Looking through the popular foreigner magazine Metropolis, my buddy Nick found an advertisement for the upcoming Oktoberfest which took place for a over a week in early October, just a stone's throw away in nearby Yokohama. Eventually, some of us made it out during the weekend in the early evening, hoping to make the most of our time there.
Upon arriving at the Yokohama train station, the event was taking place in a large outdoor tent, about a 20 minute walk away. On the way there we saw a number of street performers (common near the waterfront in Yokohama) and modern architecture.
Two of the more notable sights in Yokohama were also within view during the trek over to the Oktoberfest tent. First was the Landmark Tower - Japan's tallest building, also home to the world's second fastest elevator and also home to a 5 star hotel, numerous restaurants and office buildings. The other being Cosmo World a medium-sized amusement park development complete with concession stands, large Ferris wheel, log flume ride, and more - we would have tried some but each ride was pretty expensive!
When we finally arrived around 4:00, the place was packed with people and there were barely any seats available at the many benches and tables scattered throughout the set-up! To add to that, the lines for beer were all at least an 8 minute wait to be served a big frosty mug of German beer. They had many different brews imported directly from Germany and they used a system of charging you an extra $10 when they filled up your big glass mug, which you would get redeemed upon returning the glass. Lather, rinse repeat, and the process would begin anew when buying a new beer. It was a little bit of a hassle but I understand they would need to make sure people didn't run off with these huge mugs. I sampled around 4 or 5 different types and wow! they were great. Inside the tent where they sold all the food & drinks they periodically put on German dancing & music performances, as well as leading drinking songs. My friends and I all waited for our last beer to be the "stein" - the largest mug they had which held somewhere from 3 - 4 regular sized bottles of beer within it. Here are some photos of the crowds and the event.
Walking around in the outside area, we ran into a few other TUJ students as well as the official mascot for Oktoberfest - Klaus the Maus. The people at Oktoberfest were primarily Japanese with a few Americans & Europeans mixed in, I thought there would be more foreigners. But most of the Japanese there were very excited to speak to us and were same as always, extremely friendly.
Towards the end, the time was really just flying by until they closed shop at 9:00 pm. Before calling it quits and heading home, at my recommendation we decided to grab dinner in Yokohama's famous Chinatown district. Delicious food at a cheap price was the result. We got on one of the last trains home after another great day & night spent in Japan.
Till next time - (I gotta catch up, this happened 2 weeks ago!)
When we finally arrived around 4:00, the place was packed with people and there were barely any seats available at the many benches and tables scattered throughout the set-up! To add to that, the lines for beer were all at least an 8 minute wait to be served a big frosty mug of German beer. They had many different brews imported directly from Germany and they used a system of charging you an extra $10 when they filled up your big glass mug, which you would get redeemed upon returning the glass. Lather, rinse repeat, and the process would begin anew when buying a new beer. It was a little bit of a hassle but I understand they would need to make sure people didn't run off with these huge mugs. I sampled around 4 or 5 different types and wow! they were great. Inside the tent where they sold all the food & drinks they periodically put on German dancing & music performances, as well as leading drinking songs. My friends and I all waited for our last beer to be the "stein" - the largest mug they had which held somewhere from 3 - 4 regular sized bottles of beer within it. Here are some photos of the crowds and the event.
Walking around in the outside area, we ran into a few other TUJ students as well as the official mascot for Oktoberfest - Klaus the Maus. The people at Oktoberfest were primarily Japanese with a few Americans & Europeans mixed in, I thought there would be more foreigners. But most of the Japanese there were very excited to speak to us and were same as always, extremely friendly.
Towards the end, the time was really just flying by until they closed shop at 9:00 pm. Before calling it quits and heading home, at my recommendation we decided to grab dinner in Yokohama's famous Chinatown district. Delicious food at a cheap price was the result. We got on one of the last trains home after another great day & night spent in Japan.
Till next time - (I gotta catch up, this happened 2 weeks ago!)
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1 comment:
Looks great! Glad you're having a good time and learning a lot (are you?)
I hear there is a banana craze in Japan! You filling up?
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1850454,00.html
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