My Birthday ~ 24!

The Saturday after my birthday was the big party! It was actually a double party for Rachel and I since her birthday was in a few days. Let me just say that it was probably the best birthday party I’ve ever had in my life! I didn’t do any of the planning which was a new thing for me. According to Yuki, Japanese people usually just let their friends take care of planning their birthday parties. So, I just sat back and let it happen! There were fourteen people at our party.

We met at Kyushu izakaya at 7pm. Shinya gave the kanpai (cheers) speech which was something along the lines of 「皆さん、お疲れ様！飲みましょう！」Translation: “Thank you everyone for your hard work! Let’s drink!” We ate and drank a lot. The guys brought out two cakes. One Rachel bought for me (she didn’t know that we were also going to celebrate her birthday as well xD) and one Yuki made from scratch. I was so impressed!! Both tasted delicious! As I blew out the candles, I made a wish that I wouldn’t die from alcohol poisoning that night…my wish came true lol! Also, I received tons of presents! It was wonderful!! :D As far as I can remember, there were a lot of antics that went on at the party, mostly perverted. For example, I spilled my wine trying to stand up while holding multiple drinks, we laughed at this fried seaweed stuff that looked like pubic hair (we claimed that it was Akira’s lol), Ken of course took off his shirt and I pinched his nipples, Andrew hit on the waitress, and whipped cream or something got flung on my pants and we obviously made dirty jokes about it. This time (unlike Yuki’s party), no one puked, fell on their face, or had their pants pulled down at the izakaya. It was very clean fun!

The start of a good night.

Happy birthday me.

Things were getting silly.

The world is pretty much perfect at this moment.

Not unusual.

You have to admit, that seaweed really does
look like pubes...

The next stop was Balabushka. Before we went though, some people left to catch their trains and whatnot. It was funny because Andrew left without officially saying goodbye to me, but then we ran into him while we were walking Aimee to the train station, so Ken and I attacked him, and I got my official goodbye. Norris left, after I pinched his cheek. Ken-chan decided to give me his gift after we left the izakaya. They were super awesome glasses! I opened them, put them on, and then he took my face in his hands and tenderly kissed my forehead…BAHAHA...awkward! I wonder if he remembers?? We also asked a random guy to take a picture of us on Dotonbori. I’m so glad we did!

We found you Andrew!!

I love this group shot!

Half of the group was already at Balabushka. We joined them. I of course did a birthday tequila shot with Joe and Yuki. After getting a lap dance from Ken and talking with people, we all sat down and played this game that Rachel made. Apparently it’s a British game. I think it was called pass the parcel or something like that. It was super cool! Basically there are layers of wrapping paper with a box in the center. In each layer, there are gifts and like challenges you must do. You pass the package around until the music stops, and whoever is holding it gets the gifts in that layer but must do the challenge. I think you can refuse, but you have to drink if you do. I ended up with the package twice. The first time I had to drink a cocktail made up of everyone’s drinks. It was gross! Like fruity, strong beer (I hate beer). Luckily when I wasn’t looking, Ken took it and drank most of it. Also, I had to change an article of clothing with someone, so Yuki and I switched shirts. He wanted to keep mine because he liked it so much D-:< haha! Last, I had to pass a cookie to someone of the same sex only using my mouth...Rachel’s always a good sport when it comes to things like that. Unsurprisingly, Yuki decided he willingly wanted to try the same thing with Shinya...Shinya was not so willing, but gave in in the end.

Before.

After.

My first lap-dance.

About to try the cocktail of doom made up
of everyone's drinks.

Yep...eww.

Shirt swap.

Ken being forced to dance...I think?

 Some of the challenges were pretty bad. For example, Akira had to tell us an embarrassing moment…unfortunately I can’t say what it was, but it was crazy! Maybe the worst one was when Shinya had to be blindfolded and touch someone in order to guess who they were. Of course we volunteered Ken-chan who proceeded to open his shirt, pull down his pants, and stick his you-know-what right out in front of Shinya who grabbed it. POOR SHINYA!!!

I have other pictures of this occurrence, but
they aren't exactly appropriate.

I got pictures with the lovely Balabushka staff (except for Tokuyo p_q) who were very patient with our rambunctiousness. Hiro cleaned up one of our broken glasses, Kohei nicely told us that Kenchan had to keep his clothes on and he kept our gifts behind the counter when we moved to the dance club, and Yoshitoshi encouraged us to draw on Joe’s face while he was taking a nap. I love that place!

Thanks for cleaning up our broken glass, Hiro!

Thanks for cleaning up after us in general, Kohei.

Thanks for suggesting we draw on Joe's face, Yoshitoshi.

Love you Joe.

Soro soro around 1 am we went to my favorite dance club, Jaws. I think that was about the point I stopped drinking perhaps. Akira had the DJ call mine and Rachel’s names to say happy birthday and invite us up on stage. I felt so cool! Since I was with so many of my friends, I danced with them instead of strangers. Yuki and I mostly danced together the whole night, and it was so fun!! :D One strange/bad moment was when I was leaving the restroom, and like always, there were guys waiting around the restroom for girls to come out like creeps. One guy saw me and my American flag sunglasses (he was kinda silly looking…he had on like a track suit and looked like yakuza), and he said, “Oh, you are from America,” grabbed my face and planted a big smooch on my lips…eww. Whatever though…could be worse.

Jaws.

I’m not sure how much Akira drank throughout the night, but at the club, he started to look super out of it. I asked if he was ok, but then he went to the back to use the restroom and take a break. I decided to just let him do his thing, but at the end of the night, he was missing! We never found him. He responded to my messages later the next day. He doesn’t remember where he went, but he got home around 11 am…OMG! He said he remembered being really cold. Sigh…that’s typical Akira for you!

Lastly, we had to make a stop at Balabushka after the club because our gifts were still there. Some people went home before, but I ended up riding the train back with Victoria. I was so proud of myself for not sleeping through my stop. I stopped at the Family Mart near my apartment as usually to get some water and snacks and say hi to Matsuoka, the cute boy that always works mid-nights on the weekends. Poor guy probably things I’m some kind of beast because he only ever sees me at my worst. In any case, I got home, showered, and slept. I had no hangover the next day! I definitely will never forget this birthday! 24 is going to be a good year, I can feel it!