Another year older…

…and not much wiser…maybe just more worldly. Ok, bad pun I admit it, but hey I have to use my corny English jokes on people that understand them right?

Well as I said, I am another year older. September 22^nd came around pretty quickly this year. It really doesn’t feel as if a whole year has passed since this time last year. I guess between applying for JET, interviewing, getting accepted, prepping for leaving, and actually taking off and starting work, the time has just flown. Throw all the other great things that I had in Vancouver (a cool apartment, all the jobs, a great gal, etc) and it is easy to see where the time has gone.

So this is the first year with out many of the things that have made birthdays what they were for the last few years. Not having my friends and family around, and not just being able to go somewhere I know for a party, has definitely been strange. I don’t know if it was as difficult as I though it might be, but it still wasn’t easy. I have friends here and we did go out (to the few places we know) but it definitely wasn’t the same as birthdays have been before. So here is a recap of how my birthday unfolded.

Wednesday night, the eve of my day of birth, 5 of the teachers at my school took me out for dinner. It was a double header to welcome me and to celebrate my birthday. We went to Burera, a pasta and pizza joint here in town. It was killer food, weird pizza and weirder pasta. The most out there was squid pasta, in a squid ink sauce. That’s right, squid ink sauce. It was jet black, and tasted great. The down side of squid ink is that it stains things…like your insides, and everything in there too. The dinner was great, and the teachers were hilarious. Only 2 of the 5 were English teachers, but with help of those two, my limited Japanese, and the others limited English, we totally hammed it up and had some great conversations. I was the youngest there, but only by a year, and I found out that I am not even the youngest teacher at the school! After dinner, to my surprise a round of cake showed up. This was some killer cake, but perhaps the sweetest part about it was the fact that they got candles. We all put a candle on our cake and we all celebrated each others birthdays.

Thursday rolled around, and low and behold it was my birthday. The day started off a little rocky, but proceeded to get better and better by the hour. When I first go to school I was in a low mood, but many of the teachers wished me a happy birthday, then I taught 3 of the best classes of the year. Admittedly, one of them was all games, but it culminated in the students teaching me some slang and more modern Japanese. After that I had the rest of the day to kick around the school. I started a project that I have been planning for a while: Adam Bucks. This is a way to give rewards every game, but not give out all my prizes to quickly. “Adam Bucks” can be cashed in for prizes when the certain amount has been reached; different prizes will have different values.

After school, I headed home. I swung by the post office to pick up a package that I missed the delivery on the day prior. I was pleasantly surprised to find it was a package from Liz. I flew home and sat for all of 30 seconds before I started opening it. I would say before I ripped into it, but for those of you who know me well enough to see me open gifts, you’ll know how my meticulous anal Virgo comes out in full bloom when I unwrap gifts. I won’t go into details of the contents, but I was really pleased. The one thing I will mention is the coffee. It definitely rocks that I now have a JJ Bean stash at my house! After that I was sending some email, when I got an e-card from my mom. I replied to it and mentioned that her package hadn’t come yet…we both had assumed this would be the case, but we were holding out hope. The hilarity of the situation is that with in 2 min of sending that email, the post man arrived at my door. Low and behold what did he have, my birthday package from my mom. The irony of the situation left me laughing for hours.

At around 7 pm, people started gathering at my house. We were going to party since it was a long weekend. I love the fact that the Autumnal Equinox is a holiday! There were 5 of us all together. We were missing a few of our crew, one to a previous (many months prior engagement) and another to a thrown out back. We hit up a restaurant called Shunsaibo. It has all sorts of great food, the two best being the deep fried Camembert cheese and taco rice. The other rocking thing about this place is that if you make reservations on your birthday you get a free bottle of champagne. Needless to say, I had made a reservation. After a kick ass meal, and some ice cream with a sparkler, it was time to head to Karaoke. We showed up and only had to wait 5 min…frankly I think they always make you wait 5 min…it helps them look busier. We requested the system that has the most English songs (this Karaoke place actually has 3 different systems). We got the system we wanted, and had a great time. We were there for about 3 hours, and the better way through the 3^rd hour a surprise showed up. My friends had gone to the Baskin Robins in town and ordered an ice cream cake for me. They had left it at the Karaoke place earlier in the day. It was a delicious cake. Moreover, the also got me some gifts. Since the car I was really hoping to get was a Subaru Impreza WRX, they got me a remote control version of that car. They also wanted to get me a taste of home, so they got me a big bottle of Canadian Club Whiskey. We closed off the night with a few last songs and headed home. That was the end of my actual birthday. All in all a pretty kick ass day.

Friday morning rolled around, and Brandon and I decided to hit the beach. We drove out to Niigata, and got there in time for some good surf. The only weird thing was that the waves were breaking in such a way that made them a big pain in the ass to catch. We tried hard until the surf died down, then we hit the international food store in Niigata. On top of Jamaican Red Stripe Beer, I got some A&W Root Beer (something impossible to find here), and some brie cheese. I was looking for peanut butter, but I couldn’t find it…oh well. After that we bombed back into Nakano, as we had a party to get ready for that night.

We hosted a party out at Riches super huge house. It’s a little in the sticks, but large enough to allow for many people. We got there, set up the place, and then waited. People started showing and the party started rocking. It went late in to the night, and we all had a blast.

Then it was Sunday, time for some R&R. Well kinda. I took a trip into Nagano City with a fellow Canuck, Derek. We hit the big electronics store, and I got a mic for my computer. The kick ass thing is that I can now have voice conversations with anyone over the internet. If you use a pc and have messenger we can chat that way. Or have a mac or don’t want messenger, then get a program called Skype. Its free and the killer part is that with either PC Messenger or Skype, and a mic you can talk for free, in real time over the internet. Look into it. I have found it to be well worth it!

The other part of my trip to Nagano was to look for a bike. I inherited 2 bikes with my house, but to be honest, they both suck. The breaks have seized on both, and they are not worth trying to repair. After a few hours of lost and hopeless searching we finally found the mountain bike store. Well the wait was worth it; the owner knows his bikes, and he offers screaming deals. In the end he made me an offer I couldn’t reuse (and no, this isn’t the Godfather Bike Shop). He offered me over $700 off a top of the line mountain bike. It’s a Kona and it is killer sweet. The deal is that it is the end of the season, and this is this year’s model and people in Japan want things brand new so no one will by it next year. Score for me. In the end I just got myself a birthday present.

Well that is a recap of the days surrounding my first birthday overseas. It was memorable, and eventful. I was sad to not have all my regular peeps around, but it was still a great time. Thanks to all who sent me birthday wishes, it definitely made it a little less hard.