I was lucky enough to make some friends in Kumagaya just after moving here, so I celebrated with them. First, we went to eat dinner at a kaiten-zushi place in the area. I had gone to a similar place with my family in Tokyo, but the restaurant we went to in Kumagaya had Shinkansen sushi in addition to the expected conveyor belt. You can special order certain items on the menu and it'll be delivered to your table fresh on a mini bullet train! I also tried some interesting sushi I hadn't ever seen or tasted before :9 After dinner, we went to a karaoke box near the train station for all night karaoke. If you pay around US$30, you can get all-you-can-drink alcohol and sing karaoke until 5:00 AM. What a sweet deal! I think I ended up falling asleep before 5:00, but karaoke takes a lot out of you, especially with a bit of alcohol in your system. I still had an amazing time, and I can't thank my new friends enough for being with me on my Christmas cake birthday.
What the heck IS a Christmas cake birthday anyway? In Japan, it's tradition to eat something called a Christmas cake (it's basically a strawberry sponge cake) on Christmas Eve. According to Wikipedia, "A single woman over the age of 25 may be referred to in Japan as a [Christmas cake] based on the belief that, like a Christmas cake which becomes nearly worthless after Dec. 25, she is "shomikigen-gire" or past the "sell-by date." Apparently, because I'm 25 now, no man will ever want me ever again because I'm expired! I highly doubt this is actually the case, especially since the times are always a-changin', but if I'm wrong, then I guess I can't really get into the dating scene out here, haha :X
I wasn't done partying yet on Friday! Two of my good friends here in Japan have birthdays on April 30, so we decided to have a triple birthday party with our mutual friends on Showa Day. We met up at Tokorozawa in southern Saitama for more karaoke (yay!) and then dinner and drinks at an izakaya. A friend of ours surprised us all by getting a beautiful birthday cake with all three of our names on it, and at the end of dinner, everyone sang to us before we blew out the candles. After the delicious dinner and cake, we decided to go for drinks in a nearby park. It's legal to have open containers in public out here (there are even vending machines that sell beer!), so we took full advantage of that! The weather wasn't too warm or too cold, so it was really a nice evening to be hanging around outside. We called it a night at about 10:00 in order for all of us to catch our last trains home. It was a night to remember, and I'm so lucky to have such awesome friends out here!
I still had a little bit more partying to do on Saturday! Since one of my friends' real birthday was on the 30th (the other already had plans), we decided to do one last get together with a few folks in Ikebukuro (Tokyo). Some people were a bit hungover from the night before, and because ramen is a wonderful hangover food, we first met up for some delicious Ramen Jiro. Ramen Jiro is a tonkotsu (pork broth) ramen chain store with some of the most amazing soup I've ever tasted! It was also the first ramen I ever tried in Japan, and now I'm hooked! I'm dreaming of the day when I can actually finish a whole bowl down to the last drop. After Jiro, we went to an arcade for a while to play some video games and darts. I tried my hand at a UFO catcher but had no luck, as always. We later headed to a Mexican restaurant for some cocktails, and then ended the night with a round of bowling! I was never a fan of or any good at bowling, but I wanted to experience it in Japan. It was basically the same as in the US, except the alley was probably more sanitary overall. And there were a LOT of good bowlers in there! I think our little group felt a bit intimidated, but it was still a lot of fun. We parted ways shortly after bowling, and immediately after coming home to Kumagaya, I fell asleep.
I don't know if my Christmas cake self can handle this much partying next year, so I'm very glad that I had such a lengthy and wonderful celebration for my 25th year on this earth. I can't say it enough: thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes, and thank you to everyone who celebrated with me!
