Woohoo!! Long four day weekend! Not sure what to do? How about a beer festival in Tsukuba?
From September 18th until September 27th, Suntory will be hosting a beer festival in the Tsukuba center area. This long weekend the festival will be on from 12:00p.m. to 10:00p.m.
This isn't the first time Suntory has done this. I went last year with the wife and a few friends. We all had a really good time. Awesome atmosphere, delicious beer and especially a lot of local Tsukuba businesses and Ibaraki restaurants came to cook their delicious food.
Pictures from last year!
Social Distance!
Last year was a lot of fun. Everyone was gathered together drinking merrily and just having a great time. This year however, because of corona, there are new rules in place. Social distancing, alcohol spray and gels, masks, the usual rules for this corona era. Also, if I am not mistaken from the Japanese I read on their event page, I believe that the maximum allowed customers will be 200. I am not sure how they are going to enforce that but we will see.
If the festival is anything like last year's festival, there will be a lot of people drinking Suntory Premium Malt and enjoying some good food from the food stalls around the festival. If memory serves me correctly, the way you order a beer or drink is, you first buy a ticket at the ticket booth from the main tent and then with your ticket you order your drink at another booth in the same tent. Last year's event had Premium Malt beer and a few other specialty beers from Suntory. Don't want to drink beer? Not a problem, there are cocktails and other drinks as well. My wife really wants to try the strawberry smoothies that are on the first picture of this post.
I will say that the beer isn't cheap, I believe the price for one Premium Malt beer might be 700 yen. The other specialty beers will probably be a bit more expensive. Kind of steep but it wasn't a small size when I had it last year. As for the food, I have to recommend Gold Kitchen.
The Menu
Gold Kitchen is a kebab food car from Kamisu city. They were my favorite food stall from last year's festival and they are coming back again this year. I am definitely getting one of their kebabs when I arrive at the festival. Their kebab menu is pretty big. They have cheese, avocado, teriyaki, curry, salsa, cheese avocado, cheese teriyaki, cheese curry, basil cheese, tomato cheese and otsumami kebab (which has no pita). That is a lot of kebabs. Last year, I ordered the cheese kebab and I was not disappointed. I loved it and I remember Gold Kitchen being very generous with the amount of cheese and meat in the kebab. I wanted to come back for more after I had my delicious kebab. Sadly, I ran out of yen after I ate my kebab back then, but I will be ready this year! Mark my words, I am going to order the basil cheese kebab the minute I get to the festival.
So if you are not sure what to do this long weekend, why not grab a beer and a delicious kebab at the Suntory Premium Beer Festival! You will definitely see me there. The wife and I are planning on checking it out Sunday night. So if you are at the festival during that time, come say hi and let's have a beer to toast this joyous event and long weekend.
Enjoy!
For more information on the beer festival, check out their Facebook page event:
And for more information on Gold Kitchen and how to follow them, check out their Facebook page:
Update!
Hey everyone! I just got back from the event and I had a great time.
This year is way different from last year, there are less food stalls and the event is kind of closed off from the rest of Tsukuba center but I still had a great time. The staff really kept everything clean. Whenever anyone would leave a table, the staff would wipe it down pretty quick.
The place to buy the tickets
The whole buy the ticket before the drink system is still the same as last year.
Drink menu
The drink menu is pretty much the same as last year and so are the prices. I tried the regular, dark and half and half Premium Malt. I highly recommend the half and half, it was pretty tasty.
Gold Kitchen's Basil Cheese Kebab
I said I was going to do it and I did. That kebab was delicious and my wife agrees. She made it clear that we were getting another kebab from this place before the event is over. We also got an order of the otsumami kebab. It is something nice to pick at while you are having your beer. I hope you can try one of these awesome kebabs while you are enjoying your refreshing beer.
This event is still going on till the 27th, so grab a beer and have a good time.
Enjoy!
Another Update!
It wouldn't be 2020 if we didn't get a typhoon or two. If you didn't know, a typhoon is heading to Japan this week. It will be hitting Ibaraki between Wednesday the 23rd and Thursday the 24th. Because of this, the Suntory Premium Malt Beer festival will be cancelled for those days. It will reopen Friday the 24th at a later time than usual, probably around 5.
Stay safe out there my fellow Ibarakians.
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