Beer Festival in Tokyo

I am looking forward to the Great Japan Beer Festival. From the Japantimes:

The Great Japan Beer Festival is the biggest beer event of the year in Japan, with more than 120 microbrews and craft beers available to taste.The festival is organized by the Japan Craft Beer Association, and this year the Tokyo event will be held May 5 and 6 at the tail end of the Golden Week holidays.

Hours are from 2:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on May 5 (Mon.), and from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on May 6 (Tue.). Admission is ¥4,800 (¥4,300 for advance tickets), which includes unlimited tastings; food will be sold separately.The venue is the Garden Hall at Ebisu Garden Place, 1-13-2 Mita, Meguro-ku, Tokyo. Tickets are available from Lawson, Pia and other outlets.

Check the Web site at www.beertaster.org for more details or e-mail english [at] beertaster.org

The event moves to Osaka a few weeks later on the weekend of May 31 and June 1, at the Kyocera Dome; check the same Web site for more details. (Listing courtesy of Bento.com)

Videos from Japan

There's been a couple of videos of life in Japan on other blogs that I feel worth a mention.

One from Stafford which shows what I'm like in the morning on a Japanese train trying to read my newspaper. It turns out to be from an improv comedy group in Osaka called Pirates of the Dotombori. I look forward to seeing them in Tokyo some time.

Another one from Annie at Going Underground on how crowded trains used to be back in 1991. I'd like to point out that, while it does get very busy on the trains here, I have never seen it that bad.

And finally, one of Yi So-yeon on her return to earth after a rather hard landing. (H/T RokDrop)

First Korean in Space

Since Mike hasn't blogged about it yet, I thought I would get the word out that his favourite astronaut Yi So-yeon blasted off from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan at 11:16 GMT.

I like the way the BBC comment how South Korea paid $20m for the mission.

Update at 12:15 AM:
CNN has the most detailed coverage and notes that she is also the youngest female astronaut.
Yonhap makes Korea the 36th Country to send an astronaut into space and KBS agrees with that count while Korea Times make it the 37th country.

Arirang mentions her plans to introduce her country's traditional food and beverages such as kimchi specially developed and packaged for space to the crew aboard the ISS.
The Joong Ang has not confirmed the launch yet.
The Korea Herald has the story, but it's not easy to give a direct links to the page.
The Chosun Ilbo just has her photo.
The Hankyoreh has a column from a Professor of Sogang University about the subject.
The Dong-A-Ilbo has an editorial proclaiming "Korea needs strong policies to catch up with space powers".