Happy birthday to me!

Or if you want to say in Japanese, tanjobi omedeto! I guess my birthday was really just two weeks ago, but I've been busy, so it seems a bit longer ago than that. Many thanks to everyone who sent love my way. I was a bit worried about spending it away from the lovely people I had gotten used to celebrating it with the past 4 years, but I needn't have worried, the people here took very good care of me. Plus, I have this great coupon from Hannah that I will definitely redeem for some birthday madness whenever we find ourselves reunited.

I started my own personal birthday celebration the Saturday before the actual day with Allison, Jamie, and Kendra. We went to Dazaifu Shrine, then continued northward to Fukuoka for a day of shopping and eating (and thus begins the week-long binge...I still have not fully recovered, and it makes me a bit nauseous to think about it.) We ate lunch at a traditional noodle place, followed up by dessert at the place with 25 flavors of soft cream. They had the basics, and some unusual ones like pumpkin, sweet potato, and black sesame. I was boring, and opted for green tea and vanilla.

Dazaifu was pretty...it was getting ready for the autumn festival, so we watched the construction of a float that was to be used later in the day. The real treat however, the autumn leaves are still a ways off, so a return trip is necessary. So is another trip in the spring to see the plum blossoms (which some claim to be even prettier than the sakura, or cherry blossoms).

The shrine itself. Very colorful. Very popular. I like going to shrines, because I am never the only one with a camera out.

Japanese bridge leading to the shrine. I am trying to remember what I learned about Japanese Gardens in my History of Gardens class...hopefully seeing the places in real life will help bring it back to me.
Getting ready to construct a "tree" on that wagon. Very serious business, done only by the best ikebana ladies, who to my amazement continued to hold their purses while arranging the flowers.
The finishing touches on the final product. While we were watching, someone made the comment that it seemed kind of counter intuitive to cut down a bunch of plants only to use them to reconstruct a giant plant. Hmmmmm, it does give you something to think about.

Anyway, back to girl's day. We shopped 'til we dropped, snacking along the way and then had a nice spaghetti dinner at Pietro's, which is a chain of Italian restaurants in Japan.

On Sunday, I took it easy during the day, cleaned the apartment (there is always hair on the floor, even right after I vacuum, but at least I know its mine) and then met one of my teachers for an afternoon at the spa. My teacher has just recently discovered the aesthetic spa, she went once before school started and loved it so much that she bought a booklet for another 10 visits. I think she goes almost every weekend now, and I can see why one might be so inclined. The spa was quite nice, it was probably the most luxurious birthday present I ever have, and probably ever will receive.

After filling out some paperwork, I was led upstairs to change out of my street clothes into a papery bikini. Then in all my nearly naked glory, the aesthetician came and weighed and measured me. Lovely...and if that wasn't bad enough, she took photos. I got to keep them, and no, you will probably never see them. But after that slightly stressful beginning, I was led into the personal sauna, which was a lounge chair with what looked like a large umbrella draped with scarves hanging over it. I was told to lay down and scented steam was pumped in. The lights were dim, and it was relaxing, but it was also really hot. Having been in humid Japan in August and September, I thought I knew what it meant to sweat, but no, in the sauna I was gushing with perspiration from pores I didn't even know I had.

After the sauna, the lovely aesthetician (who spoke just enough English to get me to and from the various rooms, on and off the massage table and to ask me which sports I liked--proof that the English I've been teaching in junior does come in handy later in life) had the honor of rubbing me down, then attaching some pulsing magnet electrodes to me, then massaging me with warm compresses. I liked the compress massage the best I think. Then it was back to the changing room for more measurements and photos. That I lost 3 cm from my waist in the 2.5 hours I was there sweating did not surprise me very much, but they somehow miraculously raised my rear end 4 cm! "Oh, sugoy!" said the aesthetician. Weird. I wonder two things 1) how did they do that? and 2) how long did it stay lifted? I highly doubt that it is still up there. Then, after my shower with ridiculously expensive shampoos, (about $70 a bottle) as we were about to leave all refreshed and rejuvenated, all of the aestheticians came out from the back and presented me with a lovely bouquet of birthday flowers. So very nice of them.

The birthday bouquet from the spa ladies.

Then on my actual birthday, Monday the 24th, I had dinner with the hip, young teachers from my junior high school at Brava, a scrumdillidumptous (apologies to Roald Dahl) Italian place in downtown Kurume. Everything there is super fresh, and you can watch them make your wood fired pizza or mountainous banana torte in their open kitchen. Brava is also very small, with about a half a dozen tables and a four person bar, so it definitely pays to call ahead. Dinner was wonderful, and then on the way home, Allison treated me to some cake from a bakery which we ate in the park. I took the following picture in near darkness, hence the off centeredness of it, but I need to include it anyway.

Mmmmmm. Cake.

Thus were the beginnings of what turned out to be a week long eating marathon. On Tuesday, we had a meeting in Fukuoka, so I went out for Thai food afterwards. On Wednesday, we had our shodo lesson, complete with dinner and two birthday cakes (one for me and one for Allison, 9/26/1984) Thursday I was actually home for dinner, but all of my vegetables had spoiled in my absence, so I ate a bagel instead. Friday was another meeting and "English Conversation Cafe" which necessitated eating out again. On Saturday, there was a final birthday hoorah at the local tabehodai place, Stamina-taro, where $15 gets you 90 minutes of soup, grill your own meat, "fried goodness," sushi, noodles, rice, dessert and ice cream. I felt like the very hungry caterpillar on Sunday when he about 300 times his normal size all week.

There is just way too much good food around here :-P