Steak and Beer (a restaurant on the 5th floor of Amu Plaza) had its semi-annual beer fest from Saturday to Tuesday. I got up to Amu at 8:30 PM after finishing my last lessons at the school Saturday evening (so, yeah, it was dark out). I had dinner waiting for me at home, so I didn't feel like buying any of the food here, which included rather pricey steak plates, loaves of bread, yaki-soba, sausages and other regular Japanese dishes. On the alcohol side, there were booths for Sapporo and Asahi beer, a bar selling cocktails, someone else selling shochu, and four non-big brand groups. One had Pauliner beer (from Germany), one was the Shiroyama Hotel with their own brews, one brewery that specializes in weird fruit beers, and the Kirishima Brewery.
I wasn't in the mood for Pauliner, and I had the weird fruit beers before (they don't taste all that great). I was tempted to get something from the Kirishima table, but I eventually settled on buying the 4 glass sampler from Shiroyama Hotel for 1000 yen ($9 USD). Generally, I like the Shiroyama stuff (a White, an ale, an IPA and a stout), but for some reason they all tasted off that night. I'd had to do some shopping at Donkey on the way up to Amu plaza, and I'd gotten a chocolate egg containing a Mario Odyssey figure at the same time. But there were fifteen minutes from when I finished the egg and when I got the beers, so I'm not sure if the chocolate threw my taste buds off. Either way, I just wasn't happy with any of the four beers. After that, I went home for dinner.
A few years ago, when the festa started, they had a large live stage, and a few of the local bands would play on the weekend. Last year, they scaled back and just had a few female pop singers performing. This time, there's nothing. Just the platform in the middle of the floor for making announcements. Sigh.
As a recap, the weather Saturday was beautiful. On Sunday it was cool and cloudy. Monday, it rained all day. I had two classes in the middle of the afternoon on Monday, which were the last two before the big 10-day Golden Week holiday. I don't get paid if I don't teach classes, so this break, which was lengthened by 3 days to include the crowning of the new Emperor, is actually incredibly inconvenient. Anyway, I had oden at home, and finally figured I'd go back up to Amu before the beer fest ended at 9 PM, and get the Kirishima Brewery sampler (3 beers for 1000 yen; a pilsner, a dark pilsner, and some type I'd never heard of before). Those were much better than the hotel ones from Saturday. And now, to settle in and not spend money for 10 days...
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