My AMAZING Bithday!

So yesterday was my big day and Megumi (my soon to be ex-coordinator (she is having a baby in January) 's family-in law invited me over for dinner to help Celebrate my birthday. We were also celebrating Meg's mother-in-law's and Cousin's Bithdays... so it was extra festive. Three bithdays.. a lot of food and a whole lot of sake! Talk about some good times.

Everything was amazing... they let me sit in the place of honor...which is something not usually done (but it was nice because I got to sit under the heated table). Then we drank a beautiful bottle of Dom Perrion (it was meg's parents 1st time to try champaigne and My first time for DP) which I uncorked... because I was the only one to ever have any experience at it (ps I tottaly miss the Ballatore... but someone told me last week where I can get it. MMMmmmm Ballatore!). Then the feasting began. First, there was severl types of Japanese pickles (they love to pickle everything) and several plate fulls of fresh, high grade sashimi sushi. But the main event was the soubon... TURTLE SOUP!!!. I have never eaten turtle before, but it was pretty good. The meat kind of tasted like chicken (but what doesn't). The scarriest thing was the head! But, the older japanese people love this soup... mostly because turtle has collagen.... and we all know what that is good for! There was also this really good soy-milk soup in which pork and lettuce is cooked in it while the dish sits on a burner at the table. Everything was delicious!

During a pause in drinking and eating... The ladies took me into the other room to give me a surprise. Meg's aunt-in-law is a liscensed Kimono Dresser and they let me try on two different kimonos. I have tried on a kimono before, but I have never worn the full ensemble. I was wrapted up like a sausage, but it was fun and all the guests at the party got a big kick out of seeing me dressed up. In fact the kimonos were made by Meg's grandmother-in-law (she said she will take the memory of me wearing them into the heavens) and they were absolutly gorgous!
Megs family was soooooooo nice. For most of them, this was their first interaction, on a personal level, with a foriegner. Most of them have traveled to America, Australia or Europe, but this was the first time to have one in their house at their dinner table. It was a great honor for me to be invited (most people never see the inside of other peoples houses... the home is a private affair) and I had the most amazing time.

So, after eating the bigest piece of cake I have ever seen, several peices of fruit, a bowl of rice with leftover turtle and a lot of sake ...it was time to say my goodbyes and head off home before my hot water lines froze again! But not before promising tha family to return for a party after the baby is born (sometime in Febuary or early March). I had a fastastic time... it was by far one of my best birthdays... evethough I could only understand about 40% of what people were saying. Till next time.... Adios Muchachos!