This Month on Maction Planet – June 2026

June opened with me guiding at Tokyo DisneySea and closed with me making whisky on Rishiri Island, with plenty packed in between: Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Izu, and a steady run of guiding days for returning and first-time guests alike. Highlights included the Nintendo Museum and Katsuo-ji’s daruma in Kansai, a deer reunion in Nara, the Japan Burger Championship in full swing, and a thoroughly miserable evening for the Swallows at Kyocera Dome [a highlight?]. On the Kanpai Planet side, we published our Rishiri Distillery Quadrilogy, four videos covering one of Japan’s most remote and fascinating whisky producers. Timely, as it turned out: on 25 June I flew up to the island myself to begin a month-long stay interning with Kamui Whisky KK. Here we go!

Featured image: Here I am at Katsuo-ji, the famous Daruma temple just outside Osaka, where thousands of the red dolls are stacked on wooden shelves up some steps, each marked with signs reading “photo spot.” So I didn’t mind if I did.

Founded in 765 in the hills above Minoh, the temple earned its name and reputation after Emperor Seiwa was said to have recovered from illness following prayers there in the ninth century, and Katsuo-ji has been associated with victory and good fortune ever since. Daruma themselves are meant to inspire exactly that: you paint one eye on when you make a wish, the other when it comes true.

The month began with a visit to Tokyo DisneySea with John, Kimberly, Lizzie, Nick and Sarah. Regular readers will remember them from last month, as they’d arrived on Friday 29 May for two weeks around Japan, guided by me. At DisneySea we continued the efficient and effective pace set on our first few days together, hitting every ride we wanted to and eating steadily throughout, which at the Tokyo Disney Parks is non-negotiable. By 17:45 we called it a day, having done everything we wanted to!

Sarah got very excited when she saw this sign, given her tour guide’s name.

It’s actually a hair salon in Shibuya!

Here’s the gang at teamLab Borderless in Azabudai Hills on the morning of 3 June before we caught the bullet train to Kyoto.This room is Bubble Universe, an installation filled with hundreds of hanging spheres of light. As you move through the space, the spheres respond to your presence: stand near one and it brightens, then passes that light along to its neighbours, creating waves of illumination that ripple through the room.

Having arrived in Kyoto on that afternoon, 4 June was given over to the sites of west and north Kyoto, including, naturally, the unmissable Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion. The obligatory selfie was duly taken.

We’d already had a geisha dinner in Tokyo, as readers of last month’s edition of This Month on Maction Planet will know. This maiko, despite training for around two years, still managed to beat me at all the drinking games!

Having won the lottery for tickets, we made sure we made the most of our visit to the Nintendo Museum in Uji on 5 June. This was our final photo on our way out, having stopped at Hatena Burger, made our own hanafuda cards in the workshop, sized up the gift shop, played far too many of the interactive games to count and spent substantial time in the museum proper!

Virtual Boys on tour. ‘Nuff said

Yes – Nara, where I was reunited with my frenemies. The deer of Nara Park are considered sacred messengers of the gods, which doesn’t stop them being absolute menaces when food is involved, but there’s no denying they’re cute and ludicrously photogenic.

Six attempts went into trying to win the Myaku-Myaku in this photo, a UFO catcher prize from a GiGO arcade. 1200JPY. Worth it.

On the way out, Nick had a go and got one on his very first attempt. Not only that, he won a variant where two of the eyes are winking. To say I was jealous is an understatement!

Our final photo together. Saying goodbye to the Crane family was emotional one. Sarah, in particular, found it especially hard to keep it together, and so did I, even if neither of us let on too much at the time. Our very large smiles hide the very large saddness.

It was a genuine honour to be their guide for their Pan-Japan tour.

I needed cheering up, so I went straight to the Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka, currently showing Enfants Terribles, Premonitions of Oblivion — running from 25 April to 20 July 2026 — a group exhibition of three Osaka-defining contemporary artists: Yasumasa Morimura, Miwa Yanagi and Kenji Yanobe.

This is Yanobe’s Ship’s Cat, his long-running series of catstronauts, conceived as guardian spirits to protect travellers, here in chrome and orange with a glowing green eye, eyeing me from inside its glass helmet.

I followed that with a trip to the Kyocera Dome Osaka to watch my beloved Tokyo Yakult Swallows take on the Orix Buffaloes. They lost 8–4, their sixth consecutive defeat, in what was a fairly grim game. The beer was also only half full. Still, a good time was had by all?

