A Happy Birthday

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In the past few weeks I have repaid my debt to the bookstore who loaned me money for a bus, gotten lost innumerable times having once to rely on a 70 year old woman to escort me one full hour on foot to my destination, and been stung by a supposedly harmless "laundry" bee, so called because this bee likes to nest in our laundry as it hangs out to dry. The bee sting swelled and itched and hurt like heck. But on Saturday morning, March 19, all began to go well again. I was awakened to a birthday cake with an ungodly number of candles on it. As a nonsmoker, I expected to blow out the candles easily, but as of late (say, 5 months) I am also a nonexcerciser so I wound up sputtering out a few flames but leaving most merrily dancing. I hope that doesn't affect my wish. Jen further greeted me with presents! Lots! My brother Travis, who enjoys nothing more in the world than the sound of tearing wrapping paper and the physical act of demolishing a well-wrapped gift, who would unwrap a Jaguar then move on immediately to unwrap a Meatloaf tape without a perfunctory nod of thanks, would have had a field day. I got some great gifts. Unfortunately, Jen had to work, so I had to force myself not to eat the cake all day (I did have a piece I'll admit).

Jen returned home and we had some wonderful Mexican as per my request. An Irish lass and a German-Swiss lad eating Mexican in Japan. It was a multicultural night. Although we soon found ourselves drifting off to dream, this was not to be the end of my birthday. Jen woke me up early the next morning and told me we were going on a birthday adventure. She deliberately misled me as to where we were going, but some two hours of train later, we were in Shin-Yokohama, standing in front of the Ramen Museum. A whole museum devoted to Ramen! How cool is that? Ramen and I have had a long and mutually beneficial relationship. Ramen has carried me through the lean years-all 31 of them. I discovered the joy of Ramen in high school, then the two-spice packet Ramen of Korea, but the Ramen museum was to trump all. We traced the history of Ramen throughout the ages on the main floor of the museum, then descended into the basement where an entire replica city lay in wait. The city was Tokyo circa 1958, complete with 9 world-famous Ramen restaurants. We chose one at random because we never have any idea what is going on, but the one we chose was incredible. It was like having eaten at the Sizzler all your life then discovering an elite steakhouse. That Ramen was amazing. But Jen advised to eat light as more gastronomical pleasures were ahead.

We left the Ramen museum and hopped the train and a bus to Senkei Gardens. These gardens are modeled after ones in Kyoto, and featured a large lake, a picturesque red bridge, a three-story pagoda framed in the sky, several Japanese-style houses, some gentle waterfalls, and a brace of ducks (there is a great website here that has the name for animals in a group with my favorites being a sleuth of bears and a smack of jellyfish). We had a peaceful walk through the gardens, marveling at the simple beauty of the landscape.

We caught a bus (which was no easy task, as we needed to take the #8 bus, but unbeknownst to us the THIRD #8 bus-fortunately a nice Japanese man was there to help) to Chinatown. The entrances and egresses of Chinatown were all marked with epic Asian-style gates and the place bustled with energy, if not quite the energy of the real deal. We had some great fried rice and egg rolls which were actually better than the Chinese food we ate in China. There was a colorful temple in the heart of Chinatown that was almost spoiled by its overwhelming incense. But almost is not quite, and the brightly colored dragons made it very worthwhile.

Next we went to a large mall and just strolled around, something we never get to do. The mall was adjacent to a small amusement park, so we wandered there (all as part of Jen's master plan mind you) and made fun of the bizarre Asian rides. One was a roller coaster type ride that you had to propel yourself through by bicycling. I can't imagine how outrageous the haunted house might have been, but the price was equally outrageous, so we demurred and crossed the river to the world's biggest (or one of the biggest depending on what source you consult) Ferris wheel. The wheel was huge and dominated the skyline. It was almost as tall as the tallest building in Tokyo, and the line was quite long, but the 14 minute ride proved to be worth the wait. We found ourselves at the top with the sun dipping below the horizon and a commanding view of neon-lit Tokyo. It was really spectacular.

By this point we had been out and about for around 12 hours, and it was almost time to go home. We made one final stop in our favorite Tokyo spot-Shibuya (seemingly as to Tokyo what Manhattan is to New York City) and gawked at all the giant buildings and neon lights (for we are now simple country folks in our far north Tokyo suburb), and skirted over to Tower Records to look at the English books and magazines. Across the way we spotted a TGI Friday's and it felt so good to sit down. We had a great chicken caesar salad and watched two foreign guys trying to pick up a couple of Japanese girls. After our apple fritter, we were ready to go home.

Going home is never such as easy thing here. We had two train switches ahead, but on the last leg home, we turned on the MP3 player and I put the right one in and Jen put the left one in. I told her what a great birthday it had been, because it had. She put her head on my shoulder, and I placed my head on her head, and as Magnetic Fields played into our ears, we found a waking sleep and slumped further into each other, so that literal became as true as figurative and we were the other's greatest supporter as the train sped on through the Japanese night.

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