Birthdays are a blast :)

I was wrong. I thought my birthday would suck, but it didn't (at least not today) :P

I had thought it would be very lame because my parents planned for us to watch...a fish cutting demonstration...for my birthday. I know, wtf?!?! But it turned out to be super different and really fun!

I remember how after watching way too many kdramas and jdoramas last year, I wondered where all the Japanese peoples are at (no mystery where the Koreans are). Did you notice how despite all the Asians in our school, there aren't any Japanese people (at least not that I know of; if you're Japanese, say hi to me sometime :P) Well, I found out today. Turns out there're 4 Japanese hotspots in America. One in Bergen County and three in Cali. It was so cool being there - like the time I went to Little India for the first time. I felt transported. Everything there was Japanese; the bookstore had books in Japanese only! 

We spent a while shopping around in stores like JapanUSA and Shiseido. Then we spent a loooooooonnnnngggg time gorging ourselves in the Food Courts of Mitsuwa. We had considered going to the Mitsushima Steak House, but decided instead to just eat a little bit of that and a little bit of this at the Food Court. We ate udon, soba, gyoza, tempura, a beef rice bowl, green tea soft serve ice cream, bubble tea, etc

Then at 2 we watched the Bluefin Tuna cutting. It was interesting, and this fish was huge! 402 lbs with the head and tail already removed! With them it was somewhere around 500 lbs!

The Sword with which the "samurai" was cutting with is worth over $8000! Fish people are intense :O

Afterwards, in a completely spontaneous decision, we went and played some...golf? It was my first time playing legit fun, and while it was mostly a big failure, I got better at it. Also, I will now be giving golf people some more credit; it's hard!

Since golf was a little too intense for us noobs, we opted instead to play some...minigolf!

At first it was like switching from a flute to piccolo; discomforting and fail! I was swinging too hard after having acclimated to golf somewhat. But then, we picked up the pace, and ultimately, all three of us scored our own respective hole-in-ones! YAY!

Afterwards we returned to Mitsuwa where we resumed gorging ourselves with food :D They had these wrapped mochi that looked just like real food. I didn't buy one, but I'm adding a picture because I found them awesome!

*side note: It's just a coincidence, but when we got home, my mom had bought all these persimmons today, and they were super yummy!

Before leaving, my dad got me a pair of orchids! I love them soooooo much and they will reside in my room until they die!

All in all, I had a great day. It was nothing like I expected it would be and it was 100% unconventional, but then again that's exactly what my family is!

 Birthdays are a blast :)

Food for thought:
Have you ever been to Edgewater or maybe the legit Japan, like the one in the ocean Japan?
What do you think of Japanese food? Asides from sushi? (p.s. I'm going to Makkoli's for lunch with my family tomorrow :)
How does your family celebrate birthdays?
Don't you just love orchids?