Golden Birthday

So I was recently told that this is my golden birthday, ya I dont know what makes it so special either. But here is how I spent the weekend.

Friday:

Some of the students wanted to go to the Tokyo Park Hyatt New York Bar. It is the bar that was made famous by the movie Lost in Translation. They have some great jazz starting after 8pm. So we sat talked, listened to jazz and had a few drinks and some fries. The fries mind you are fried in duck fat and served with a very good homemade ketchup.

Saturday:
I worked the morning. Then around 5pm I went with two of my friends to a a bar named Popeyes. They have 40 Japanese microbrews on tap and more in bottles. We did a sampler first, since my companions have really only drunken standard japanese beer, which is like coors or pbr. As for the full sized beers I had an espresso stout and a gravity fed cast ale, which was almost no bubbles but very good. After wards we went and had some ramen and one of my friends had to head out to meet someone else. I took my other friend to a local bar that I go to ever so often. It is owned by a japanese woman and her okinawan husband. My friend is okinawan and when I told her about it, she wanted to go and have a glass of okinawan sake, awamori. It was the bars 25th anniversary so everything was 25% off. I also recieved a free drink, a large brandy, on the house for my birthday and another free drink, a 2005 german red wine, from a customer who brought the bottle for a gift to the bar owners. I spent the night talking with a sushi chef and a sword polisher, which was very educational and looking through old photo albums from when they first opened the bar, the fashion and hair was very humorous.

Sunday:

I helped a student go return some very over priced pants and then met with a friend for coffee and a cheap dinner.

Monday (my actual birthday):

I woke up extra early and went to go meet my friend mike who was in town for the weekend from Tsu city. We had a breakfast buffet and caught up. Then around 11 I went to help my ikebana sensei with her boy scout group (they were cub scout age). They were having like a little fair/flea market. I ran a little pin ball kind of game that cost 1oyen per play and you were guaranteed a prize. The thing I forgot is that in Japan Boy Scouts are co-ed. I still find it interesting. I was done around 2:30 pm. The only other thing I did is that night I went to a local bar, had a Manhattan (which they know how i like it and make it perfect every time, 3 olives on the rocks) and edited essays.