I love the cold months in Japan. I love fall leaves, I love
winter illuminations, and I love how all the fun, romantic events align. First,
my birthday is December 5th. Then, it’s Christmas and New Year’s. On
January 11th, is my boyfriend’s birthday, and about one month later
is Valentine’s Day. I guess I’m kind of thankful that our anniversary isn’t
until May otherwise we wouldn’t have anything to celebrate together in the
middle of the year lol.
In this post, I want to tell you about how I celebrated
Shinya’s birthday with him (maybe it will give you some ideas), but before I do
that, I’d like to touch briefly (or not so briefly) on my mini New Year’s party
with him.
This year was a first in that I couldn’t actually celebrate
New Year’s properly; with friends, drinking, countdown, etc. This was because
my flight back to Japan was at like 6 in the morning on New Year’s Day. That
meant I had to get to the airport around 3 am. I wasn’t about to go to the
airport drunk or hung-over to ride a plane feeling like sh*t for 14+ hours. Also,
since my house is about an hour and a half away from the airport, to make it
easier on my parents and I (otherwise we’d be getting up at like midnight to
go), we always stay at a hotel nearby. We had a nice dinner together, but we
all went to bed early on New Year’s Eve, so really, I had no celebration.
Therefore, Shinya thought it would be nice to have a little
celebration, just the two of us, once I got back. He even prepared a nice bottle
of champagne for us like he did on Christmas. I asked him what I should make
for food, and he explained that the way Japanese celebrate New Year’s, is to
make food in advance or buy stuff, so they don’t have to do any work on New
Year’s Day. It’s like wrong to spend time cooking in the kitchen on a day where
you should be relaxing with loved ones. He suggested we buy some premade food
from the supermarket, so we ended up buying sushi,
tsukemono (Japanese pickles), and
chili shrimp along with some other alcoholic drinks for while we were eating.
The champagne was for after dinner to be enjoyed with smoked cheese and raw ham
(I ate the cheese, he ate the ham).
We had a fun just chatting while enjoying the dinner and
drinks. We became full after, so we took a little nap on the couch before
moving on to the champagne round haha! We are so alike in that way. Once we
woke up, we decided it was champagne time, but we wanted to do something while
drinking, so I set up my hookah for the first time in a while and got out a
deck of cards. I taught him how to play Gin Rummy.
While smoking, eating, drinking,
and playing cards, we were having so much fun that time seemed to stand still.
I have no idea how long we had been playing before we decided it was time to
run o the convenience store for more snacks. It was a drunken decision, and
despite having eaten a lot, we both were hungry again. The champagne he bought
was a huge bottle, and after we finished it, we moved on to straight rum (I had
Captain Morgan and also some nice Jamaican rum my friend had bought me there).
Literally hours passed, I believe, of playing cards, drinking, and laughing…
Eventually we decided it was time to go to bed, but that’s where things get
fuzzy haha! It was such a cheap party at home, but it was one of the most fun
times I’ve had with him.
Now on to his birthday celebration.
I had been planning the details for a couple months. I
decided where I wanted to take him to eat, where I wanted to drink after, and
what present I was gona buy him. I wanted to do something a little special
because basically I did the exact same style birthday for him the year before.
I also did cake for him at home last year, but I decided that this year, since
we are on a champagne kick, along with cake, I would prepare a bottle of
champagne as well and go all out with decorating my apartment.
The day of his celebration (actually the day before his
birthday), I got up early and went to buy cake. I got two nice gourmet slices,
one fruit and one chocolate, instead of a whole cake because I knew we’d be
full from eating and drinking. I put the champagne in the fridge and proceeded
to decorate my apartment by hanging balloons for the ceiling and putting
together streamer things to hang around the room. After that, I got all done up
and met him at the train station. He had no idea where we were going.
I surprised him by taking him to a very nice Italian
restaurant that specializes in homemade pastas and brick-oven pizzas. I had
been there once for a work party, so I knew it was good. For an appetizer, he
got raw ham and I got a cheese plate, just like on New Year’s haha! We also got
bruschetta to share. He started off
with an Italian bottled beer and I with a glass of chardonnay.
