沖縄の自尊心そして喜び (The Pride and Joy of Okinawa
Another year, another Orion Beer Festival aka just another excuse to get drunk at 4 in the afternoon.
Thirty minutes after the gates open and the place is already pretty packed. It only got worse from there. It goes without saying that beer, and Orion in particular, has a pretty huge following here in Okinawa.
Running concurrently with the Orion Beer Festival in a field right next door was the Okinawa City Eisa Festival. Eisa is pretty awesome, but I'm 99% sure the two festivals are held at the same time because five hours of eisa by itself isn't enough to hold people's attention. However, under the influence of cheap beer you might be able to hold out.
Jacqui and Miki can't help but be mesmerized by the eisa dancers rhythmic drumming. It's kind of like ancient Okinawan trance music.
Rachel and I took a break from all the eisa to teach teach people the proper way to squat over a Japanese toilet.
Back to the Orion Beer Festival. Typically at every festival known to man beer runs about 500 yen per cup. Not so at the Orion Beer Festival. Here you can get you drink on for as low as 150 yen for a can or Orion Southern Star up to 300 yen for a cup of Orion Draft. Can't Orion just slap it's name on every festival so we can all reap the benefits of cheaper beer?
And at the end their was the usual fireworks show, although this was probably the best I've seen yet. And I've been to like 15 billion Japanese festivals.
Question! How come whenever the Orion Beer Festival rolls into town, I always wind up being the designated driver? Life's just not fair sometimes.