Tokyo Grande Biere Festival 2010

In a departure from the ordinary, I ventured into town yesterday (Saturday 24th April) to attend an annual beer festival. Full details can be found here. Although I generally like the mass produced Japanese beer, one thing that I really miss about Scotland is the great variety of beers and ales produced by small scale local breweries e.g. the Isle of Skye Brewery. It was therefore a pleasure and an education to attend the beer festival and discover that Japan also had a number of small scale micro breweries that produce some fine beers.

The event was held in an area of Tokyo called Roppongi at Midtown Hall. Roppongi has long had a bad reputation as being a bit of a den of iniquity but has gentrified in recent times and seems to be where the cool and wealthy people live and like to spend their time these days.

As well as a goodly selection of beers (about 60 in total), there was also a selection of food which perfectly complemented the liquid refreshments. My personal favourite were the meat ball and cheese rolls - not particularly healthy, but fantastic none the less. The 5 hours in the hall passed quickly as I meandered around the hall with a couple of American friends, refilling the small tasting glasses provided to us on our arrival. The atmosphere was laid back and it was certainly a pleasure to watch everyone else enjoy their beers.

Towards the end of the day, there was an announcement that said prizes would be given to those who had a glass on which the logo of the lion also possessed a tongue. Upon close inspection of my glass, it turned out I was one of the lucky prize winners. I was given a t-shirt with the logo of one of the Japanese breweries and also a ¥2,000 yen discount voucher for the 2012 beer festival. I wonder how many of the winners will actually redeem these vouchers in 2012?

After leaving the beer festival in a merry state, my American friends insisted on a visit to a kebab shop they had discovered in a part of Tokyo called Akihabara. The journey there was longer than I had anticipated, but the kebabs were the best I have ever tasted. In the end, I had a stomach bloating 3 kebabs.

The weekend was improved still further when Yuki, Clara, and I went to Koganei Park today. The weather was lovely today (18C) and although we had to queue in the car for about an hour, once we got into the park, we lay on the ground-sheet we had taken with us or played catch. I am looking forward to having a weeks holiday soon (from 8th May) so the next 2 weeks at work should not be too hard to stomach.