Last week, after returning to Sapporo from Noboribetsu, I decided on the spur of the moment to go to the Sapporo tent in the beer festival again. It was packed, as usual, but I found a place to stand at a small table and had a beer. When I finished a girl came to clear away my glass.
There was a young Japanese couple standing at the table next to me. The guy saw me at the empty table and maybe he thought that I didn't know how to order another beer. He asked me if I wanted one and I thought: sure, why not. He flagged down a girl selling tickets and when I bought the ticket he took it to the counter for me to get my beer.
By this time I noticed the crowd was singing along to the music. It was pretty good, probably the latest J-Pop. I looked up some songs using the SoundHound app on my phone, showed it to the young couple and joked in Japanese that I was learning the latest Japanese music.
A while later the crowd got even more boisterous. Whole tables of people who didn't know each other had arms over shoulders, singing full out, swaying to the music. On the TV screens around the tent, a countdown appeared, and when it reached zero, all the staff in their yellow T-shirts lined up on either side of tent, arms raised, swaying to the music. By this time the young couple had left, so I asked someone else next to me what was going on. They told me that this was the end of the beer festival.
Wow, talk about timing. One of those times when following the flow of the moment really pays off.
There was a young Japanese couple standing at the table next to me. The guy saw me at the empty table and maybe he thought that I didn't know how to order another beer. He asked me if I wanted one and I thought: sure, why not. He flagged down a girl selling tickets and when I bought the ticket he took it to the counter for me to get my beer.
By this time I noticed the crowd was singing along to the music. It was pretty good, probably the latest J-Pop. I looked up some songs using the SoundHound app on my phone, showed it to the young couple and joked in Japanese that I was learning the latest Japanese music.
A while later the crowd got even more boisterous. Whole tables of people who didn't know each other had arms over shoulders, singing full out, swaying to the music. On the TV screens around the tent, a countdown appeared, and when it reached zero, all the staff in their yellow T-shirts lined up on either side of tent, arms raised, swaying to the music. By this time the young couple had left, so I asked someone else next to me what was going on. They told me that this was the end of the beer festival.
Wow, talk about timing. One of those times when following the flow of the moment really pays off.
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