I was very happy with how the day worked out. I'd been asked to play the piano for the Japanese national holiday known as 'Culture Day' (文の日/bun-no-hi) at Yoshino Junior High School on the 3rd of November, which I knew could have very easily hindered any plans I might have wanted to make involving merriment and festivities.
Nevertheless I arranged to meet up with a bunch of my JET friends in Yamagata City, somebody booked a table at an all-you-can-eat-all-you-can-drink bar and about twelve or so people came along.
The 2nd was a Friday, so I woke up having to go to school - the postman had been trying to deliever some parcels for quite a few days but I was always in school and all the messages he left were in Japanese! The night before I had rung up an English speaking helpline and got the parcels redelivered to my work address. Therefore, in the morning I didn't really have anything to open!
At school my pupils sang 'Happy Birthday to You' (everybody in Japanese knows it - although they said 'Ku-ri-su' (Japanese style!) when my name was to be mentioned, to fit in with the lyrics. And when I got back home I'd got my parcels and some cards to open at a more leisurely and enjoyable pace! (Thank you to everybody who sent me a card! I'm still receiving occasional cards and parcels even now! It's fun for me to prolong my birthday!)
I got some nice presents, bits of chocolate, wine etc. The nicest and most amazing was from Siobhan - first she had knitted me a lovely blue scarf, and then she had put an incredible amount of time and effort to make me a huge big card from all my JET friends! It's brilliant, she wrote lyrics and quotes from my favourite music artists and movies, and then on the inside she had asked everybody to send her a birthday comment which she wrote in the card, along with lots of photos! It was great!
The restaurant surprised me with a birthday cake - complete with sparklers!
The front of the amazing card that Siobhan made for me! (クリス is 'Chris' in Japanese!)
On the 31st October, I was also thrown a bit of a surprise birthday party by my good friend Marie who lives in Akayu. We sing together on a wednesday night and she had asked me the week before to make sure I was free after the rehearsal - she was going to invite a few friends over for some drinks. Well, I had no idea they were all going to throw a little party for me! There was some lovely food and her friends are all so nice - they even gave me some presents to - another lovely scarf and a cosy neck warmer! I'm kitted out for Winter now!
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