, you can see the JR train for the Yoichi Station.
Before we headed to Nikka Whisky Yoichi Distillery, we decided to have lunch first.
We discovered a local ramen shop! It was small and is run by an old couple.
How to go to this local ramen shop:
from the bus stop, walk straightas you walk straight you’ll have a little turn towards the right and you’ll immediately see a pedestraincross the pedestrainwalk straight until you see those red cloth outsidehow it looks like from the outsidehow it looks like inside
There is no english menu and this is their only menu. We got the ones with red arrows pointed at the photo.
based on Google Translate, I think we got the classic ramenwe didn’t need Google translate on this one since this one is obviously gyozamy dad, his friend and I decided to sit by the counter!you can see the couple prepare your food in front of you
THE GYOZA WAS SO GOODI had high expectations on this one since their gyoza was good and IT DID NOT DISAPPOINTtook a memorable selfie with the owners!
After we had lunch at the local ramen shop, we headed towards the Nikka Whisky Yoichi Distillery!!!
there is a sign near as you enter that everyone needs to register if you want to experience the whisky tastingyou can get the form inside the waiting roomit looks like this outsideyou’ll see this as soon as you enterhow it looks like insideformsthere is a pencil for you to use to write onwrite your date of visit, name and age
during your tour around the place, there are video guides that you can select in japanese, english, chinese and korean to understand the process on how Nikka produces their whiskyI was loving the design on their barrelswe were also lucky enough to see how the coals were placed at the same time the video guide was playingthere are also a lot of spots where you can take your photos taken along with the date when you went to visit the distillery
these are the whisky that you’ll be able to taste and how you an enjoy each of them (don’t worry this is everyone especially inside the tasting area)this is how the outside of where you can experience whisky tasting, it’s also beside the gift shopif you forgot to get a form near the entrance, there are also forms and pencils as soon as you enter the tasting area
singlemalte yoichi was the best!! I just placed an ice cube on the three samplers since I prefer drinking whisky on the rocksI was the only girl on the trip but I had so much fun!!!after we did whisky tasting, we headed towards the gift shopif you love rare tasting rare whisky, here are the ones that are exclusively being sold inside the Nikka Whisky Yoichi Distillery. There is no max buying for all of them except the Single Malt Yoichi 2000s – you can only buy 3 bottles per person
my dad likes collecting these coins or bronze embossed coins and so he decided to get one!
as for me, I collect mini alcohol bottles so I got this from the shop!!!!!!!!
After exploring the Nikka Whisky Yoichi Distillery, we decided to head back to Sapporo.
We missed the bus so we decided to wait for the train. There is only 1 bus and 1 train per hour so we had to wait for almost an hour inside the train station.
Sapporo is the yellow one and Yoichi is the pink onebuy your ticket from the machine – you will not miss it
view from the train
* NOTE: the train from Yoichi to Sapporo has a stopover at Otaru like it’s the end of the line. If everyone leaves the train it means you’re at Otaru and you have to change trains that will take you from Otaru to Sapporo *
all photos taken using an iPhone / Fujifilm X-A3 18-55mm
Very informative.thanks
you’re welcome 😊💖