On 11 June I took the first bullet train from Shin-Osaka to Tokyo and went straight into an eight-hour tour with Michael and Varick. The third time we’ve toured together, and always a pleasure to reunite. Old hands at Tokyo by now, but there’s always a new neighbourhood to show them, and on this occasion, a way into one of the hottest pizza spots in town, sold out and unreachable at short notice to anyone trying to book it themselves.

On 12 June I headed to Izu for some travel consulting work. The itinerary included which a trip up Mount Omuro. A dormant volcano that last erupted around 4,000 years ago, it’s now a perfectly conical green hill. Climbing on foot is banned to protect the grass, and the only way up is by chairlift. Worth it for the 360-degree views alone: the Izu coastline, Mt Fuji on a clear day, and the Pacific stretching out beyond.

The next day saw another highlight of the trip: Maboroshi Hakurankai, in the hills above Ito, an open-air warren that defies any kind of sensible description. Sera-chan, the founder and curator, describes it as a museum charting the last century or so of Japan, though that barely covers it. One photo, a hundred, or even a thousand wouldn’t do the place justice, but here’s one anyway!

Congratulations to Ebisu BLACOWS on winning the Japan Burger Championship this year, held on 14 June in Yokohama. Chef Takano Obito lifted the title with a black-bun burger built around mujiangyou oil, spicy tomato sauce and coriander. It was a brutally close final: Niimi Kaori of Ju the burger lost out by just 0.05 of a point, a heartbreaking runner-up finish for the third year running. The championship itself, running since 2013 and now in its 13th year, sends its winner each October to the World Food Championships in America, this year held in Indianapolis. Good luck to Team BLACOWS AKA Team Japan!

This photo was taken at 1800 on 15 June at end of a ten-and-a-half-hour tour with Lorraine and family that began with watching morning sumo practice and ended back at their hotel. In between, we covered multiple neighbourhoods, immersed ourselves in traditional culture, and ate constantly. A fun, full day.

It was an honour to guide Jodi, Seth and family around the World’s Greatest Metropolis for an eight-hour tour on 19 June. A recommendation from Alicia, a guest who toured with us back in 2018, and it was a pleasure not only to show this family Tokyo, but to help set them up for the rest of their trip.

It was privilege to guide Talia, Scott and family around the world’s greatest metropolis on 21 and 22 June, introducing them to a mix of traditional culture and, as ever, food. Our two days together ended right here, at Shibuya Crossing.

Together again for the first time… with Mac. Not me, the other Mac: a hand-drawn face taped to a cardboard box, dreamt up in the early years of filming Kanpai Planet videos solo at Aloha Whisky, when I needed something to lock the camera’s focus on before stepping into frame myself. I found him tucked away in the bar’s storeroom, right where I’d left him. This shot was taken during something of a retirement party for him. Thank you for your service, old friend.

Alongside all the guiding, travel consulting and more, June also saw the release of the Rishiri Distillery Quadrilogy on Kanpai Planet, four parts tracing the story of Kamui Whisky, Japan’s northernmost distillery. Part one goes back to May 2024, when I travelled up to fill my own owner’s cask with new make under the guidance of master distiller Javier Negrete. Part two is a deep dive into that new make recipe and how the whisky is actually produced, again with Javier front and centre. Part three is a tasting of the resulting spirit with founder Casey Wahl. And part four closes things out with a podcast-style interview, Casey chronicling the trials and tribulations of setting up a distillery on one of Japan’s most remote islands.

And, speaking of the Rishiri Distillery… on 25 June I landed on Rishiri Island to begin one month working with Kamui Whisky KK! I was met at the airport by Toshi, who took me straight to the distillery where I got stuck into things immediately.

I then enjoyed Rishiri Town’s annual festival that night. What a coincidence! The next day I got involved in some more work, and then we had a barbeque with our friends from the Tankyu Distillery. Saturday was the 4th annual Kamui Whisky Festival…

… during which Javier Negrete unveiled the first aged liquid to be publicly tasted on the island – 2 years and 8 months old and absolutely stunning. The festival rounded out with a fireworks display. The morning after the night before, the distillery team met up at 09:00 on Sunday, and we cleaned the beach area around the distillery.

I also got to present Chris, the winner of the competition in video 3 of the Rishiri Distillery Quadrilogy, with his prize of a bottle of 2024 Kamui Genshu!

Monday 29 June was my first day proper at the distillery, and my senpai, Masato taught me all about milling! On the second day, I was basically left to mill the malt for one batch by myself! Look at the pride on that face!

Members of the Kanpai Planet Club – sign up at kanpaiplanet.com/join – will be getting exclusive updates throughout my time at the distillery, just like they got early access to the quadrilogy!

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