Birthday, part 1

The odd luxury that one has when living a whole day ahead of the United States is that I have a birthday in Japan... which extends through the entire NEXT day because of the time difference... LOVE IT!!!

So... part 1 of my birthday was really something. Yeah, that's pretty much the best way of saying it. The entire day I pretty much relaxed and saved my energy for the evening. I knew I would need any extra strength that I could muster.

The evening's plans kicked off with kendo. Kendo was a great practice. I got to practice with 5 people (in an hour), then went with my friend Daisuke afterwards to make the grand total 6!! Wahoo!! After kendo was drinking with the kendo kids. Now... birthday drinking is different than normal drinking. And it was even more exciting/entertaining because there were two birthday kids: me and Murai-sempai (he's one of the group leaders, thus sempai).

So, the tradition is... you drink the same number of glasses of beer for the number of years you are turning. In my case, 27. Eeeek! An aside, the glasses are very small and the amount of beer is only a swallow or so. Promptly at 10pm, Murai and I were called up in front of everyone and as the entire group sang Happy Birthday on repeat... Murai and I drank... sad thing is... I was done before Murai, who had fewer glasses to finish... but we ended together with half a bottle (think bottles that are 1.5 litres) of beer in unison. Then came the presentation of the presents... from 1st, 2nd, 3rd years and alumni members. Murai totally got hit hard... he had to drink bloody mary from a bottle, tomato juice, sake, and beer... he did get sick. I only had to drink (on top of what I'd already drank) half a bottle of plum wine. After all that, cakes were brought out. Lovely, really tastey looking cakes. And... we ended up with our faces in the cakes and not getting to eat any of it... :-( SO sad!! (I even got frosting up my nose!!!)

Heehee... But that was enough... both of us were REALLY drunk by the end. So drunk, I nearly forgot a present from my friend Toda at the end of the night.

So... there's part 1... part 2 is more subdued, but nonetheless exciting/good. :-)

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