Picture a scorching summer night in Tokyo. You step off the Yamanote Line at JR Ebisu Station and have a sudden, almost subconscious craving for a cold beer.
As the train’s doors begin to close, you wonder why the station’s departure melody is the theme for the 1949 film “The Third Man,” not yet aware the tune is also the Yebisu Beer jingle. As the train clears, billboards advertising Yebisu Beer and illuminated signs depicting the smiling god of the beer’s logo come into view. “A beer would be perfect right now,” you think.
Feeling thirsty, you follow the sweaty crowd out the station’s West Exit, passing a statue of that same god, Ebisu, the lucky patron of fisherman and tradespeople. A large poster for the newly opened Yebisu Brewery Tokyo hangs above him, and it dawns on you that this is a beer town.
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