Hot Diggity Doitsu-Fest!

Prost!! Last night Akemi and I went down to the recently opened Red Brick Warehouse restaurant/bar complex at MM21, Sakuragicho for Yokohama's own take on Octoberfest. Let me tell you, the Japanese are kings at mimicry, and they know how to do up a German Octoberfest almost as well as the Germans! On hand was a multitude of imported German draft biers, including lagers, pilsners, and dark beers. We enjoyed a fantastic weissbier and a dark beer, which was more like a bock than a stout. By the way, I have no clue what the hell I'm talking about -- I just really like beer. The prices were a little steep at about ¥700-¥1,000 a glass. Plus, you had to add in an additional ¥1,000 deposit for the glass. When you return the glass, you get your deposit back. The glasses were nice, but not worth ¥1,000. Of course, there was great food for sale; we had a plate of shnitzel with sauerkraut. I spotted some izikaya foods for sale as well, including edamame and gyoza! Entertaining the partiers inside the main tent was an authentic oompah-pah band from Deutschland, which kept the crowd manic with multiple "ein, swei, trei, zoofahs". At one point there was a conga line going around the entire perimeter, turning the place into a veritable moshpit. We spent the majority of the time out on the patio enjoying the cool, breezy October evening. Tonight is the last night of the festivities, which is too bad! I would have enjoyed to go back around my birthday!

So, here's to the Japanese doin' it Deutsche-style! Ein prosit!!