Punks In The Beerlight

When Ryan emailed me on Friday to inform me that he had spent his Thursday night (or "college night" as they've taken to calling it in Misawa) getting his drink on, I was anything but surprised. I was surprised, however, when he informed me that he had discovered an establishment that not only served German beer but also offered a ¥600 nomihoudai. With images of Paulaners, Weihenstephaners and Ayingers dancing through my head like so many sugar plums, I insisted that we return that very night. Naturally, Ryan was not adverse to this idea.

Well, as it so turns out, the beer served at this establishment was not one of my old favorites but rather, the oddly-named Pfungstadter Edel Pils Premium. Having not heard of it before, I quickly (and presumptiously) determined from it's unremarkable taste that it must be the German equivalent of Budweiser. Regardless, any non-Japanese beer was a welcome break from the skunky norm. Since then, a little research has revealed that Pfungstadter is actually a very popular beer that is generally not sold outside of Germany and has a fairly long brewing history. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be much information available on Pfungstadter in English, as it is widely unavailable in the English-speaking world. Perhaps resident German expert "anonomom" can shed some light on the topic in the comments?
The place also had an interesting "sitting dish": shrimp. After making a royal mess of trying to eat one (and noticing that the people at the next table were staring at me), I decided that these creatures were best left in the porcelain bowl from whence they came.
SHAMLESS PLUG ALERT: While offensive blogger (and occasional offensive commentator) Ryan is undoubtedly a terrible person, he also lives a double life as an international man of charity. His latest project will take him to Papua New Guinea in May where he will be building low-income housing with Habitat for Humanity. In addition, he is attempting to raise £300 in donations for Habitat's Papua New Guinea affiliate. I'm sure that if you choose to contribute, he will be as joyful as in the photograph above and possibly as inebriated.