The Phoenix gathering is on Nov 30 (Fri) the first day of the three day gun show.
Yep, some of the Japanese single malts are real good, Nikka makes a wonderful label called the Yoichi and some others. Suntory has a few too but the Yamazaki label is available in the States. Unfortunately the better Yoichi can only be found in Japan.
If you show up at Phoenix, I'll try to see if I can scrape up a bottle of Yamazaki from one of my secret underground shady contacts there.
Dainippon was a beer brewery which was separated into two beer companies "Sapporo" and "Asahi" by the GHQ after the war. A two-for-one deal !