All I was looking forward to all week was going out drinking with my friends on Saturday to celebrate my birthday. Some of you may be disappointed to hear that, but I don’t care. Work is still enjoyable, but I really look forward to my weekends, and this weekend was extra special. I didn’t do much during the week. Elizabeth and I went out for some dinner and drinks on my actual birthday, but other than that I laid low and tried to save money.
I tried to tell everyone I didn’t want anything special for my birthday, and that I just wanted to drink good beer with friends and have fun. No one seemed to listen to me though. I told friends that I would be going to my favorite craft beer bar in Osaka after work on Saturday and they could meet up with me if they wanted to raise some hell. Koichi took that as me saying I wanted a birthday party. When I got to the bar around 830 there were only a few people there, sitting at two huge tables that seemed to be reserved for people I knew. The tables took up a good bit of the restaurant, and all the other usual guests were relegated to sit or stand at the bar. I felt really awkward taking up this whole space for only a few people, but eventually people started to show up. Everyone was telling me I was the only person they knew that would show up so early to their own birthday party. I told them I just wanted to ensure there were no surprises. I may be a bit of a party pooper but I really didn’t want some big planned out party where we would have to stick to a plan, and I didn’t want anyone to have to buy me a gift that I wouldn’t know what to do with. Lucky that didn’t happen though.
I did get a bunch of gifts, but most of it was food, drink or some sort of gag gift. Someone had the idea to make it a “ginger themed” birthday so most people were wearing red or orange. One friend even had his hair colored red, but I am not sure if that was just for the party. Almost all of the gifts followed the theme as well. I got lots of gingerbread cookies, ginger tea, other ginger candies, red wine, and a few other little things all of which were orange or red. Greg got me a bad ass Japanese headband that had the red sun from the Japanese flag in the center, with the Japanese Kanji for “certain victory” on either side. I loved every gift, but for some reason that head band got me the most excited. Of course I put it on right away, and instantly Greg pulled out another one from nowhere and put it on. Someone pulled out a camera and we both saluted so instinctively, it was as if we were career military men.
I also got a nice little signature book which everyone wrote in, and no one would let me help pay the tab. It was cool to have people come together for me. I have never been one to celebrate much for birthdays but this one turned out pretty awesome.
After a few hours at the craft beer place, we headed to catch the last subway over to Shinsaibashi, which is the area we usually party in. We went to a few of the normal places I like to go. The crowd started to dwindle down after a little while, but there was still a solid group left to join me for Sunday morning ramen, which has become a bit of a tradition for me whenever I go out in Osaka. After ramen I fought the temptation to go to another club, and I headed back to the Osaka apartment which has become my second home in Japan. We made it back around 7 and went right to sleep.
It was a bit odd when I woke up by myself and no one else in the apartment was awake yet. Usually other people are up and about well before me, but everyone went out together the night before, and the usual early risers didn’t get to bed until well past their normal bed time. When everyone did get up, we took another couple of hours to get ourselves together and head out for some food. We went to a Chinese buffet.
Koichi met up with another friend who lives in Korea right now. He was visiting for the weekend so we walked around Osaka for a while, went to an arcade and saw a few sights around town.
I ended up staying over in Osaka Sunday night too. On Monday I woke up and decided to go to Osaka castle park. Even though it was Monday, there were a ton of people there. The Fall leaves are just starting to turn there so there were loads of food stands and other tents selling different souvenirs.
After the castle I went to get some lunch in Umeda. My friend Aaron and I had a discussion about where the best cheeseburger in Osaka is and he claimed it was at the City Bakery in Umeda. I didn’t have much to do that day, and I was hungry, so I decided to hunt this place down and see for myself. It took me a while to find it. Umeda is a shopping district full of tall buildings with thousands of shops and restaurants. I can barely find my way around the local Harford Mall back home so this was quite the adventure for me. When I did find the place I was pretty impressed by all the baked goods they had. I vowed I would get something sweet for dessert on my way out. Of course I ordered the burger. Aaron is pretty reliable on his food recommendations so I was not at all surprised at how delicious this burger was. I destroyed the burger pretty quickly and the enjoyed the weird pickled side dish and fired potato chunks that accompanied it. On my way out I peeked at the sweets again and decided I did not want to wait in the line of people just to buy one muffin so I moved on.
I had to go back to Garage 39 (the craft beer bar from Saturday night) to pick up my box of gifts. I knew there was no way I would keep track of the box throughout the night of celebrations, so I asked the guys there to keep it safe for me and I would come back when they opened up again on Monday. I decided to walk there from Umeda. It was a nice day, and I had never seen much of that area of the city. It was about a half hour walk.
Not until I walked in the door did I realize I was wearing the same clothes I had been wearing two nights before. All the employees were sitting at the bar and they all joined together in an indecipherable exclamation of what seemed like laughter and a bit of surprise. I have enjoyed similar receptions in my life, but since college they have become less frequent. It made me feel a bit nostalgic for a moment.
They all wished me a happy birthday again and I headed back out to make my way home. I stubbornly decided to walk the rest of the way and carry the box. By the time I reached Namba station to catch my train home, the box was feeling about twice it’s original weight and I was regretting my decision. I did finally make it home though.
I got in my door, and collapsed on the floor for a solid thirty minutes and tried to figure out what I needed to accomplish with the little bit of weekend I had left. Luckily there wasn’t much that needed to be done. I cleaned up my place, did some laundry, made some food and watched a few episodes of House of Cards. Then a movie. Then I went to bed.
Today was a pretty good day. It was tough to get going this morning, as it is after any other weekend of fun, but overall, classes went well and I got a few things taken care of. The rest of the week looks to be fairly normal. I have a few more classes than normal, and a couple of new students, so that should make things a little more exciting but nothing too wild. Next weekend I am hoping to just lay low and save some money, but we will see what happens. Things always seem to come up.
Anyway, thanks for reading everyone. Also a HUGE thanks to everyone who helped make my 25th birthday so awesome! Have a great week.