October: Birthday month!

Happy fall, everyone!  Let's pretend I've invited you to my house to serve you some warm chocolate chip cookies that I just made and we're sitting on my super comfy couch, talking about our October adventures. 

You probably would have complemented my oh-so-festive porch on your way in.  Thank you, I enjoy it too!  And why yes, I did make that wreathe myself.

**Disclaimer: If you don't want to hear allll about my birthday, then you should skip to the near bottom of this entry**

October is always such a fun month, definitely one of my favorites (I'm terrible at picking out favorites, so it's hard for me to commit to that statement!)   This is mostly because my birthday is in the middle of the month, so I try to dedicate at least a whole week to properly celebrating.   This year it fell on a Monday, and the Navy Ball kicked off the festivities the Thursday before. 

October 13th is our Navy's birthday.  This year we are 238 years old.  We celebrated by having a Ball.  Here are the tickets!

I think we dress up pretty well :-)

Lt. Sehnert and Lt. Hornfeck with their arm candy spouses, James and myself. 

Not the best picture of us, because we were outdoors at night, but this is Lin, the only other American at my work.  She's a great friend!

Going to work the morning after the Ball was a little rough, but Ayako and Nami made it much better with some delicious strawberry cake.  They're so sweet! 

Friday night we went to dinner at a popular yakatori (mini kabobs) shop near us.  The owner does a set 2 hour food and all-you-can-drink  for us Americans.  You don't have to order--food just comes out, one steaming hot little kabob at a time, at a lovely pace.  We had all kinds of chicken, beef, pork, asparagus, cheese, and then ended the night with a surprise champagne fountain for me!  How sweet is that??  They turned the karaoke machine to Happy Birthday, turned the lights out, put neon lights under the fountain, and let the champagne fly!

Building the fountain

Cheers!

We ended the night at Big Bang, where we did some racing.   The gals didn't have any birthday sympathy for me, and I think I came in dead last. 

Apparently both the US and Japan heard when my birthday was and they BOTH declared it a national holiday. What?!?   Since Bryan obviously works for the US government and I work at a Japanese school, we almost never have the same random holiday days off.  But Columbus Day and Sports Day worked out this year. Actually they probably coincide every year, but not usually the 14th.   I have the best husband and he made me a brownie cake with fresh whipped cream and berries on it for breakfast.   Heaven on a plate!  

Yes, as you noticed, I turned the big 3-0 this year.

Isn't this the most beautiful kitchen appliance ever???  I think I had dropped about 75 hints about what I wanted for my birthday.  It worked out.

 We spent the day in Tokyo, exploring Kappabashi Street and Asakusa.  Kappabashi Street is famous for selling anything and everything you would need for a kitchen or restaurant, except the actual food.  (Yes, apparently the theme to my birthday was "food".  Not a big surprise!)

You can find beautiful pottery dishes, crazy knives,  giant pots and pans, any size and shape glass and bowl that you could dream of, restaurant furniture and signage and so much more.  Since it was a holiday, the street was shut down to cars, which made it super easy to jump from side to side.

Kappabashi is famous for having a couple of stores that sell fake food.  Outside of many Japanese restaurants, you will see life-size fake food, displaying the dishes they serve.  Most popular are ramen bowls and stir fries, but also pizzas, of course sushi, and even ice cream sundaes.  Actually, the Outback Steakhouse near us (yes, we have an Outback, but we've only been once during a "I miss America" day) has fake ribs, chicken, steak and french fries too.

A throwback Steelers jersey in Tokyo???  Also, your choice of lanterns and display boards.

 We found a lot of stuff that we wanted to buy: pottery dishes, knives, iron skillets, and several other things that were too heavy to carry around or too big to haul back on the trains.  Next time we will have to brave driving in Tokyo so that we can bring everything home easily.

