On Friday after work a few teachers and I went over to Bayern Fukuoka. A German sports bar downtown, and the only international German bar recognized by Germany itself. Well, the owner is German and married to a Japanese woman. Neither the teachers nor I have been, so we were all pretty excited. There are tons of stuff happening all around Fukuoka for Octoberfest though, this is just one of them.
Tabe-hodai & Nomi-hodai
Here in Japan they have this awesome thing called “Tabe-hodai” (all you can eat) and “Nomi-hodai” (all you can drink). Drinks include both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks 🙂
Prices are different wherever you go, but it’s probably the most interesting-est and coolest culture point about Japan.
Bayern & Octoberfest!
During the day, Bayern is a cafe style restaurant. There’s a menu, as well as bakery that takes up the left-side of the place, while the standing sports bar is in the back.
For Octoberfest, Bayern was offering Nomi-houdai & tabe-houdai for this event! Men were $40, and women were $30; plus, a $10 refundable deposit for a HUGE 1L drinking mug they give you. It felt like it was triple the size of those A&W mugs…Don’t lose it as that is your ticket to Nomi-hodai…but I was contemplating of just keeping the mug and not getting back my deposit. I didn’t know I could have done this until AFTER ><.
Armed with a colorful plastic wristband for the Tabe-hodai we headed in. It was slightly dim and a touch crowded by certain areas of the bar. Everyone was watching the soccer game Japan VS Argentina. The food was buffet style, and served in small portions.
Everything was delicious. The food was mainly German, with a few bits of Japanese options for the locals. It was delicious, and kept eating well into the night while my teachers had stopped after the first hour. I think my body missed Western food quite a bit.There was a huge drink menu for the Nomi-hodai, which included 6 German beers, a few Japanese alcoholic beverages, Western cocktails and highballs, non-alcoholic stuff, and more.
Bayern Fukuoka, International German Bar
Nijiikai – Shidax Karaoke
Usually with parties, there’s always an after party (or nijiikai). People head over to another place to drink, eat…and in many popular cases, Karaoke!
Shidax karaoke chain
After Bayern’s we went for a karaoke nijiikai! Shidax is one of the bigger karaoke chains, and really good in terms of song selection, cleanliness and services. Karaoke is quite cheap here, we got a deal of $10 for two hours. Sometimes you can get sets, like lunch & karaoke package.
The Shidax that I went to had an all you can drink (non-alcohol) station that hugged the side of the grand staircase, all guests were free to use this bar.
We sang for two hours, killed our throats and didn’t get home till 2:30am. The DD and I were both pretty awake considering we both had 2 cups of coffee at the bar. It was hard not to avoid going out for some late night ramen ~ sanjiikai!! (after-after party, or 3rd party).
Shidax’s main foyer & drink bar on the side
In case all the rooms are booked, guests can wait it out, and Karaoke in the waiting area until a room is available.
BC Roll in Japan 