night on the banks of the kamogawa

(Continued from yesterday's post)

You see, it was my birthday, so we had to get a little celebration in.

Now, we had already celebrated a few days early with a lovely dinner at another local favorite, Las Meninas (You may remember it from our six month lunaversary celebration). Here we are walking down our street to the restaurant.  Have I mentioned how much we LOVE being able to walk everywhere?






Those of you who know us well may not be surprised to learn we like to take pictures of meals and celebrations before we start eating them, as we tend to get excited about the food in front of us and can't think about much else.





But back to the banks of the Kamogawa.  When the celebration in question is all about me, well, who am I to decline?

Roz and Dick were still recovering from the long flight to Japan, so they called it a night, but Jeff and I headed down to the sakura lined banks of the Kamogawa river to sip a chu-hi. Can you see us there? 

 There were actually hundreds of other people enjoying the cool breeze that evening on the river bank, but my husband artfully cropped them out.

Since it was still early when we finished our chu-hi, we decided to grab one more drink at a cute bar with outdoor seating (this time on a canal leading to the Kamogawa).

 Cheers to ME!

Mata ne,
Melissa

Happy Birthday Cara!!

Happy birthday to the beautiful, talented, intelligent, and wonderful Cara (my maid of honor).

Here she is following her amazing speech that had everyone in the tent in stitches and in tears.

And dancing with her handsome father - nice looking family, huh?

Who's buying the first birthday drink?

Mata ne,
Melissa

Time to break out the themed sweaters.

Good morning, December.  I wasn't expecting you so soon, and yet, here you are.

I should have seen you coming, I suppose, as I can't escape the drone of Christmas music, elaborately decorated store windows, and present pushing commercials even in a country where the overwhelming majority of the population does not celebrate Christmas.

Good bye, autumn.  You will be missed.

I just love this picture.  I can't get enough of it.  This is the last time, I promise.

Being December 1, it is our favorite toy good friend Bridgette's son Connor's first birthday!!

What a cutie!  Happy Birthday Connor!!

We look forward to playing with you when we get home!

Mata ne,

Melissa

Birthday Details

So when Jeff got home from his seminar he wasn't tired like I expected.  He was ready to get out there and show thirty what he was made of!

First we went out to eat at Malabar - an Indian curry place with amazing nan.  As you can see it was quite the spread!  That was for two people - and we finished (almost) all of it.  (For those who don't know, that is nan that Jeff is biting into.  We didn't expect it to be so huge so we ordered the small one to go with it.)


After dinner we walked around the Waseda area a bit.  We thought about going to a bar for a drink, but instead decided to try our vocal abilities at a karaoke place.  Karaoke is, as Jeff likes to tell me, a portmanteau - a combination of two words.  In this case, kara, which means empty, and oke, short for orchestra. It is nothing like karaoke in a bar that you might find in America.  The place where we went you sign in at the front desk and go to your own private booth/room.  You choose your songs from a little computer console and have at it.  We only stayed for half an hour, but you can choose to stay longer and even order drinks and food to your booth.  Maybe next time.

The best part was that I was able to go out and get Jeff a cake!!  I only had to say two words to the girl at the counter, and I even bought cute candles to go on top.  I don't know if Jeff was more surprised about the cake or the fact that I actually procured it on my own.  

In America it is still Jeff's birthday, but in Japan it's just Friday so we're going out to run errands.

Mata ne!
Melissa

Happy Birthday Jeff!

Today is Jeff's 30th birthday!!

He has to give a presentation on his research (he just got here to start it and he has to give a presentation already?) to his sponsoring professor's seminar this evening so he's been working on that all day instead of celebrating.  It's just as well though, since it's been raining all day so we wouldn't really want to be out and about.

For breakfast I treated him to awesome cinnamon french toast made of Danish bread.  I am not really sure what Danish bread is (it is not like a danish that you'd find with jelly or something in America), but its thick and crusty and they have it at the Gourmet City by our house.  I also got a nice bottle of wine the other day, and I am going to slip out and attempt to purchase a small cake (hopefully there will be no verbal exchange necessary) while he's in his presentation.  Normally I'd bake something delicious like whiskey cake, but our kitchen here leaves something to be desired and I have yet to tackle the grimy oven that isn't even big enough to fit a cake.

If you haven't yet, you can send him an email or call our skype number (it's free!) and wish him a happy birthday!

Matane,

Melissa