First day of Hibiya Oktoberfest 08:

Just some brief info on the Oktoberfest 2008 in Hibiya park.

Pics of a busy first evening:
It's very dissapointing that the stage has been moved to right behind the one covered area. Its very small and mos tof the people can't se it and there's no space for friendly communal dancing. This part seems to be totally shite this year.
Loads of people around the fountain (which seems to have been cleaned up, so maybe I'll be scaling the centre for the third time, this year?):
Here's a quick drunken video I took:

Beer choices:

In one place you have the standard Bitburger/Erdinger for around 1300 a pint (plus deposit for glass).
At another you can splash out on some Franziskaner (nice eber but way overpriced) at 1500yen a pint.
The spaaten optimator and bock go for 1200 a pint:Or you could try the friendly local beer section:On offer are Yokohama beer and Fujisakura beer, both about 1,000yen a pint. Better value and the money is staying in Japan (I think).

Here's the new young brewer at Yokohama beer , smiling behind his bohemian pilsner:It wasn't bad. Would've liked a bit more bite, but not too bad.

Now the Fujisakura weiisen dunkle:Amazing smell. So much banana . Not a bad drink.

Next I treid the new Fujisakura Marzen:It was ok but not as good as the dunkle weissen.

I left the Oktoberfest as it was winding down. I'm thinking Saturday should be a big day. Friday was very buys but the guy at fujisakura is expecting 70 members of a weissbeer club and I7m expecting about 50 from Tim's beer club so it should be interesting.

Beer area to reccommend has got to be the Fujisakura beer section. I only hope they put in their rauch beer, instead of the marzen. Alas, the chief brewer told me he may stick it on when the dunkle wiessen runs out so drink it while you can.