Where's Charles?

I have the most thoughtful group of friends ever. Fukushima kids, you are the best. Hands down.

On Friday night, I was picked up for dinner by B. and V-chan. I was under the impression that we were going for dinner at the Asahi Beer Factory, because Brian mentioned he had a house guest meeting us there. We walked through the doors, and I recall I made comment: "Hey, who's going to run into their students at Asahi tonight?" In fact, I was greeted by a long table filled with more than a dozen of my friends. They were wearing party hats, but I was still confused. Where was B's friend, Charles? And why was everyone wearing birthday hats?

It took a few seconds for someone to finally break down that it was my surprise birthday! Granted, my birthday isn't for another few weeks in August. But I need to give mad shout outs to Roretta-chan and John for brewing up this idea. Apparently, they came up with it back when we all watched a basketball game in Sendai last winter. They know me too well. I don't like to talk about my flair often, but I love birthdays. It's always been a blast celebrating, especially in Japan.

This was my first surprise party ever. In life. I was so touched to see people come out to Motomiya for me. (And let's face it: Have one last hurrah at the beer garden. Two hours of unlimited meat and draaanks? Hello!) I grabbed an overnight bag from home after dinner, and I went to Koriyama with some people. The best part was running into two of my former students, Katsumi-kun and Shou-kun. When I taught them, they were mere senior students at JHS. Now, they're senior students in high school. How time flies! I told them about my plans to leave in the summer, so they invited me to one of their gigs in July. Hopefully, I'll see them before I go. S-kun had a guitar strapped to his back, so he started playing some tunes for us. He was really enthusiastic, playing music my parents would know. The Beatles, for example. I remember when he was in JHS, I let him look through my iTunes and he really liked the Bob Dylan tunes.

My birthdays throughout the years in Fuku:
- 24th Birthday: I had been living in Fuku for only two or three weeks when my birthday rolled around. Danielle organized a lovely dinner for me! The Fuku boys happened to be in Koriyama, too.
- 25th Birthday: I had reached my one-year mark living in Fuku. I made some solid friends, and invited a big crew to the Asahi Beer Garden. The room was filled with about 35 of my closest FuJETs. (I still have the guest list saved on my computer). Drinks were had by all. We moved the party to Koriyama, where chaos ensued. I remember getting a phone call from Matt at 7 a.m., whining that he was lost and he couldn't find his backpack. Soph opened up her home for us to crash. Good times, my friends.
- 26th Birthday: I had reached my two-year mark living in Fuku. I invited a good-sized number of people to my birthday party in Motomiya. I wasn't able to book the beer garden, because it was full. So, we ended up having a delicious yaki-nomi (yakiniku and nomihoudai) dinner at the Korean grill in Motomiya. And to top off the night, we karaoked the night away at my favourite snack bar. The mama-san spoiled me.
- 27th Birthday: I was bummed I wouldn't be celebrating my birthday in Japan one last time. So, I was really touched when my friends threw me a surprise party. A freakin' surprise party! Best friends ever.

I will miss my Fukushima friends dearly. I'm so thankful to have met some awesome people.

This Asahi's for you.