The winter months are slow ones for craft beer in Japan. Thankfully, we’ve got the Real Ale Festival on February 13th, but for three months we’ve had no large-scale festivals! This seems like a great opportunity for a city somewhere in Japan. A quick look at the event calendar in a U.S. craft beer magazine reveals festivals all over the country. What are we waiting for?!

The last event of any real size was the Japan Craft Beer Selection held on October 31st at Sumida Riverside Hall, in Asakusa, Tokyo. The event drew a crowd of about a thousand, and featured the top breweries from a tasting competition held back in April. That competition was judged by one hundred amateur and professional tasters. On the day of the event, however, the audience-choice award went to Atsugi Brewing’s Hopslave WIPA!

Alas, due completely to unfortunate scheduling (and not bad blood), there was a competing event across town, at T.Y. Harbor Brewery. Together with Nagano Trading, they hosted a much smaller party that featured six of their beers with six imports. T.Y. Harbor served up great food as usual, too.

And just before going to press, we wrapped up a Beers for Books event at Amazon Club (Yokohama) that raised money for 696 books in developing countries. For more about this organization, and to organize your own, please visit: www.beersforbooks.org

This article was published in Japan Beer Times # () and is among the limited content available online. Order your copy through our online shop or download the digital version from the iTunes store to access the full contents of this issue.