Wine Festival

Every month the base comes out with a magazine filled with articles and upcoming events. I scour the pages looking for events the bank can volunteer for or fun things to add to our adventure list. All year I have seen ads for the 2012 Iwakuni Wine Festival.

Now Dustin and I don't know wines. We know what we like and don't like, but would never be articulate enough to be classified as winos. When we finally decided we wanted to go, the event was sold out.



Many customers said it was the event of the year. So I began looking for someone that would sell me their tickets. And I looked. I posted multiple times throughout the day on the base classifieds. I asked customers. I was referred by someone who thought that someone in their shop was selling theirs, but they'd have to check with the husband. No luck. On the day before the festival, a very bad person posted two tickets for $100 a piece on our classifieds page. That's a $70 profit per ticket! Their response to naysayers who blasted the price - "simple supply and demand."

But, alas, I still did not have tickets.

Until one hour before the big event. A coworker texted me saying she had found two tickets for me. TWO WHOLE TICKETS! Wine Festival here we come. Walking, of course.

The pictures make it look very bright, but the ballroom was pretty dark. Chefs had prepared some of the best food I've ever had. No turkey roll ups or veggie plates here! Fresh sushi, cheeses, and a chef preparing meat to order.

Dressed as samurai, the base commander popped a keg of warm sake with a hammer. We tried wines from all over the world. We visited the "For Sale" area to make sure we tried the super expensive ones.

Ice Bar

We had real champagne from Champagne, France and sampled $200 wines from Argentina, Bulgaria, Italy, Germany, and Portugal.

Not a bad way to spend a Saturday evening!