“Arasaa” My 25th Birthday!

Wanna know something weird about me? I hate odd numbers. I think they are unlucky, and they make me feel icky. When I turned twenty-one, I was ok with it though because it’s an exciting year for Americans as we can legally drink from twenty-one years old. Twenty-two and twenty-four were great years for me. Twenty-three was not. I’m not looking forward to twenty-seven or twenty-nine either. However, twenty-five is special. It’s special because it’s right in the center of twenty and thirty making it a nice, clean number. Yes, I know I have some obsessive compulsive issues. So in any case, I have a good feeling about turning twenty-five, and I feel like I can make this year a good one.

My birthday was December 5^th. According to Shinya, I am now “arasaa” which means “around thirty” and I think is only used for women. Arasaa is short for “araundo saatii.” If you look at it or try to sound it out, maybe you will notice that it’s just a Romanization for the Japanese English pronunciation of “around thirty.” I don’t really consider myself to be around thirty because I think ages twenty-eight through thirty-two are around thirty, but apparently in Japan twenty-five though twenty-nine is considered around thirty, and Shinya likes to tease me about it…but then I remind him how next month he actually is turning thirty, and that makes him quiet real quick haha!

This year was fantastic as far as celebrating birthdays goes. I felt like I really started off the year right. As one of my friends pointed out, I was basically celebrity status! My Facebook exploded with birthday wishes. My family and friends sent me gifts in the mail. I was surprised in two classes with a birthday chalkboard in one and a gift in the other. I was treated with a round of shots at Captain Kangaroo. I was also surprised by a gift from my local bar master and with a delicious homemade green tea birthday cake by my student’s parents when I attended their restaurant’s sushi party. The main two events, however, were my birthday date with Shinya on my actual birthday and my friend party the following day.

The cute board my elementary kids drew for me!

Maccha cake!

My birthday date with Shinya was so nice. After he got off of work, he met me in Kyobashi. Since it’s the winter season now, he originally wanted to take me to a nabe (hot pot) place where we could have our own private room, but when he called, it was completely booked, so he instead to me took one of my favorite izakaya that we had been to once before together a while ago. It specializes in fish and other seafood. We shared delicious sashimi, clams in a hot broth, and vegetable and seafood tempura over a couple drinks. Shinya also got thick cuts of bacon, and I got chawanmushi. I seriously can’t get enough of chawanmushi lately. Chawanmushi is a steamed egg custard thing that has surprises hidden inside like pieces or crab, chicken, eel, mushrooms, and more. It’s piping hot and especially nice in winter. Dinner was absolutely delicious!

Sashimi!

Next he took me to a really nice bar called Wisteria that we went to together for the first time a couple weeks ago and fell in love with. Actually, he had been there once on his own before, but our first time together was recently. I don’t normally drink Moscow mules, but the ones at this place are to die for. The master infuses the vodka with real ginger slices and lets it sit for a long time. When he makes the drink, he actually puts the pieces of ginger in it! The ginger-ale he uses comes in tiny one-serving size glass bottles. Damn is it good!

Over our drinks, we enjoyed quiet conversation together. I’m not going to specifically tell you what was said because it was for me alone to hear, but I will say that after saying one of the most romantic things I’ve ever heard to me, Shinya pulled a small gift out of his bag and set it in front of me followed by the line, “I don’t really know when the right moment to give you this is…” In fact, it was the perfect moment. It was a little round box with a ribbon. I nervously opened it knowing that it was going to be some form of jewelry. I was nervous because I didn’t know how expensive it was going to be and if I’d like it or not. Fortunately, when I opened it, my eyes met the most beautiful and tasteful pair of white gold earrings with my birthstone and other gems. I was honestly impressed by his choice. He told me he imagined all the different earrings on me and took a long time choosing the pair he thought would suit me the best. I was touched, not only by the gift, but the things he said after giving it to me. Again, things meant for me to hear. He ended his speech by saying. “All of my feelings are in these earrings, so please remember that when you look at them, and if you wear them in front of me, it’ll make me happy.” I get little butterflies in my belly just thinking about his words. Such a wonderful man! We ended the night at our favorite local bar. It was a lovely spent birthday.

So beautiful.

So on to the crazy part, because it wouldn’t be my birthday without having a wild party with my friends haha! I thought about it, and actually, every birthday I’ve had in Japan has involved going to a dance club. This year, my best friend here in Japan, Joe, planned my party for me because he is the best! He made the izakaya reservation, took care of the cake, made the guest list, and invited everyone for me. I think there were 14 of us total. I was so happy to be surrounded by my closest friends. It meant so much to me that they all came. Dinner was delicious, and the drinks were flowing. I have no idea what was up with me this night, but no matter how much I drank, I could not get buzzed! It didn’t really matter though because I was having a blast. Joe’s explanation as to why I didn’t get drunk was that I was too excited and psyched up my liver for the party so much that it was in super work mode haha! I think he was right. Shinya came to my friend party which made me happy because I want him to be cool with my friends.