For the pizza round, I switched to an Italian red and he to
draft. The pizza was to die for. I let him choose which one he wanted, and he
chose one with anchovies which was very delicious. For the last round (after
taking a 15 minute break), we ordered an arrabbiata
penne pasta. Our last drinks were another draft for him and a limoncello cocktail. We were
stuffed…obviously.
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| Cheese plate. |
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| Raw ham. |
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| Bruschetta. |
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| Yay beer face! |
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| Pizza, |
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| Pasta. |
After dinner, I took him to a nearby bar I had researched.
Neither of us had been to it, but I thought it looked cool and fancy online.
That it was. It was a whiskey specialty bar. Neither of us drink whiskey, but
you could order other drinks, and I didn’t want that to stop us from
experiencing a cool place. I would describe the inside of the bar as kingly.
The place is called Bar Alive, by the way. The master gave us free cheesecake
because I said it was Shinya’s birthday. We both hate cheese cake lol, but I
ate it politely anyway and thanked him. Because it was a very pricey place, I
wanted to stay there for only one drink, which we did.
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| Bar Alive. |
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| Cheesecake. ^^; |
We were feeling so stuffed that instead of going to the next
bar I had planned that was only about 10 minutes away, we decided to head back
to our town and drink there to give our bellies more time to settle down. We
wanted to go to a bar called ANG that we both like but rarely get to go to, but
it was completely full. Instead, we went to a different bar down the road that
Shinya had been to a couple times but I had never been to. It’s called Soul
Kitchen. Shinya has actually invited me there a few times and told me it was
really nice and tasty (it’s a food bar, so they serve drinks and a variety of
nice food), but we never ended up going. To my surprise, it was much better
than I thought! The atmosphere was really cozy and romantic. They had an
extensive drink menu. We ordered and had deep conversation together. At
midnight, when it turned his actual birthday, I made sure to tell him happy
birthday and give him a big hug. I get really excited about stuff like that. I
was bouncing in my chair saying “It’s your birthday! It’s your birthday!”
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| Happy Birthday! |
Later our acquaintances walked in and treated us to pizza
without warning lol. We were still pretty full and had already had pizza once
during the night, but it was very small sized pizza and over two drinks each,
we finished it slowly. This bar is actually one train station away from where
we live, so it is a pretty far walk, but luckily, when it was time to go home,
our acquaintances offered to drive us which was very nice of them (it was
pretty cold outside). The wife hadn’t been drinking, so she was fine to drive.
Once we got home and stepped into the entrance, I led Shinya
to my bedroom and told him to wait patiently there. I had the doors to the
kitchen and living room shut so he could see any of the decorations. I turned
on mood lighting, got music playing, brought out the cake and champagne, and
arranged it on the table. When I told him to come in to the living room, the
first thing he looked at was me at the table with the cake and champagne. I
told him to look up, and that’s when he noticed all the balloons and streamer
above him. He let out a gasp and was amazed. I don’t think anyone has ever
taken the time to do something like that for him, so he hugged me and thanked
me with tears in his eyes. …YES! I DID A GOOD JOB!
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| Decorations. |
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| Decorations. |
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| Decorations. |
We sat down at the table; I popped the bottle and poured the
bubbly lol. Then I lit the candles on the cakes and sang him happy birthday.
After blowing out the candles, we toasted for like the 5th time that
night haha and enjoyed our drinks. I was so full I could only take a few bites
of cake and have 1 ½ glasses of champagne. Shinya took the liberty of finishing
my cake and drinking all the champagne. I was so impressed haha! He was like,
“It’s my birthday champagne, I’m gona drink it all,” before he proceeded to
down his last glass in two gulps haha! I was sober by now, but I think he was
drunk.
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| Champagne time! |
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| So cute. :) |
Before we finished the champagne, however, I gave him his
birthday present. Before giving it to him, he told me that he had already
received enough from me with the dinner, drinks, decorations, cake, and
champagne. But what’s a birthday without opening a present?! So he opened it up
to find a nice, new, leather wallet made from Italian deerskin. I had bought it
at Sac’s Bar, which is a nice purse and wallet store. I thought the wallet was
so pretty and would suit him well. His old wallet was a $20 falling apart piece
of poo that he had been using for years haha! I was so happy I could get him a
new one.
So that’s how we spent his birthday. From the next day on,
he kept telling me how perfect it was. I had a blast as well. Happy Birthday,
my dear!
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