Posted by Jess
9 January 2011
But don't worry, I didn't cry! I just could have if I wanted to. For my birthday we asked my coworkers and their significant others to join us for dinner. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, but I work on a small team of mostly non-Japanese people. Two Japanese women, two American men, 1 Brit, and 1 Irishman. When the babysitter arrived, we were a little early so Jason and I headed towards dinner and stopped at Zest Cantina for a pre-party beverage.
We headed out to Gonpachi Restaurant in Nishi-Azabu. Jason had been there before with the stay at home dad's group (see post here: October 2010 Gonpachi Post) but I hadn't been there and it's a pretty big restaurant as far as Japan goes so we thought it would be a good place for a group of us to go. I took a few pictures from the restaurant's website to show you, but Jason's post has pictures too.
We had 8 of us for dinner and had fun trying the sashimi, tempura, gyouza, skewered meats and veggies (bacon wrapped asparagus, yummy!!) and of course the beer, all served to us by Keanu Reeves (At least that's who we thought he looked like). This waiter was American all the way, but seemed to at least speak the Japanese that was on the menu. Someone told them it was my birthday so we got a plate of desserts with sparklers in them for our table and the one next to ours. They turned off the lights in the restaurant and everyone in the place sang Happy Birthday. On the plate was written "Happy Birthday Jessica" in chocolate sauce. There was a little bit of ice cream, some fruit and some green tea flavored chocolate cake.
After dinner we met up with a few more friends and headed to Karaoke in nearby Roppongi. (You can read more about how karaoke works in Japan from one of our previous posts here: October 2010 Karaoke with Kiki) Our room fit 13 of us comfortably and we bought the "all you can drink" package for two hours. I always have a really hard time picking out what to sing, but with 13 of us in a room, you only got to sing once or twice in the 2 hours anyway! Jason sang Sweet Child O' Mine and I Want You To Want Me, plus was the Snoop Dogg when I did California Gurls. Lady Gaga, REO Speedwagon, Ricky Martin, Madonna and John Denver were among the others that made appearances by the group that night. Our room had a little stage in it with neon lights in the corner which was fun, but the microphones didn't work too well while you were up there so we didn't use it much!
The group was very generous to me and I came home with flowers, chocolates, bath soap, socks and mobile phone jewelry (which is a very Japanese thing to do). I've put a few photos below of the night. I was so lucky to have such a great group to celebrate with. We had a lot of fun and were pooped when we arrived back home at 2am! Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes! It was one to remember, that's
for sure.
Kanpai!
Jess
9 January 2011
But don't worry, I didn't cry! I just could have if I wanted to. For my birthday we asked my coworkers and their significant others to join us for dinner. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, but I work on a small team of mostly non-Japanese people. Two Japanese women, two American men, 1 Brit, and 1 Irishman. When the babysitter arrived, we were a little early so Jason and I headed towards dinner and stopped at Zest Cantina for a pre-party beverage.
We headed out to Gonpachi Restaurant in Nishi-Azabu. Jason had been there before with the stay at home dad's group (see post here: October 2010 Gonpachi Post) but I hadn't been there and it's a pretty big restaurant as far as Japan goes so we thought it would be a good place for a group of us to go. I took a few pictures from the restaurant's website to show you, but Jason's post has pictures too.
We had 8 of us for dinner and had fun trying the sashimi, tempura, gyouza, skewered meats and veggies (bacon wrapped asparagus, yummy!!) and of course the beer, all served to us by Keanu Reeves (At least that's who we thought he looked like). This waiter was American all the way, but seemed to at least speak the Japanese that was on the menu. Someone told them it was my birthday so we got a plate of desserts with sparklers in them for our table and the one next to ours. They turned off the lights in the restaurant and everyone in the place sang Happy Birthday. On the plate was written "Happy Birthday Jessica" in chocolate sauce. There was a little bit of ice cream, some fruit and some green tea flavored chocolate cake.
After dinner we met up with a few more friends and headed to Karaoke in nearby Roppongi. (You can read more about how karaoke works in Japan from one of our previous posts here: October 2010 Karaoke with Kiki) Our room fit 13 of us comfortably and we bought the "all you can drink" package for two hours. I always have a really hard time picking out what to sing, but with 13 of us in a room, you only got to sing once or twice in the 2 hours anyway! Jason sang Sweet Child O' Mine and I Want You To Want Me, plus was the Snoop Dogg when I did California Gurls. Lady Gaga, REO Speedwagon, Ricky Martin, Madonna and John Denver were among the others that made appearances by the group that night. Our room had a little stage in it with neon lights in the corner which was fun, but the microphones didn't work too well while you were up there so we didn't use it much!
The group was very generous to me and I came home with flowers, chocolates, bath soap, socks and mobile phone jewelry (which is a very Japanese thing to do). I've put a few photos below of the night. I was so lucky to have such a great group to celebrate with. We had a lot of fun and were pooped when we arrived back home at 2am! Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes! It was one to remember, that's
for sure.
Kanpai!
Jess
8:54 PM |
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1 comments
Comments (1)
Looks like you had an awesome birthday! Really enjoy all the pictures!!