My friends. <3

Getting chummy.

During dinner my friends brought out the cake, and everyone gave me really nice presents! I was touched! Rachel’s birthday is a few days after mine, so we also celebrated her birthday too. So there were actually two cakes and presents for her as well.

Delicious cake!

Happy Birthday to you too, Rachel!

My friends spoiled me!! Thank you guys!

After everyone was feeling good, some more than others haha (*ahem* Ken), we headed to Balabushka. I was treated to drinks the whole time by my friends! I had three regular tequila shots, one double, and two cocktails, and I didn’t get drunk!! Wtf?! I swear there was something funky going on because I also have like 5 plum wines at the izakaya. So maybe I felt a little something after the double tequila shot, but it was short lived.

Heading over to Balabushka with our awesome birthday glasses!

Thank you for the tequila!

At Balabushka, we played Jenga and were rowdy. Shinya stayed for a bit, but he was tired from working so much, and noisy, rowdy, drinking parties aren’t really his thing. Plus, he wasn’t keen on going to a dance club, so he apologetically took his leave. He didn’t want to bring down my good time. At first, I was kind of bummed that he wanted to leave, but then I thought about it like a mature adult and realized that I didn’t want to force him to do something he didn’t want to do, and I probably really would have a better time if I didn’t have to worry about whether or not he was enjoying himself. In the end, I think it was a good thing that he left because I could spend more time with my friends, too. Any sort of sadness I had about him leaving was completely cured when he ended up meeting up with me to ride the first train home and surprising me by coming over to my house. He squeezed my hand tight and apologized for ditching the rest of the party, but honesty, I didn’t even mind.

Jenga time.

So back to the party after Shinya left...It’s probably good that he did leave because that’s right about the time when things started getting crazy. As I mentioned before, Ken was really wasted when leaving the izakaya. When we got to Balabushka, he kept up his pace with stronger drinks. He got really weird and was poking our butts and stuff. I’ve never really saw him like that lol. Anyway, he decided to pass out in a chair, incoherent and slouched over for like 1 ½ hours. When it started getting close to the time we wanted to go clubbing, we had to figure out what to do with him. He couldn’t stand or talk. I would’ve felt bad leaving him there because first, I didn’t know if he was ok, and second, he probably would’ve been sad and confused if he woke up wondering where everyone went. So, we spent like 20 minutes talking to him, poking him, and trying to get him to drink water until he was vaguely coherent. We got him to stand, kind of. Yuki and I helped him walk, and Haru was kind enough to volunteer to take him back to his place by car. Ken is so funny because as we were walking him to Haru’s car, he was all smiley and laughing about nothing. When I texted him the next day, he remembered nothing.

That time when Ken died at my birthday party.

So the craziness wasn’t over yet. The other Ken (Ken-chan) showed up after his end-of-the-year work party, and holy mother of Jesus was he on a different level. I had never seen him so crazy in my life. He walked in basically like crying and drooling with snot dripping out of his nose screaming because he was so happy that he “somehow made it to Balabushka.” He was just like hugging us and saying how happy he was and how important friends are. After that he passed out on a table… and then shortly after woke up to projectile vomit right in the middle of the bar, which my poor bartender friend, Masaya, had to clean up with just some paper towels and his bare hands. I felt so bad for him! He mopped after, too. God, it was gross. I think Ken-chan felt a bit better after that but still skipped going to the club which I think was for the better.

Look who showed up!

So perhaps around 2:30 or so, we headed to Wax, not before the guys decided to make a “friend pile” on the street. Usually I am drunk when I go clubbing, so my energy is high, but since I wasn’t drunk, I was feeling a little tired, but I still danced. I danced in my circle of friends until the club shut down at 5 am. I really did enjoy dancing, but I feel like I couldn’t give it my all because I was sleepy and sober. I even refused when invited to dance on stage...something I never refuse to do haha! There was one really funny thing that happened though. I was dancing with Yuki a lot, and when we dance together, it’s always just silly and messing around like making dumb faces and stuff. Well later, I started dancing with him again, and then he tried to ask me something. I couldn’t hear him, so I look up at his face, and realized that it wasn’t actually Yuki but some guy that looked like him because they had the same sweater, were the same height, and both had glasses haha! I just looked at him for a second, and was like, “Um, sorry, I can’t hear you,” and walked away. He was probably so confused because some weird foreign chick just started randomly dancing with him in a strange manner. This guy actually looked Korean though, and might have been trying to speak to me in Korean because I had no idea what he was saying. So ya, that was funny.

"Friend pile."

F*ckin' up the club.

Rarrrrr!!! PARTAY!

That was basically how my birthday went! I had a great time Also, it was so nice to meet Shinya in the morning and go home together. It was a perfect and peaceful end to a crazy fun night! I won’t forget walking home together hand in hand and being surprised by the huge, low-hanging moon. Shinya tried to take a picture of it with his phone because it was so amazing looking, but the phone made it look small and bad, so we agreed to save the image of the moon to our memory forever. <3