The Big Two Three

~Yes, the inevitable has happened, and the world is now on Year 23 of the David Calendar. Unfortunately, I had to work on my birthday, but luckily this is one of our "slow" periods, so I only had two classes to teach. My coworkers wrote the hiragana for 'otanjoubi omedetou' on the whiteboard in my room at the school (literally: 'birthday congratulations', the equivalent of "happy birthday"):

^ Wow, 23. I feel like an oya-ji (old man). Hey, that rhymed! I also got a truly unique birthday cake from a friend of mine:

^ The writing reads, "Happy Birthday / insert cake here / Virtual birthday cake, athe most delious cake you can ever imagine."

After work, some friends took me out to a restaurant in Nagaoka called 'Coco Bar'. Their motto: "A Wild Place To Eat". It had a tiki theme going on with decorations designed to make it look like the inside of a cave on a Pacific Island. Here are some pictures of the more amusing decorations:

^A totem pole of some kind inside the restaurant. This place was very dark, presumably to enhance the cave-like atmosphere, so I had to use the flash. The guy on the bottom of the totem pole looks like I just scared him.

^ A disturbing wooden butler outside Coco Bar. Now he's our friend!

I'd write more, but it's been a tiring night. I'm really looking forward to the festival next week. People from the International Center, including myself, will dance in the parade on August 1st, and I'm going to watch the fireworks on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. Normally, Nagaoka only has two days of fireworks for the festival, but this year we get a BONUS day because it's the 100th anniversary of the city's official existence.

Here's some Japanglish to amuse you. I want to drink some of this:

~Oyasumi!