Child of Munich

“As would be expected of a child of Munich, I was back again this year at the Oktoberfest, an event that always seems to coincide with a beautiful Indian Summer.

The Oktoberfest always was and is a Bavarian festival. The vast majority of people who come to the Oktoberfest each year are from Bavaria; one out of five of the roughly 6.4 million visitors come from abroad. At the top of the list are the Italians, followed by the Americans, British, Australians and Japanese.

Mihoko Rautenberg, the guide for a group of Japanese travellers, stresses that the Japanese can't tolerate beer and don't like confusing masses of people where they might lose the rest of their group. Consequently, the Japanese enjoy the world's largest folk festival with a certain caution and drink relatively little. Wild rides don't really tempt the Japanese either – the comfortable big wheel is more to their liking. On the other hand, when they're taking pictures for the photo albums back home, concentration and enthusiasm are written all over their faces.”