The weekend Sarah turned twenty five

So because Japan is where the day begins, and I was born nearly where it ends; technically my birthday lasted all weekend! It was a pretty great one too! Sheena, Kevin and I all went to this Okinawian Izakaya in Hachioji and ate a million dishes and tried a million drinks and had a fabulous time! They staff even brought me Okinawa donuts and beni imo (purple potato) ice cream, which is way delicious, with a sparkler and fruits and Happy Birthday written on it! It was fantastic! We ate beni imo and cheese gratin, two servings of taco rice, beni imo tempura, karage (fried chicken), seaweed tempura, Okinawa soba, papaya warms salad and then later they brought around a stack of the doughnuts that had just been freshly cooked! To drink I had peach and hibiscus wine, and mango sours, this hard liquor made from poisonous snake venom and a pineapple malibu! And besides the great food, drinks and company, the restaurant was so quaint with a tree and fairy lights and our table was in a little corner with palm fronds to make it private and Okinawa music on the speakers and the temperature was high so it actually felt like when I was looking out the window that I was in Okinawa and Tokyo was on the outside!

The way home was long as Takao hates to have a train waiting for us to go home so we had to wait forty minutes to make our connection so by the time we got home, my blanket had warmed up and I was ready to sleep it was two in the morning! I slept so good!

I was woken in the best way on my actually birthday! Around noon the door bell rang furiously and there was a flurry of knocks until alas I dragged myself from my warm bed with my hair a mess, from how I'd left it pinned up, stumbled to the door and greeted the mailman to which he replied by handing me two packages from home for my birthday! One was from Dad and Josh and had the best birthday cards I have ever received which made me cry a little and I hugged them tight while I warmed by the heater and sipped my breakfast tea at lunch time! The second was a package from Nikki with a cute card too and a real live western style t-shirt that had a graphic and pretty colours and those are just like impossible to find here! Needless to say I was extremely happy!!! Then I talked to mom and had a shower and set out!

Fuji's birthday present to me was an ice candle festival at the lake in Yamanakako and diamond Fuji and fireworks! So I met Sheena and we traversed the lakeside and took pictures of swan and the sun setting over the mountain and the candles as it began to get dark and then at last when I feared my toes might fall off because I was so chilled, the fireworks over the mountain! It was all really really great and beautiful!

 

To warm up we headed over to a friend's house where they were having a winter party where we all huddled in one tatami room to share body heat and three delicious pots of nabe! Nabe is an amazing food where it is essentially a clay pot that you throw a bit of everything in! Then we had chocolate pudding and rice cooker banana bread for dessert!

Then I went home and slept and then it was Sunday and well that's the end of the exciting stuff so I will leave it there. Next weekend we journey into the mountains to see beautiful houses in six feet of snow and eat beef! Tanoshimi!