Spirits: Whiskey in Japan

Recently, I found a whiskey bar in Shinjuku called Zoetrope. It was completely because of this list that I found it, but since it has been impossible to find a good drink anywhere in Tokyo up until this point, I was overjoyed.

Remember how I mentioned the Japanese love of sweet pervaded everything from cocktails to hamburgers? Yeah, I wasn’t kidding.

Those of you who know cocktails will know what I mean when I say that American cocktails typically make their cocktails “spirit forward.” Well, here in Japan, even the most spirit forward cocktails are made so spirit backward that I sometimes question why anyone would waste good scotch on a Japanese style Rob Roy when they could have it straight and actually taste the whiskey.

The large selection of whiskey that I was able to choose from at Zoetrope was a beautiful, savory, dream come true. I was surprised when I walked in and the bar was completely populated by men, however. Then again, I probably should have expected it. Japan has a thriving drinking culture, and one facet of it is the drinking businessmen do together after a day at the office. As Zoetrope specializes in whiskey, it attracts a specific type of crowd, and that crowd includes the businessmen. Zoetrope also attracts a lot of foreigners like myself because the owner, Atsushi Horigami, speaks fantastic English and is exceptionally welcoming.

If you don’t know anything about Japanese whiskey, let me give you a quick rundown: Once upon a time, a man named Shinjiro Torii imported a bunch of foreign whiskey. The whiskey he liked best was from Scotland. Then, in 1924, he started up his own whiskey distillery in Yamazaki city—a city near Kyoto that was known for its pure and delicious water. This distillery is known today as Suntory and is still one of the leading makers of Japanese whiskey today. The other distillery that has made a name for itself is Nikka, but the best whiskey that Horigami presented to me when I visited his bar was the Ichiro’s malt and grain whiskey. To learn more about this lesser known distillery and their delicious bottlings, click here.

Which brings me to this week’s media tie in: spirits (as in alcohol) and spirits (as in supernatural beings).

Recall the drinking culture of Japan I mentioned earlier? A JRPG called Catherine decided to include drinking in its game mechanics.

That’s right: the more drunk your character, Vincent, becomes, the faster he is able to move in his nightmares that night. This might seem like a funny ability to want, but when you’re climbing a tower that is literally dropping off beneath you, you’ll find every little bit of added speed helps. One only needs to consume three drinks in order to max out Vincent’s speed for the game play, but Catherine added a little extra incentive to drink at least four drinks each night: beverage trivia. Every night a new bit of trivia is unlocked for each type of drink that Vincent can consume. The options are beer, sake, a cocktail (Vincent always seems to end up with a Cuba Libre), and, of course, whiskey. When the player finishes a drink, the narrator of the game interrupts the game to inform the player of an interesting fact pertaining to the type of beverage they just finished. The trivia is interesting enough to keep one drinking enough to move quickly in the puzzle stages of the game even if the player is completely oblivious to the three drink counter to the side of the screen. Ranging from distilling techniques, naming conventions, and historical context, a new bit of trivia is unlocked per night, and if you have one of each beverage per night, you will be given the titles of “Cocktail Connoisseur,” “Beer Baron,” “Sake Sensei,” and “Whisky Wiseman.” If you’re curious, feel free to check out the video of all of the whiskey trivia below.

The next example of “spirits” is the punned version—supernatural beings. Spirits in media tend to be one of two types: either the spirits of the dead or the spirits of things, such as household items, trees, fire, and anything else that might possess a personality in the human imagination. Spirits can manifest in lots of ways, born from the residue of a life extinguished, born from intense emotion concerning a certain item, because there was simply a will to live within something, etc. In the Avatar: The Last Airbender and Avatar: The Legend of Korra franchises, the origin of spirits is rather unexplained. It becomes plain that they are different from humans, however, and thrive on all things magical and wild. During The Last Airbender timeline, the spirits exist in their own world known quite plainly as The Spirit World. However, in the events of The Legend of Korra, it comes to light that the world in which humans dwell was once shared between spirits and humans. The two portals that kept the worlds separated are opened, and the humans and spirits once again begin to live in the same world. This is not without its contentions however.

Avatar Korra lecturing a spirit about compromise

When the spirit and human world merge once more, both the living arrangements of humans and spirits are disturbed. The human’s great cities are suddenly overrun with magical flora, and the spirits are baffled by the technology humans invented to do things that magic had always been used for in their world. But the job of the Avatar, as illustrated in the above picture, is to keep the balance between humans and spirits. Why does this responsibility fall upon the Avatar’s shoulders? It’s because the Avatar is a human with a spirit living inside of them. As such, they are the unbiased party, the middle ground, between the two races.

It isn’t always an easy job, but regardless of the “spirits” you’re working with balance seems to be a good thing to strive for—even if you’re not the Avatar or teetering up collapsing nightmare puzzle towers! Drink responsibly and tastefully, everyone!