Written by Mika Tanimoto, Owner-Bartender, Bar Little Happiness — Hiroshima’s specialist whisky & rum bar with 1,000+ bottles
The first thing to understand about visiting Ikawa Distillery is that it requires commitment. Not the casual commitment of a half-hour drive and a parking space, but the kind of commitment that involves checking bus timetables for a route that runs infrequently, accepting that you will spend several hours in transit each way, and genuinely deciding that this is worth your time.
It is worth your time.
Getting There
Ikawa Distillery sits in the Ikawa district of Shizuoka City, deep in the Southern Alps at an elevation of over 1,000 metres — accessible from Shizuoka Station by a combination of local bus and the Ikawa Line railway. The journey from Shizuoka takes approximately two to three hours one way. There is no quick option.
For visitors making the trip specifically for the distillery, the reward for that effort is a handfill experience — the chance to fill your own bottle directly from a cask. This is what Ikawa offers that few other Japanese distilleries can: proximity not just to the finished product but to the actual maturing spirit, in the environment where it lives.
The Distillery and Tohzan
Ikawa Distillery operates under Tohzan — a company whose name means “the mountain that provides,” reflecting both the location and the philosophy. The water that feeds the distillery comes from the Southern Alps; the climate that drives the maturation is shaped by the altitude and the dramatic temperature differences between seasons in this part of Japan.
I wrote about the philosophy and spirit of Ikawa in a previous column (the distillery overview). The visit report is the practical companion: what you encounter when you actually make the journey, how the handfill works, and what it feels like to be in a place where the whisky exists in its natural environment rather than behind glass.
The short version: the journey changes how you taste the whisky.
Ikawa whisky is available at Bar Little Happiness. Read the full Japanese visit report: little-happiness.jp/columns/ikawa-distillery-visit/
Also see the distillery overview: little-happiness.jp/columns/ikawa-distillery/
Bar Little Happiness | Hiroshima, Japan
Rum & Whisky specialists | 1,000+ bottles | English menu available
Open Mon–Sat 7PM–12:30AM, Sun 7PM–midnight
No cover charge. Walk-ins welcome.
english.little-happiness.jp