Birthday Weekend

So last weekend was my birthday weekend.  Andrew took me on a shopping spree at Avail and Shimamura, clothing stores on the way to the east gate of school from the seminar houses, and I got a lot of cool clothes and super cute sheep pillow/toy/thing.  That night we also enjoyed a parfait bigger than my face.  The following night, I got together with a bunch of friends for dinner at a kaiten zushi called Sushi Roll, and then we karaoked for four hours at Jankara.

Karaoke is a big thing in Japan.  People in Japan usually live in very small homes, and when they entertain guests, they usually invite them out to places like restaurants, bars (also known as izakayas here in Japan), or karaoke.  In America, most people visit each other’s homes to hang out, and when they go out they also do similar things.  However, in America, karaoke is not usually an option.  Most people go out to eat, go malling or shopping together, see a movies, etc.  Karaoke’s popularity in America only extends up to public karaoke at bars and pubs or doing at home with your own machine or on a gaming platform like the Wii or Playstation.  In Japan, karaoke is a perfectly valid outing and amazingly popular.  High schoolers and middle schoolers often go to karaoke after school or on the weekends.  I’ve seen older women chilling in karaoke rooms in the early afternoon.  Salarymen also go to karaoke with co-workers.  People go on dates to karaoke places.  Conclusion:  Everyone and their mom goes to karaoke in Japan.  The thing is, no one expects you to be a good singer or to put on a show in front of others.  It’s a really cool way to chill, relieve stress by belting out your favorite songs, and just have fun.  (I’m pretty sure I’ve said this before lol.)

Now that I’ve been in Japan for over six months, I’ve really come to love karaoke.  It’s one of my favorite hobbies now.  Anytime my friends and I are at a lost for what to do for fun, I automatically think karaoke.  I’m really going to miss the accessibility and cheapness of karaoke places once I return to America.  For sure.

Aaaaaand, that’s why I went to karaoke for my birthday.  It was an awesome time.  I had some friends who came from UF with me, other international student friends I had made, a Japanese friend who was kind enough to help make the reservation there for me, and UF alumni friends who were currently living in Japan.  We drank~, we danced, we sang, we laughed.  I was really happy and a very contented birthday girl.  It was a really fun time, and I can’t wait to go to karaoke again sometime soon!  ^__^

 P.S. - Pictures courtesy of Andrea and Rachel (KiraKiraLolita on youtube).   Thanks!

P.P.S. - Here's the video to accompany this post!
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi0RgKGOoFw
Embedded video:
 

Cheese Takoyaki

Cheese takoyaki.  That is all.

Andrew's Birthday

This past weekend was Andrew’s birthday.  However, this post is not about the day of his birthday but about the eve of his birthday in which we had a pizza adventure and everyone partied into the night leading to a very happy and content birthday boy.

Let’s start by talking about Andrew.  Andrew is my boyfriend of more than 1.5 years.  We discovered love over the summer after having taken one year of Japanese classes together at UF.  Ever since we got together in the beginning of August of 2010, we have shared our desires, struggles, and development with the Japanese language.

Andrew is a very shy person, but once you get to know him and help him open up to you, he’s really funny and dorky and just a really nice guy to be around.  Even if you don’t know him, he’s a very nice guy and is willing to go above and beyond to help someone in need.  This is why he makes the best and worst computer tech guy.  He’s super helpful in making sure your computer problem is solved and will go to lengths that most computer tech people working from abroad don’t even bother to try to get to, BUT because of his kindness and knowledge, sometime computer-illiterate people take advantage of him, leading him into a dark unrelenting grip of I-have-another-computer-problem-please-drop-everything-and-help-me-now.

Anyways, as Andrew is a 人見知り（ひとみしり）, or in romanization, hitomishiri kind of guy, meaning that he’s a shy guy who only opens up his true nature to you once having established a friendship.  Anyways, parties aren’t usually his thing.  Last year, I helped throw him a birthday party with our mutual friends and some friends from his work and high school with jello shots, cake, and video games.  It was just ok.  Kinda meh.  Not super exciting or high energy.  Non-video gamers got bored.  Andrew was done with the party before it was done.  Whatevs.

This year was different.  The party was to be held at 7 pm in our shackmates’ house instead of ours since they have a room to spare for entertaining guests.  We invited some friends who came to Japan with us from UF, and I invited one of my good friends who lived at the dorm with me last semester, Ryan P.  Before the party started, shackmate, Tina, and Andrew and I rode our bikes for 30 minutes to the Costco in the SNOW.  UPHILL.  DOWNHILL.  BOTH WAYS.  lol

I feel like I’m telling that grandpa story…  Anyways, we bought 3 ginormous square pies of cheese pizza and strapped them to the back of Andrew’s bike.  We bought juice and 24 cans of Coca-cola among other things and loaded them into the baskets and rode back in the cold night for 30 more minutes.  The pizzas only fell off once, but with minimal damage to the goods.  Oh man, I am in no way physically in shape so this was a very arduous journey of endurance for me…whew!

As for the party itself, it was a blast.  It had a slow start with a few friends trickling in with just some simple chatter and catching up, but as soon as most people invited came over, we got to drinking and eating pizza.  So good!  About an hour or two later, Marissa, a friend from UF, texted about how to find our shack, and when I went out to meet her, I saw that she had brought not only Ryan P. but also some other friends from seminar house.  This was unexpected, as we didn’t expect so many guests, but they were definitely a welcome addition.  ^___^  They joined the party, and we played more card games and continued the good times.  Everyone got along fine, and we probably didn’t finish til about 2 am at least.  I mean, this wasn’t some wild party, but a really nice get-together.  We had cake, Adam juggled, we huddled by the heater and got comfy under the kotatsu, and just generally had a nice time.  Andrew really enjoyed the party and made friends with the people from seminar house and had a pretty happy birthday.  All in all, success.  I was really happy to see that I was able to help throw a party in which no one was bored and Andrew was content and happy.

:)