Written by Mika Tanimoto, Owner-Bartender, Bar Little Happiness — Hiroshima’s specialist whisky & rum bar with 1,000+ bottles
There is a small Nessie figurine on the counter at Bar Little Happiness. It has been there for some time. Guests who notice it ask about it — and the answer always leads somewhere more interesting than they expected.
I bought it at the Loch Ness Exhibition Centre in the Scottish Highlands, on a visit several years ago during a whisky distillery tour of Scotland. The museum itself surprised me. I had expected something tourist-focused and lightly humorous — a celebration of a beloved legend. What I found was more serious: sonar data, water quality analyses, systematic reviews of historical sightings, and a genuine attempt to apply rigorous methodology to a question that most scientists would rather not touch.
The Scottish engagement with Nessie is not entirely ironic. There is something in the national character that finds the persistent possibility of something unknown in the depths to be worth taking seriously, even when the evidence is ambiguous.
The Black Water of Loch Ness
The thing that struck me most about Loch Ness in person was the colour of the water. It is almost black.
The loch sits in a valley where the surrounding mountains are layered with peat — the same compressed plant material that gives heavily peated whisky its smoke and character. Rainwater filters through this peat before reaching the loch, carrying with it the deep tannins and phenolic compounds that turn the water the colour of strong tea, or of a mature sherry cask whisky.
Visibility in Loch Ness drops to near zero within a few metres of the surface. The peat colour absorbs the light. If something very large were living in those depths, the water itself would make it almost impossible to find. The mystery is partly physical: the loch’s particular chemistry creates conditions where absence of evidence really is not evidence of absence.
Thinking about this while tasting a heavily peated Highland or Islay whisky — the same peat, in a different form — adds a layer to the experience that I find genuinely interesting to share with guests.
Read the full Japanese column: little-happiness.jp/columns/lochness-nessie-scotland/
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