Muskblog

In 1992 I first visited Japan.

Two years after touring whisky distilleries in Scotland, and almost ten years after touring Yoichi Distillery in Hokkaido Japan, I returned to Japan to tour twelve more distilleries to learn more about how whisky, shochu and even gin is made.

This is either the most anticipated portion of my trip to Japan or the least.

Having landed in Tokyo, taken a brief sojourn to Chichibu and then travelled all over Kyushu with Rascal + Thorn, I said my “goodbyes” and travelled alone by train to Nara, Japan’s oldest capital.

In March of 2026 I returned to Japan for the first time in decade.

I’ve been back from Japan for little over a week.

Thankful to be going on vacation in less than 48 hours, it is a testament to how busy I’ve been that I’ve barely blogged about it and did considerably less planning than I did for my trip to Scotland two years ago.

Twenty twenty-five was another long year and January 2026 also looks to be a long demanding month.

They say the first 20 years of blogging are the hardest.

In September of 2025, I officially start my next online certification program, the Certificate in Python for Finance.

On June 15th, I completed the CFA® Institute’s Data Science for Investment Professionals Certificate.

This could have been a bittersweet blog post, but I’m both optimistic Murder by Death will play again, they are literally still on their farewell tour, and I’ve had to overcome a lot of technical difficulties in order to update my blog at all since seeing…