Olympian visiting, looking for Yamazaki

Hey guys!
I'm visiting tokyo/Osaka now until next week. Might be the only chance I have in a while, I think the games are likely to be postponed. I wanted to start building a personal whiskey collection. I tried for the first time the other day a hakushu 12 and in the past a Yama 12. I think I'm in love.
Anyhow, I went hunting for a Yama 18 or hakushu and after visiting over 30 stores haven't found a single bottle at retail or even just slightly above. Only the vastly inflated prices that I can't afford. Anyone have any suggestions? I was going to try to pm kiwiwhisky2016 but I don't know how to submit a dm.
I'm in Osaka for the next 3 days then Tokyo. Thanks for any suggestions!

Update: went to like 30 stores today in Osaka. Didn't find a bottle of Yama 18 under 70,000 or hakushu 12 under 23,000.
Starting to wonder if there's a smarter way of doing this. Tried calling shops too but often I was actually hung up on when I asked.

Unfortunately, you will not find many of those bottles in stores for a reasonable price or at all. My understanding is that Japanese whiskeys have become so popular over the last decade or so, that distilleries cannot keep up with the demand. Several years ago there was a TV drama based on the founder of the Nikka distillery and whiskey sales increased locally. Once foreigners got a taste of Japanese whiskey, exporting increased and tourists started snatching them up, as well. Distilleries have been pretty strict about who gets them now and in some cases have discontinued some of the premium blends and aged single malts. I was going to suggest going to the Yamazaki distillery in Osaka, but with the corona virus the distillery has suspended public access.

Really sad about this, tbh. oh well, the hunt continues!

This topic was discussed here in a long thread about 3 years ago, when the hunting was still productive. Nowadays, all you can really find is bottles with no years. I'm afraid you're a little late to the hunt. Good luck.

Sorry, I don't get it. You seem to have found the type of whiskey you are looking for, only you dont like the price, right? Well, this seems to be the price people are prepared to spend for it... so unlikely you are going to find it anywhere considerably cheaper.

Likebike, whiskey in Japan has sold two ways. One as a retail seller in which you sell at the MSRP or one as a reseller. Retail the whiskey might go for 250$ but resale 900. But when people ask here for retail suggestions they're looking for the shops which might sell retail, of which there are a lot. The stocks are very limited though.