Tokyo Beer

Japan is known for its four big brands of beer, Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo, and Suntory. They don’t have much in the way of flavor or variety. Even when they put out new limited-edition drafts, they don’t seem to be notably different from the standard offerings. It is no surprise that expats often pine for the brews of their native lands. Even with all the British and Irish pubs in the capital, you will still find them serving one of the big four breweries’ offerings. So what is a beer connoisseur to do?  This brings up craft beer, which has made substantial inroads into the capital and can now be found with various brewpubs springing up. Getting to all of them is impossible, but we’ve compiled a small list to get you started.  Watering Hole The Watering Hole in Yoyogi is a well-known haunt. Its beginnings have an interesting story as well. You see, in 1998, Ichiri Fujiura became the first non-American to win the Homebrewer of the Year award. This was something of a mixed blessing since it raised questions from the local law enforcement, seeing as how homebrewing in Japan is not, strictly speaking, legal. After his brush with…