Let's start with my birthday!

Let's start with my birthday.

On March 29^th, some friends and I went into Tokyo.  I had made reservations at Amatarou, and ordered an all you can eat grilled meat course for 2 hours.  The restaurant had a cozy atmosphere, and the quality of the beef, chicken and pork was really good, except the innards weren't so good.  The roast tasted like steak and everyone ate as much as they could.  T2 handed me a small package, and it was a Naruto fighting game for my DS.  I don't care much for fighters, but the Naruto fighters are so much fun.  There's something different about them, and I know all the characters cause I'm kind of a geek and like to watch the show.  Plus it's got sharing capabilities, so we can play it on the trains.  That was present number one! At the end of dinner, a waiter at the restaurant came over and handed me an envelope with my name on it.  I opened it up, and there was a note written in what I thought was French, but I think it turned out to be Cerbian.  Anyway, I could understand only a few words, "Shibuya station south exit."  Also inside the envelope was a coin locker key.

After dinner, I tried to make a reservation at the Karaoke Kan in Shibuya for room 601, the same room they filmed Lost in Translation in, but it was already occupied, so they gave us 701, which had a slightly better view of Shibuya because it was one story higher, and it looked the exact same as the one in the movie.  Sanja and Odelia went to a store to procure colorful wigs and we tried recreate the scene from the movie.  Everyone had a lot of fun.

After Karaoke, the party was pretty much over, but we passed the rest of the night wandering the streets of Tokyo.  Sanja had hidden my present (from her and Gibby) in a locker at Shibuya station.  It turned out to be a part of the station ( not the South exit, but the NEW south exit, very different places) that was really far away, so we walked around for about an hour before we stumbled upon it, but it was inside the station and since it was 2:30 in the morning, the station was of course closed.  We tried to go through an adjacent hotel, but that way was closed too.  We explained our situation to the clerk at the hotel, and he called the station security, and at first it sounded hopeless, but then the clerks face brightened and said someone was coming to help us.  An elderly security guard, came to meet us.  He had a big smile on his face, maybe he was excited to have something to do, and he guided us down some back passages and into a deserted Shibuya station.  It was so strange.  We headed straight toward the bank of lockers, I put the key in, paid the locker fee, and pulled out a large bag containing Dance Dance Revolution and software for my Wii!  It was quite an experience.  The security guard and the hotel clerk were very friendly, even though we weren't guests at the hotel, and we had disrupted Japan Rail security for half an hour.  That was present number 2!

When we made our way back outside, most of the group had gone, and the few of us that were left, took a taxi from Shibuya to Roppongi, which of course, never sleeps.  We didn't go to any clubs, but we went into a noodle shop, got a big bowl of ramen, and chatted and dozed until the morning trains took us home. 

The next day, March 30, I got home around 8 in the morning and went right to bed.  I slept for about 3 or 4 hours, got up, and went over to Mami's house where we made a bunch of delicious food; fried chicken, fresh spring rolls, and that's all I can remember right now, but the food was really good.  Mami and Emily are both excellent cooks, so if they offer you something, it's wise to accept.  They also gave me my third present, a Wii Fit board!  This isn't out in the states yet, but I think it will come out next month.  It's a board that you stand on, a bit bigger than a home scale.  It weighs you, has 4 balance sensors in each corner, and responds to pressure.  There are a number of games and weight programs designed to go with it on the wii. Mine came with the standard fit software and has some step programs, a yoga program, a ski jump program etc...  It's a lot of fun.  When you create your profile, you can put your wii character (mii) on a body, and based on your height and weight, it knows your BMI, and your character becomes fat or skinny. I'm ashamed to say that mine is fat, but I put a goal in, and can record my progress daily.  That, combined with the DDR pad I got from S and G is a good exercise program. That was present number three!

Julie and Calvin were in Okinawa, so they picked me up a taco rice kit, that's 4!

My lovely grandmother sent me 200 bucks, so I bought a new digital camera!  Photos to come!  That was actually the first present, cause she sent it before my birthday :-)

Well, that was my birthday.  It was probably the best one I've had in Japan yet. 2 years ago was also fun, we went for yakitori.  But I finally had a Tokyo, Lost in Translation party and that was a lot of fun.  Next year, I'm gonna keep it simple though.

tags: birthday  lostintranslation  tokyo  wii  nintendods