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I've just been reading some about Japanese whiskey and some that age on/in Japanese oak and the thought occurred to me: I've never seen, nor heard, of Japanese oak. Not what flavors it imparts, on any toast level, nor able to buy it at all. I just did an Amazon search and found nothing.

Anybody ever seen any Japanese oak, or had any opportunity to get hold of some, or know anything about it?

From the web, re flavor.

Japanese oak (Quercus mongolica)
Also known as mizunara oak, this type of wood is used in the Japanese whisky industry. Mizunara has been used since the 1930s and gives the whisky a unique set of flavours. The wood has extremely high levels of vanillins but is soft and very porous, making the casks made from mizunara oak very prone to leaking and easily damaged. As a result, the practice of maturing whisky was modified in order to reduce these factors. Now most Japanese whisky is matured in either bourbon or sherry casks and then transferred to mizunara casks to gain its flavoursome characteristics.

Flavour key words - vanilla, honey, floral - blossom, fresh fruit - pears, apples, spice - nutmeg, cloves, wood.

Wow, I need to get some of that oak. I'd checked some supplies sites I normally get wood and such from and nobody had it; I should've just googled to just get flavor notes at least, thank you. I did HD search the forum and noted that it's almost impossible to get this stuff in the U.S. dangit...

So, old thread by figured I'd throw a comment to see if things have changed in the last 5 years - does anyone know where to get any Mizunara staves or chunks from?