This Month on Maction Planet – October 2025

Three Kanpai Planet videos this month. To paraphrase the greatest advert of all time, “with this drinks content, you’re really spoiling us!” Also guiding – you know, the day job – and the usual Tokyo highlights. Plus, this edition comes to you from Kagoshima, but I’ll save that for next month. Life on Maction (and Kanpai) Planet is NEVER dull. We continue…

Featured image: Happy Halloween from Mac and Sorakara, the Toyko Skytree’s mascot character. With Tokyo sprawling 350 metres below us at the observation deck, we struck our best scary poses together, at her insistence!

The month began with one of the most involved videos I have ever edited. I was challenged by Jeff Whisky to choose one Japanese Whisky distillery for life. This could have been a five minute video… but no… I’m me, and this is Kanpai Planet. Not only do you get to hear about almost every expression released from the winning distillery, you also find out my rational for picking it in exceptional detail. Click now!

Many of my guests, like the Williams-Martins, want to learn about Japanese sake AKA nihonshu. Luckily for all involved, I am a dual-certified sake sommelier with a distinction in the WSET Level 3 sake qualification. This is not a a boast – it is a PSA so you can avail yourselves of this service when you are in Japan. Satisfaction guaranteeed – just look at those smiles!

Jessica and her gang of friends who have all known each other for a long time pretended to like each other long enough to take this photo! And within a month, I was guiding Jessica’s friends, Lucy and Ruaraidh, who she recommended get in touch!

Always great to catch up with the one and only Sake Nomad, Cindy. BONUS: this surprise sake tasting with Hidehiro Yamazaki, President and Toji of @sansyouraku_sake!

You want the moon on a stick!

Hopefully all of you got that Fist of Fun reference.

I attended the final day of Moon Art Night Shimokita, the neighbourhood’s fourth annual lunar art festival coinciding with autumn’s harvest moon. The highlight was UK artist Luke Jerram’s spectacular seven-metre ‘Museum of the Moon’ installation—a floating sphere featuring detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface, suspended above the Shimokita Senrogai complex. This celebration of tsukimi, Japan’s ancient moon-viewing tradition dating back to the Heian period, transformed Shimokitazawa into an open-air gallery. Large.

It was an honour to be the guide for the Jewelery Group’s annual retreat, which this year was to Japan. Yes, I do guide large groups. The only critieria is that it is private.

On 7 October, I was honured to be invited to the Sumo Associations 100th anniversary celebrations. As there are already photos of actual wrestlers in this post, here is a photo of the sign marking this auspicious event!

I am not a dual-certified whisky sommerlier (yet) but if you want to know why you should book a whisky tasting with us, check out EVERYTHING ON YOUTUBE.COM/KANPAIPLANET! That is exactly what Renee did, which led to me hosting her family and friends on 10 October!

I’m honoured to bring you the world’s first in-depth review of the FINAL Karuizawa expression from Number One Drinks – a legendary release marking the 70th anniversary of Japan’s most mythologised distillery. Karuizawa: Once in a Lifetime is exactly what the name suggests. Just 145 bottles exist. The liquid spans the distillery’s entire existence – from the 1960s through to 2000, the final year of production. This isn’t just whisky; it’s liquid history in a glass. Wanna watch me drink so premium whisky? Now is your chance!

We all feel like this sometimes…

By the way, I ended up at Hakkakubeya because I made a video about trying their own receipe chanko nabe at a Tokyo Sumo tournament and somene with the surnamne Hakkau watched it and specifically wanted to visit here. We make things happen.

That video only has 447 views at time of writing. I mention that because often we content creators, myself included, focus on view counts. It is not the number of views but the quality of the views that count. Always nice to receive a reminder of that.

I was honoured to be on the guest listt for the 2025 Technics DMC DJ World Championships. No one photo can capture this epic event. Here is one of my favourites. This is DJ Rena, the youngest ever World DMC Champion, who won the title in 2017 at the age of 12, breaking a 20-year-old record. What a honour to chat to this absolute legend.

