17th post: birthday

So, Saturday was my birthday.  I can no longer say I am in my early 30s, I think.

I got breakfast and presents in bed from my sisters, which was awesome.  Kathryn gave me a yellow satchel bag that I'd been looking at in Harajuku, and Lynne gave me this really pretty notebook and matching pencil case from Sri Lanka - nice score, me!

We decided to go to the baseball during the day, because it was on near where we were booked for dinner, out in Chiba.  We had to get the tickets from the machine at the 7-11, which we thought would be a nightmare like so many other things we've tried to get tickets for in this country, but it was surprisingly easy.  It took a long time on the train, and we stopped for a coffee in Suidobashi, but eventually made it and met up with Liam at the train station.

The game was Chiba Marines vs Tokyo Giants.  I have decided that Chiba Marines are my team because they have very cool chants, and you can get these balloons and when someone gets a home run everyone lets off their balloons in the air.  Lynne got clocked in the back of the head with a stray balloon, but apart from that there were no major incidents.  We had good seats, considering they were the only ones left when we bought the tickets, they were in the top stand but in the front row between third base and the home plate.  (LOL, I sound like I know stuff!)  It was a very hot day, so Kathryn and I went to buy merchandise to protect us from the sun.  I bought a fan because it was the cheapest thing and you can not only fan yourself but also block the sun with it.  The game itself wasn't as exciting as the other one we went to because the Marines had a massive lead, but it was an awesome atmosphere with the big crowd and warm day.  There was this adorable little boy sitting along from us and he was very upset and crying at one point, but then we made funny faces at each other and he cheered up.  We had to leave by 4 to get back to the station to meet Kirsty, and luckily the game finished just in time.  Yay, Marines!  Yay, cute stationery set from Swimmer that Kirsty gave me for my birthday!  It has teeny tiny scissors!!!

Why would a person go all the way to Chiba for dinner, you may ask.  And I would tell you, because it is where the world-famous Chinese restaurant of the Aiba family is.  It was awesome, because we had a booking we got to bypass all the girls lining up outside.  Last time I went we had to line up for three hours to get in and I was starving by the time I finally ate.  It's really bad too because when you're in the line you can see all the people inside eating delicious foods.  But none of that for us this time!  We got shown to a private room at the back, which was good but didn't have as much atmosphere as sitting in the main part of the restaurant.  We ordered lots of food: mabo tofu, sweet & sour pork, gyoza (x2), some veggie thing, and then because our rice was late and we'd eaten nearly everything by the time we got it, we had to order a second helping of mabo tofu, and then I had frozen strawberries filled with condensed milk stuff for dessert.  Oh man, it was so delicious.  I would eat there every day of my life if I could, even if it wasn't the restaurant of Aiba Masaki's family!  Sometimes if you're very lucky, Aiba's mum is your waitress, but as Aiba was on tv all night Saturday, she was upstairs watching him.  Well, she might've been watching Korean dramas, but she wasn't working and the lights were on in their lounge room.  We didn't get to see Aiba's dog or his monkey either, but it was still good to go and see the fanarts and eat delicious food.  You can write messages in a book for him as well, but I had written everything I wanted to say last time, so I didn't.

After that we headed back to the big smoke.  It took a while and we were all very sleepy on the train, but karaoke perked us up.  Lynne had the Japan experience of sneaking cheap booze into karaoke so you don't have to pay inflated prices, and we sang a very eclectic mix of songs.  Mum, I filmed us singing The Rose for you, but I got my buttons on my phone mixed up and cut off the good bit.  It's still very heart-rending though.  I'm not going to post it on facebook because I can't work out how, and also I don't think the world is yet ready for it.

It was a very big day, so I was pretty much done and ready for bed after karaoke and was home by 11. This is because I am no longer young and my feeble old person body can no longer handle late nights.  When we got home, we had a notice in the letterbox to say they'd tried to deliver my present from Mum!  (Okay, well they'd tried the day before but we hadn't checked the letterbox.)  Much to my surprise, when I called the next day, they said they'd deliver it that afternoon.  On a Sunday!  So I got my present full of Australian goodies like colgate toothpaste and cadbury chocolate and snakes alive and proper tampons and mostly importantly JARLSBURG CHEESE!  Probably none of those things are actually Australian, hey.  But still, they are very awesome and I am eating the last of my chocolate now.

So all in all, it was a very good birthday and I intend to do it again next year.  Though, probably in Australia with a parma and chips instead of Japan with Chinese food.