T he band members are dressed in traditional German costumes, and your smiling hostess leads you out in a traditional dance. A modest buffet serves up a bounty of simple, home-cooked German fare: cabbage and sauerkraut, potatoes and sausage. And don't forget the German beer. Just say "Mahlzeit," and enjoy the Sea Castle German restaurant in Kamakura.
The Reiff family celebrated 52 years at this location on March 1, but their presence in Japan began at the start of the last century. Travel back 100 years to Europe: families struggle, countries are poor. A young German decides to seek his fortune in a foreign land — Japan. He starts a successful import/ export business, and soon earns enough to make a living and settle his family back to Germany, ensuring that his children are raised in their homeland.
Many years later, his son also ties his fate to the land of the rising sun. Together with his wife and young children, they journey from the family home in northern Germany to Kanagawa Prefecture, settling near the mountainside in Hayama. Originally planning to stay only two or three years, war intervenes, and the Reiff family stays and starts a small German restaurant.