A short walk down the street is the city of Asakusa, home of Senso-ji Temple.  Wiki says this: 

Sensō-ji (金龍山浅草寺 Kinryū-zan Sensō-ji^?) is an ancient Buddhist temple located in Asakusa, Taitō, Tokyo, Japan. It is Tokyo's oldest temple, and one of its most significant. Formerly associated with the Tendai sect, it became independent after World War II. Adjacent to the temple is a Shinto shrine, the Asakusa Shrine.^[1]

You know in that one PitBull song where he says something like, "Reporting live from the tallest building in Tokyo!"??  Well he's talking about the tower in he middle of the picture, the SkyTree.  

One of the cool buildings.

More cool buildings at the Senso-ji.

Nakamise, the shopping street by the temple.  It's full of touristy crap.  See my "touristy crap" below.  Besides on flag poles at places like city offices, I never see Japanese flags flying except on holidays. 

I bought some maneki-neko, lucky cats! Aren't they the cutest things ever?  I plan on having a few more and displaying them in my dream kitchen some day.  Traditionally, larger versions (mine are just a couple of inches tall) were displayed outside of restaurants.   If they have their left hand raised, they are beckoning customers, while the right hand is beckoning for money.  However, more recently 70% of lucky cats sold now have both hands raised, which is apparently in response to the struggling economy.

Bryan found Brozer's, an American style burger restaurant.  We both enjoyed the biggest burgers I've ever had with the regular burger toppings, along with bacon, eggs, cheese, grilled pineapple and teriyaki sauce.  It was worth every single calorie. 

So that was part of my birthday festivities.  The other part was celebrated in Korea, which gets it's own separate post.

On a completely separate, but super exciting note, I am now Aunt Cherie to another child!  Ash and Adam welcomed Owen to the world October 21st.   He was almost 9.5 pounds when he arrived and he's already 10.5, 2 weeks later.   Kate also had her twin boys, Elijah and Cristian, and Ashley T had her daughter, Irie.  I can't wait to meet all of them.  What a blessing!

Gaby is such a proud big sister.

Pumpkin carving is always a fun event for me and Bryan.  This time Rachel, James, and their kiddos carved with us.  Rachel won the "Guess the Weight of the Biggest Pumpkin" contest at the commissary, so she won the pumpkin (80 pounds).  James and Bryan then began their very first Pinterest project, and I have to say, they may have "Nailed it!"

In case you're wondering, Bryan is trying to make the face that he's carving into the pumpkin.  Norah is my favorite redhead.  Rachel made her a cat pumpkin. 

They're such proud carvers.

I took a simple approach.  He's cute though.

 Last weekend we went out for shabu shabu for dinner (cooking food at the table in broth).  It was a rainy night, so I noticed this:

Umbrellas are much more essential in Japan, as a great majority of people do not use cars to get around, even when it rains.  There are umbrella stands at most doorways, and I have come to believe that if you put your umbrella in the stand, it's free for the taking.  I think it's the one thing that people will steal if you leave it sitting out.  Therefore, umbrella locks are necessary! 

I have started going to Cooking Club at work.  On Wednesdays, school ends an hour early, and there is time for clubs to meet.  Suzuki-San, one of my co-workers, is in charge of Cooking Club and she mentioned it to me.  I was excited to get more involved with the kids, in a fun way, so Cooking Club is perfect!   Despite me teaching them English, the kids still don't have enough skills to speak in complete sentences on the spot, and I clearly don't speak Japanese, but they seem to like me, and I like them, so it's fun!  This month we made one of my recipes, Ooey Gooey Caramel Apple Cupcakes.  We also made a pumpkin dish and a rice.  The girls are super cute and sweet.  There were a couple of guys too, but they didn't show up until after pictures were taken. 

Chopping mushrooms and carrots for the rice.  In case I haven't mentioned this before, Japanese wear masks over their face because they're sick and don't want to spread their germs. 

Peeling the apples for the cupcakes.

Chopping bacon for the pumpkin dish.

Filling and icing the cupcakes.

The month ended with a fun night at Book Club and some Halloween parties. I didn't really get into Halloween a lot this year, so I just went as a cat to one of the parties (yes, I know, the ears look like Mickey ears, not cat, but they're the only ones that the Nex was selling and I promise, it said cat on the tag).  Enjoy one of the only selfies that I've ever taken.

Thanks for reading!  Domo arigatou gozaimasu!!!