Beer fest on this side of the pond

One night Jame was flipping through the Kansai Times (a magazine for foreigners that includes activities and events around the area). He came across an ad titled "International Beer Summit". We were a little bummed out that we had just missed the beer fest back home, so we were stoked about this one. We obviously didn't have to think twice about going -- so we made some phone calls to some of our friends. Since it started early on Friday and ended at 10pm, no one was able to make it because of work...dang work!!!

Anyway, my friends Yumi & Miho decided to join us after work. This beer fest was held at the base of the Umeda Sky Building (refer to the entry on 'Our most recent day off' for some photos of this place). This event was slightly different then what were used to. Admission was free and you didn't have to purchase tickets...instead you you pay for either 200ml of beer or 1 bottle. It was kind of expensive so we had to carefully choose what we wanted to drink. Each tent varied in price -- some were 200 yen for a small glass, while others charged 400 yen. Bottles ranged from 600 - 800 yen.

The first beer I had was a little reminiscent of home.....good ol' Hoegaarden....my beverage of choice at Bimini's......right Rossco?


Once Yumi & Miho arrived we started drinking. Unfortunately Canada didn't make an appearance, but there were plenty of other delicious beers to choose from. We had the traditional Heineken and Kilkenny, and then tried some others. There was a microbrewery from Kyushu which was advertising a blueberry beer. It may sound a little odd, but it was DELICIOUS!!

I also tried another flavoured beer...this strawberry brew was from Belgium. Initially it was tasty, but then it got too sweet. This brewery also had other interesting flavours like apricot, grapefruit, lemon and even banana! Belgium's table had won a medal for the best beer at last year's beer fest. Jame decided to give it a try. I thought it was too strong as it was 12% alcohol, but Jame really liked it! Here is a photo of him wearing the medal with the people from the Belgium tent (yes...that's right....the other people in the picture are Japanese...not from Belgium..ha ha ha).


We drank a lot of good beer that night from countries such as Italy, Mexico, Denmark, India, and Thailand. We were lucky that we didn't get rained on because all day it was pouring rain. Even though it wasn't raining it was SUPER windy. A typhoon was passing over the country which explained the weird weather. Typhoons are quite common in Japan and they make me a little bit nervous. My friends told me I had nothing to worry about as we were safe in Osaka, but they still couldn't help having a laugh at my expense everytime a strong gust of wind would pass through. They would say "Sara....typhoon....ahhhhhhh!!" It was pretty funny!


This beer fest wasn't our best ever and we know that is because you guys weren't here with us! Even though we missed you guys...we are happy that we had the opportunity of experiencing a beer fest (or 'summit' as they like to call it) on this side of the world!

As we were walking to the train station we heard these guys jammin'. As we walking by we danced to their music and they saw us and said "America"? We said "No ..no....no...Canada". Once they heard this the bust out in a SUM 41 song! It was cool!

October 6, 2006