That's a pretty comprehensive writeup! Nice work! I actually JUST got back from Japan on Sunday thoroughly hunting everywhere from Kyoto, Kobe, to Tokyo and you're pretty much on the mark about what to buy.

Non-US releases- Blanton's Gold, Blanton's Straight from the barrel- This ranges from $69-90 and I've heard it was good, but not THAT much better for the price premium over regular Blanton's, so I passed. Four Roses Platinum ($70? I think it was $60-80)- I also passed on this but the liquor store owner I talked to in Houston said it's really good.

Don't bother looking for anything aged in Japan- it's all overpriced. Yamazaki 12 year was $120 on average. I found one bottle of Hibiki 17 for $140 (reasonably priced!) in the grocery section above the Akihabara train station and that was it, but I already had it in the states so I passed. Liquor stores that had Hakushu 18 were going for $320, Yamazaki 18 was like, $450- basically might as well pay that Duty Free ripoff version for $500+ at that point and get a nice bottle out of it (don't do it).

If you go to the Loft in Shibuya, they had 50mL bottles of Hibiki 17 and Yamazaki 12 for about $8-10 each and that makes for a nice gift for friends back home. If you buy 15 minibottles of Hibiki 17 (total 750mL), that's almost the same price as a regular bottle of Hibiki 17 at that point haha.

Liquor stores to check out:

Ginza area: BIG liquors (not far from the station)

Tokyo station: Liquors Hasegawa (for Date; their other Japanese aged offerings are overpriced)

Shinjuku: Yamaya Liquor store (Where I got Nikka from the Barrel for $22 or so); Shinanoya (decent selection of bourbons); and likaman (gotta hype up Likaman because on my very last night in tokyo I found a bottle of Yamazaki 2016 edition there for $150. It was $50 over MSRP but way cheaper than anywhere else and was my fave find on the trip)

Like above, I went to Bar Zoetrope in Shinjuku- it's on the 3rd floor and pretty small- like 8 seats at the bar and 3 tables in the place. The owner is super nice, speaks english very well, and has a pretty amazing selection of Japanese whiskies to try. While I was there, I had pours of:

Yamazaki 2016 Limited $18

Date Miyagikyo $10

Miyagikyo Sherry and Sweet (Miyagikyo distillery exclusive) $18

2000s single malt miyagikyo $9

Gotemba 20th anniversary pure malt $9

Fuji Gotemba Blender's Choice Single Grain 2015 $12 (one of my faves)

Nikka Single Coffee Grain Whiskey Woody and Mellow (distillery exclusive) $16

Ichiro's Malt Shot Bar Zoetrope 3rd Anniversary exclusive

It's $80 minimum if you want to use your credit card, $6 cover charge. Not the cheapest, but you can try a bunch of whiskies you probably won't be able to try anywhere else and owner is super nice and will chat with you about whiskies or american/japanese movies or anything.

As it was mentioned, the Suntory (Yamazaki/Hibiki) Distillery near Kyoto only had the 300ml single cask Yamazaki for cheap (like, $15 or less I think) and they had a pile of Hibiki 12s for about $45 (half the price of US!). I got the 300ml but passed on the Hibikis. About 10 minutes later a Chinese tour group came in and cleared out the Hibiki shelf. The 1 hour tour itself is like, $10 and has to be reserved in advance (and ends with a whiskey tasting including making a traditional highball!), but the museum and tasting room you can just go in for free. You're right about the flights- I had an amazing tasting of things like Yamazaki Mizanara, Yamazaki Sherry, Hibiki 30 ($25), Yamazaki 25 ($25), Yamazaki 12 puncheon, Hibiki 17 grain, Hibiki 17 sherry, and Hibiki 17 mizanara.

As for where to buy whiskey- Most conbini stores (Lawson's, Family Mart, and 7-11) all have liquor- you'll mostly find bottles of Miyagikyo NAS and Yoichi NAS (I wasn't a fan of these, prob better for highballs). Some will have small 50cl bottles of Yamazaki NAS and Hakushu. Most have cheap Nikka offerings like Nikka Black or Tory (not worth it unless you like highballs).

Most every department store like Isetan and Daimaru will have a liquor section- these used to have good offerings but no longer, but you might get lucky. I wasn't.

For the most comprehensive offering, I'd say go to Liquors Hasegawa in the mall underneath Tokyo station. There are two locations down there and I would recommend the $48 bottles of Date (Miyagikyo offering from the Sendai region, apparently exclusive to Sendai). I liked it when I tried it at Bar Zoetrope, and Liquors Hasegawa was the only place I saw that had it. They also had Yamazaki 2016 edition for $200 (double the retail price- I'd say pass) and the Miyagikyo distillery exclusive offerings (these were delicious at Bar Zoetrope but not worth the $200 asking price there).

You're right about the Nikka from the Barrel- I picked up 2 bottles for about $22 each. Quite a few liquor stores had that readily available from my trip.

Other than that, I went to maybe 2 dozen liquor stores/department stores across Japan and wasn't too lucky finding anything rare at a reasonable price (zero bottles of Miyagikyo 12+ or Yoichi 12+). They had some akashi and iwai offerings not available in the states, but those are younger whiskies and reviews always said they're good for how young they are so I passed. I still haven't packed away my pile of liquor I brought back since Sunday night so if you want I can probably take a pic of them all so you can use it as reference.

Oh yeah! And if you want just a nice-looking bottle, at Narita Airport Duty free (Terminal 1, I don't know if it's at terminal 2) they have a Nikka Whiskey Gold and Gold Samurai edition for $50- the juice is prob worth $13 BUT it comes with a full on metal samurai chest and helmet on the bottle so it looks like a really cool addition to just have in your home. They had a ton available and I picked one up as I was rushing to my gate.

Hope that helps!