Munich’s legendary Oktoberfest comes to Osaka this autumn with the return of Tenshiba Oktoberfest. Just like its Bavarian namesake, for 24 days, a small slice of Tennoji Park becomes a free-to-enter beer garden with covered seating and a rain-or-shine schedule. There will be more than 60 varieties of German beer on tap, from crisp pilsners and pale ales to rich wheat beers and seasonal specials, and even a beer brewed especially for Japan: Alcobräu’s Weissbier Krone.
To match the beer, the gaudy get-together lays on some of the most indulgent food there is, from genuine German pub grub like bratwursts and currywursts to the not-so-Bavarian Hiroshima oysters, steak, spareribs, mussels, pizza and platters of prosciutto and salami. Each Saturday, Sunday and public holiday, the festival atmosphere gets amplified by four performances from the lively Maria & Alpenbuam, a German-style band led by the aptly named ‘Queen of Beer Halls’.
