Birthday Celebrations

Hi everyone! Things got a little busy, so it has been a while since my last post. Things are also looking to get even busier since I have trips planned for the next two weekends: a girls' weekend in Osaka this week and the U-KISS concert in Hiroshima next week. So I'm guessing the next two weeks will be one big blur. But before that happens, I thought I'd update you on the various things I did for my birthday.

On Sunday night, Tatsuya and I went to dinner at a ramen restaurant. I think he'd been planning to take me for okonomiyaki (which is also delicious), but that evening I suggested ramen instead. It was a restaurant I'd heard was good but had never been to, and it turned out to be excellent. After dinner we went to my apartment for cake and presents. I'd bought two slices of mocha roll at the bakery earlier in the day. We both liked the cake. I hadn't known whether to expect a present or not, but Tatsuya had brought me two. They turned out to be a squishy cylindrical pillow and... a wall clock? I'm not sure what the thought process was behind that one. I like it quite a bit; it's very simple and classy-looking, and I currently have no clocks in my kitchen. But as ordinary of an object as it is, I think it may be one of the more unusual birthday gifts I've gotten.

Cake time with Tatsuya!

Upon finding out that I had no plans for Monday, the actual day of my birthday, Tatsuya suggested that perhaps he would call me if he could get off of work early, and we could have dinner again. But on Monday he had a terrible headache and felt sick, so after work he had to go straight home. I sent him a message on Tuesday to check up on him, and that day he was so tired that he went to bed at 8:00. He usually doesn't even get off work by 8:00, so he must be feeling pretty terrible. Hopefully he'll get well soon.

On Monday, I didn't end up doing anything special after work, but school itself was pretty fun. I had first grade elementary for four periods, and I enjoyed telling them that it was my birthday. I got a lot of "omedetou"s (congratulations), and in one class they even sang to me. It was also pretty entertaining to think that I was spending my 26th birthday with small Japanese children screaming the names of fruits at me. The little ones are pretty rowdy, but fortunately it translated into enthusiasm, so we had a good time.

Tuesday night was my third (and last) day of birthday celebrations. After work I went to dinner with Julie, Sasha, Chelsea and Hollie. We had dinner at Masala, the Indian restaurant. It was tasty, as always. I really enjoyed talking with everyone, and afterward we bought some doughnuts at Mister Donut. The doughnuts ended up being my lunch today.

My (blurry) girls at Masala. Left to right: Hollie, Sasha, Julie, Chelsea.

All in all, I had quite a nice birthday this year. I enjoyed the multi-day celebrations, and I'm feeling pretty good about the coming year. It's a little strange to think that I was 24 when I came. I never had a specific idea of what I would be doing at this age, but I don't think I could've predicted Kochi.