Yesterday I visited the small district of Tokyo known as Yebisu (or Ebisu, the “Y” is intentionally archaic and doesn’t affect the pronunciation). Yebisu is most famously known as a brand of beer in Japan, owned and bottled by Sapporo Breweries.
The premiere tourist spot in Yebisu is the “Yebisu Garden Place,” a beer-themed shopping and dining area. After speed walking, Bionic Woman – style, along what seemed like no less than fifty moving walkways, I finally emerged at the entrance of the Garden Place.
Yebisu Garden Place is a trip to Sapporo for those who are afraid of flying. Upon walking into the central plaza, I was immediately greeted by the same red brick buildings I had seen at the Sapporo Brewery in Hokkaido.
In fact, Yebisu Garden Place contains replicas of many of the exact same tourist spots one can see in Sapporo. Examples include a nearly identical Sapporo Beer Museum and a Beer Station Restaurant that features a fake façade lifted directly from the original brewery.
During the summer, free movies are shown Saturday through Monday in an outside amphitheater. Yesterday’s movie was Michael Moore’s SiCKO. I’m not sure exactly when the film was scheduled to begin, but the smattering of Japanese viewers I saw seemed to be sitting in their seats for hours. They were still waiting when I left for home.
B.E.W.
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