Birthday Pt II: Hirakata Park and Toriki

The day of my actual birthday was really wonderful. I woke up late/early (late because class started at 11 instead of 9, early because I woke up before my alarm) and opened the tiny package my family had sent me. It contained a singing card with robots on it that sang Domo Arigatou Mr. Roboto which made me simultaneously crack up and want to cry at the same time. I can't wait to see them all so very soon. I was also relieved because the rain had stopped, and they don't run roller coasters in the rain.

After my one class that day, I met up with Andy and we went to Hirakata Park, which is a local theme park only one train stop away from Kansai Gaidai. You can see it from the train, and it always looks closed because nobody is ever there, so I thought it might be worth checking out. There were indeed very few people there, and we went on the good rides twice. I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that I only took pictures of the Ferris wheel, because it is giant and rainbow.




I like to interpret "circus" as a direct object here.





That night, we went to Toriki for dinner, which is where all the cool kids from Kansai Gaidai go to drink but for some reason I had never been there. It is a yakitori chain where everything costs 280 yen. Ai, Asami, and Mai came, and also fellow Californian Andrew, and we ate a lot of food and drank a little bit. I had invited a ton of people who ended up not being able to come, but in the end it was fine, since it would have been difficult to manage a big group of people. Afterward we had ice cream at 31 (which is what the Japanese call Baskin-Robbins/31 Flavors, and I am afraid I will never be able to switch back--actually they call it saati-wan). Throughout the day, I received many lovely e-mail and Facebook greetings, and felt very lucky to have so many wonderful people in my life. And now I am 21, at long last! What a strange feeling that is.