Hans's Birthday Bonanza - January 4th

Today is Hans's birthday, and even Yurika, who hasn't met him, has come to celebrate. I met up with them in Ueno for a cake viking, pre-approved by Hans on two separate occasions. There were about a dozen people gathered for the brunch, and we spent the bulk of the 70 minutes stuffing ourselves with sweets, and showering Hans with gifts. I gave him a small kitty coin purse I got in Kamakura, as well as a tofu pillow and keychain. Considering the memory foam tofu pillow he gave me for Christmas, which I tend to use quite frequently, I figured it was the least I could do.

We finished up and wandered around ameyoko for a while, playing around in hat and toy stores hidden among the smell of fish and surplus army gear. I found a top hat that I liked in particular, but it was unfortunately more expensive than both of the fukubukuro I bought the other day.

I was scheduled to meet up with Sacchan in the afternoon, so I took my leave of everyone and headed there with Yurika, who had other plans in Shinjuku. I met up with Sacchan and we walked around Shinjuku for a while and headed back to my house to meet with my host family. Unfortunately, only mom and her friend were home, so we had some tea and biscuits and they chatted excitedly in Japanese whilst I thanked the heavens that I could actually make out what they were saying about me. Aside from some drama regarding the printing of a coupon for La Pausa, where Hans's birthday dinner was planned, we had a splendid but hurried time, concluding with a clipped goodbye and dashing out the door in order to make it to dinner in time.

Hans had planned to have a full course meal at La Pausa, and a crowd of friends had gathered there to celebrate the occasion by once again stuffing themselves. In retrospect, there would be no better way to celebrate Hans's birthday. After eating and drinking and causing a general ruckus, we moved the party over to a nearby karaoke bar, where we sang ourselves hoarse late into the night.