Showing posts with label birthday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birthday. Show all posts
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Birthday Pt III: new friends
The last part of my birthday celebration came somewhat unexpectedly yesterday at lunch at school. I met up with my new friend Yuki, and she and her friends gave me a bunch of Osaka-related presents, a strawberry cake that we all ate together, and a beautiful little book they made with pictures of us in it and letters written in English saying how much they appreciated spending time with me and practicing their English. Unlike my other Japanese friends, these girls are freshmen, so I'm pretty much their first exchange student friend. I was really moved by all the effort they put into everything. I jacked some pics from Yuki's facebook, I hope she doesn't mind (I don't have any pics of my bday lunch, these are from random times).
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.
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.
Birthday Pt I: Peruvian Food
So I have finals on Monday and Tuesday, but I desperately need a break from studying, so it's blogging time!
So I really need to blog about all of my birthday celebrations, because there were a lot... so let's see...
The first one was last Monday night, when I went out with Ryoko, Koppun, Kana, and Mahoko to a Peruvian restaurant in Umeda that Koppun had found. None of us had any idea what Peruvian food would entail, but I guessed that it would probably be delicious, and it really was. We had a lot of good conversation and a LOT of good food... we photographed it all diligently (the Japanese girls I hang out with are pretty big on photographing food, and I can't really disagree with this habit). I'm not going to post all of them though, just the best ones. We ordered a course so there was a lot of food.
Delicious birthday Peru cake!
I think this was potato with black mint sauce, and some egg, served on top of sea shells.
God this soup was SO GOOD, I ate most of it even though it was for all 5 of us. It was chicken and spicy and MM DECLICIOUS
This was our little assorted dessert plate. That's wine jelly, and a kind of rice dessert cake, and the same cake I got in honor of my birthday.
Sweet stuff you put in your coffee.
Maybe my favorite part of the decor was the slide projector (NOT a digital one) projecting pictures of Peru on the wall by our table. It gave it a really rustic effect.
The whole evening was a blast, and my pictures are kind of dark because my flash makes everything look like crap, but you can have them anyway.
(Koppun,) Kana, Me, Mahoko
Ryoko, Koppun
And of course what is Peru without alpacas:
On my actual birthday, they decorated my mail box at school with green sparkly things and made me a bunch of green paper cranes (they know I like green). Ryoko and Koppun gave me some stickers and little things from Tokyu Hands, a fabulous department store that literally has everything. We spent a lot of time in the stationery department once. They also printed out some pics of our various adventures and put them in a nice, brown envelope. I was really surprised, and touched. It reminded me of high school when my friends used to decorate my locker on my birthday. I hope they have the chance to study abroad and make nice friends who will do nice things for them on their birthdays. ♥
So I really need to blog about all of my birthday celebrations, because there were a lot... so let's see...
The first one was last Monday night, when I went out with Ryoko, Koppun, Kana, and Mahoko to a Peruvian restaurant in Umeda that Koppun had found. None of us had any idea what Peruvian food would entail, but I guessed that it would probably be delicious, and it really was. We had a lot of good conversation and a LOT of good food... we photographed it all diligently (the Japanese girls I hang out with are pretty big on photographing food, and I can't really disagree with this habit). I'm not going to post all of them though, just the best ones. We ordered a course so there was a lot of food.
Delicious birthday Peru cake!
I think this was potato with black mint sauce, and some egg, served on top of sea shells.
God this soup was SO GOOD, I ate most of it even though it was for all 5 of us. It was chicken and spicy and MM DECLICIOUS
This was our little assorted dessert plate. That's wine jelly, and a kind of rice dessert cake, and the same cake I got in honor of my birthday.
Sweet stuff you put in your coffee.
Maybe my favorite part of the decor was the slide projector (NOT a digital one) projecting pictures of Peru on the wall by our table. It gave it a really rustic effect.
The whole evening was a blast, and my pictures are kind of dark because my flash makes everything look like crap, but you can have them anyway.
(Koppun,) Kana, Me, Mahoko
Ryoko, Koppun
And of course what is Peru without alpacas:
On my actual birthday, they decorated my mail box at school with green sparkly things and made me a bunch of green paper cranes (they know I like green). Ryoko and Koppun gave me some stickers and little things from Tokyu Hands, a fabulous department store that literally has everything. We spent a lot of time in the stationery department once. They also printed out some pics of our various adventures and put them in a nice, brown envelope. I was really surprised, and touched. It reminded me of high school when my friends used to decorate my locker on my birthday. I hope they have the chance to study abroad and make nice friends who will do nice things for them on their birthdays. ♥
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