Shizuoka distillery (静岡蒸溜所) now offers its guided tour in 10 languages through a smartphone audio guide, removing the language barrier for foreign visitors to one of Japan’s best-known craft whisky makers. Operator Gaiaflow (ガイアフロー) announced the system on September 30, 2026; according to the company it has been available since August 1. The narration plays on visitors’ own phones in step with the Japanese-speaking guide, and there is no charge beyond the regular ¥1,100 tour fee.
How the guide works
The 10 languages are Japanese, English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Thai. The script covers 20 stops around the distillery, with roughly 60 minutes of narration in each language. Visitors connect to the distillery’s free Wi-Fi, scan a QR code and choose a language in the browser; no app is needed. Playback is triggered by the tour guide, so everyone in a mixed group hears the explanation for each stop at the same moment in their own language. The audio is downloaded in advance so it does not cut out in parts of the building with weak reception. Gaiaflow recommends bringing earphones, and there is no device rental or deposit.
Gaiaflow says overseas visitors to the tour have risen every year as interest in Japanese whisky has grown, while explanations were given mainly in Japanese. Founder and CEO Taiko Nakamura (中村大航) said the distillery already used a written script for its Japanese tours and had offered English-language tours from a translated script, but only under various constraints, which left many foreign visitors underserved. The new translations were produced with the help of AI, he said. The company plans to add more languages and to use anonymous responses from an optional post-tour survey to improve the tour.
What visitors come to see
The tour is built around features that are rare anywhere in whisky: wood-fired direct distillation using thinned timber as fuel, and fermentation vessels made from Shizuoka cedar. Gaiaflow was founded in 2012, built the distillery in the mountains north of Shizuoka city and began distilling single malt in 2016. Its first release, Prologue K, came out in 2020, and its Pot Still series separates whiskies by the origin of the barley. Our Shizuoka distillery guide covers the history, including the equipment it inherited from the closed Karuizawa distillery.
What it means for international visitors
For readers planning a trip to Japan, this makes Shizuoka one of the easier craft distilleries to tour without Japanese. Many visitor programs at Japanese distilleries are still run mainly in Japanese, and at the most famous site, Suntory’s Yamazaki, even getting a tour place depends on a lottery. Shizuoka is also recognized abroad: in 2024 its Pot Still W Pure Japanese Barley First Edition won the top Japanese small-batch single malt award at the World Whiskies Awards. Tour dates and booking details are listed on the distillery’s official website, and it is worth checking them before you travel, as the release does not give a tour schedule.
Source: PR TIMES / Gaiaflow (Japanese)