If there is a whisky drinkers' paradise, it is usually assumed to be somewhere in Scotland. Perhaps one of those remote distilleries where you can taste the landscape in the glass. But true connoisseurs know that the best place to drink whisky is almost 6,000 miles away, amid the neon confusion of downtown Tokyo.
"There are superb pubs in Edinburgh and London serving great whisky," says Chris Bunting, Tokyo resident and author of a forthcoming book, Drinking Japan. "But Tokyo's whisky culture, with dozens of small bars offering thousands of top-quality whiskies, takes it to a different level."
The Japanese have a broad taste in imported Scotch, American bourbons, and the increasingly fine output of domestic distilleries. Tokyo is now home to a multitude of bars. Some are tiny, darkened basements where whisky geeks (or otaku) sit sampling from old bottles in monkish silence. Others are more stylish joints, where bow-tied experts mix highballs and house specialities for an after-work crowd.
This being Tokyo, a dram will cost you dear. But there are a few bargains to be found, and a few bar owners in it for love, not money. Newcomers to Japan, or even to whisky, will discover that they blend together nicely.
Shot Bar Zoetrope
Atsushi Horigami quit a lucrative job in video games to open a bar that would combine his two great passions – whisky and American movies. Half-way up a high-rise in the Shinjuku district, he keeps his wooden blinds shut against the neon signage outside, and runs classic silent comedies through a projector onto the back wall. One dram should, he says, last about as long as one short film. It's worth staying for a triple bill – sample three unfamiliar foreign whiskies (often personally sourced by Horigami from old village stores in the countryside), while indulging in the antics of Chaplin, Keaton, and Harold Lloyd.
• 3rd floor, Gaia Building #4, 7-10-14 Nishi Shinjuku (+81 3 3363 0162, homepage2.nifty.com/zoetrope).
The Helmsdale
Tartan carpets, wall-mounted antlers, Scottish football on TV . . . this would be a generic Scottish theme pub if owner Masaki Murasawa were not so crazily in love with the home of whisky. He has visited more than 50 distilleries there, and knows more about the country than most Scots. His recommendations range from reasonable to astronomical (a shot of 40-year-old Highland Park will set you back ¥5,000 (£35).
• Minami Aoyama 2F, Minato-ku (+81 3 3486 4220, helmsdale-fc.com).
Campbelltoun Loch
This basement bar is a favourite among serious drinkers, partly because it's too small to stock anything but the best. It seats eight customers at a time, and if you bag one of those stools, you automatically secure a place among the local malt-drinking elite. Owner Nobiyuki Nakamura will inquire into your specific tastes, and suggest a dram to suit your palate, prompting nods and murmurs of appreciation from your seven new friends.
• Matsui Building B1, 1-6-8 Yurakucho Chiyoda-ku (+81 3 3501 5305).
Ginza S
Another basement, but darker and more glamorous, this is the life's dream of CJ Mizota. His real name is Seiji, but the locals couldn't or wouldn't pronounce it that way when he lived in Scotland, learning the whisky trade on the Isle of Arran. He now slicks his hair back and sports a tuxedo by night, creating cocktails in his own distinctive cross between a modern Tokyo bar and high-class Prohibition-era speakeasy.
• Chuo-Ku B2, Ginza (+81 3 3573 5074, ginza-s.com).
The Mash Tun
A pleasant kind of dissonance comes of drinking in the Mash Tun. Outside is alien, urban Japan; inside is the familiar taste of Scotland, and the sound of Celtic pipes. It's like a welcoming back room in some strange Scottish embassy, built to the specifications of owner Toyobu Suzuki – bare concrete walls, a few tables and a rotating stock of 250 quality malts.
• Kami-Osaki 2F, Shinagawa-ku (+81 3 3449 3649, themashtun.com).
Quercus
Taking its name from the Latin word for oak, this homely and affordable bar is where you want to end up at 4am, surrounded by glinting bottles and comforting wood, drinking bargains from Watanabe-San's excellent selection of single-cask Scotch and Japanese delicacies.
• Okuma Boulevard B1, Higashi-Ikebukuro (+81 3 3986 8025).
Bar High Society
HQ of the Japanese branch of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, this bar occupies a whole corner on the 27th floor of the Park Hotel. You may need a stiff drink when you see the prices, but the view is worth it. Sip from one of the society's many exclusive malts, and watch the skyscrapers light up as the sun sets behind Mount Fuji.
• Shiodome Media Tower, Higashi Shimbashi, Minato-ku (+81 3 6252 1111, parkhoteltokyo.com).
The Keio Plaza Hotel (+81 3 3344 0111) has doubles from about £200. British Airways flies from Heathrow to Tokyo from £685.