Attending this event was truly a bucket list goal for me, and for the 40th anniversary event to be held right on my doorstep was a dream come true. Thanks to my buddy Nick Eggworm for the invite.

The next morning, and I mean morning – 06:25 flight – it was straight down to Kyushu, specifically Fukuoka and Kitakyushu, for some tourism consulting work. I did a decent amount of this during the pandemic, and I like to help out the local areas of Japan when asked. Here’s me with the devastatingly beautiful Kokura Castle!

After an 06:18 bullet train I returned to Tokyo and went straight into guiding this amazing family around Akihabara. Yes, there is so much to see and do there a whole tour can be focused on it!

Don’t mind me, just having a laugh with the lads [Tatsunamibeya – 15 October 2025]

Thank you to Dorkos choosing Maction Planet for the Terrible Towel. Created by legendary broadcaster Myron Cope in 1975, the Terrible Towel, it is not an iconic piece of Pittsburg Steelers culture! Proceeds from Terrible Towel sales benefit the Allegheny Valley School, a very worthy cause.

Thank you Olivia and Dan for trusting Maction Planet with planning your honeymoon, guding you… and for the Taro Okamoto New Era cap!

This one line does not even come close to capturing their amazingness.

Speaking of amazing, it was great to spend two days with Ben, Aaron and Tiffany!

Eli is a fan of Kanpai Planet who reached out wanting to meet up. He took me out for dinner, bringin along one of the absolute most incredible red wines I have EVER had, and then we went out drinking possibility the rarest line up of whiskies open in Tokyo right now. Thank you for your support. Kanpai!

Marc and Jackie booked two days with Kanpai Planet. This is our final photo together!

On 23 October I took up in the first My Japan Story SLAM, organised by the inimitable James Scott Brew. Me and nine other storytellers gathered in the Baird Beer Nakameguro Taproom to share stories centred around the theme of transformation. What an honour to be selected for the first event. What am I pointing at? You had to be there to find out!

Jonelle Patrick, Japan mystery author and all round wonderful person, treated me to something special in return for helping review her latest masterpeice which I am so excited for you all to read because it is DEVASTATINGLY GOOD! What exactly? Stay tuned to find out!

And yes, I do have a new favourite shirt!

Mark and Terry Ann booked a whisky tasting because they wanted to meet in the venue where the magic happens! What a lovely evening – until their taxi driver unceremoniously drove off! Before that, we prioritised quality over quantity and had a wonderful session!

Aloha Whisky Rising 26 – the first in a new series titled ‘The A to Z’ of Scotch, kicked off with ABC. I got 12/14 in the quiz and won my session. My prize – a glencairn from Korea with accompanaying 3D-printed barrel case for it! Notice that I only ever mention my score when I do well. These things are tough!

Gotokuji never gets old.

Pete, Lisa and Shaun were wonderful guests for a day of Maction that took us East to West, finishing at the world’s most famous statue of a dog! It was their only day outisde Disney, and we definitely made the most of it!

Lucy and Ruaraidh, mentioned above, were the first people on Earth to not like Cremia. I’m still in shock!

Fellow Brit Mitsuko Uchida may be the GOAT of Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas – Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109, Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110 and Piano Sonata No. 32 in C Minor, Op. 111. In my mind there is no ‘may’ about it!

And finally… Four Roses bourbon is up for sale. But what does this mean for the iconic Kentucky distillery – and why is its owner, Kirin Holdings, really letting it go? In this episode, Mac breaks down the strategy behind one of whisky’s biggest stories of 2025. Discover how a Japanese conglomerate’s pivot away from alcohol is reshaping the spirits industry, who might swoop in as a buyer, and what this could mean for whisky fans worldwide. Is this move genius or a calculated gamble? You won’t believe what Kirin is betting on instead.

Maction Planet runs bespoke Private Tours and Experiences in Tokyo, and beyond. To book yours, or to purchase a gift card, contact us at info@mactionplanet.com

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