Merry Birthday!

My travel buddy, business owner buddy, and I have birthdays near each other (2 in January, 1 in February), and we try to get together every year around this time to celebrate a birthday/Xmas combo. This year, we gathered at a restaurant in Shichirigahama, a coast-side town near Kamakura. My travel buddy recommended a restaurant that she's been to before and made the reservations for us.

It's been a long minute since I've ridden the Enoden, a light rail streetcar that runs between Kamakura and Fujisawa, and I was surprised to see how packed with tourists it was. While a lot of passengers got off at the station for the Great Buddha, the main attraction as probably the Kamakura-kokomae station, where the railway crossing was used as the model for a scene in the opening to Slam Dunk, a popular Japanese anime about basketball. I've heard that locals have been having problems with tourists and overcrowded train since the anime came out. The Shonan area has been used as scenes for TV shows and movies, so the entire area has always been popular with tourists. The traffic is horrid on the weekends. But I digress.

We met at the station and chatted merrily while we made our way to the Italian restaurant. We could see Mt. Fuji, but the top was hidden behind a layer of thick clouds. We were shown to our window-side table where we had a great view of the beach across the street and Enoshima, a small island off the coast and connected by a bridge. When we took off our coats, I saw that my business owner buddy was wearing a red Gundam Char Zack hoodie. He said he was waiting until our birthday lunch to wear it. Too funny.

We ordered a salad with cheese wrapped in prosciutto, arugula, and strawberries, a spicy sausage pizza, fritter plate with fried herrings, squid, and shrimp, and grilled fish. The food was amazing. I would never have thought to use strawberries in a salad like this, but strawberries pair well with arugula. We all were thoroughly enjoying the food. The pizza was a thin-crusted and baked in a wood oven. It was delicious! The sausages weren't all that spicy, but still good nonetheless. We were oohing and ahhing every time a dish was served. We never hesitate to show our appreciation. After we finished the grilled fish, I noticed one of the service staff starting to play the birthday song on an accordion. I was thinking to myself, oh, it's someone's birthday. Then the accordion player and another service staff holding a dessert plate with candles and sparklers started approaching our table. The birthday song was sung in Italian. Then it dawned on me that my travel buddy must have mentioned that it was our birthday celebration lunch when she made the reservations. They placed the crown on the business owner buddy's head. He looked so happy! LOL We weren't celebrating just our birthdays, but the business owner's 60th birthday, which is a big deal in Japan. That's probably another reason why he wore red. Dessert was tiramisu, cannoli, and a frozen pistachio dessert. The tiramisu was so smooth and creamy, cannoli nice and crunchy, and the frozen dessert was refreshing.

After dessert, we exchanged presents over coffee. The business owner got me a cute tote bag with the Susuwatari character printed on the tote. It's also a hot/cold bag and I'm so using it to pack my lunches for work and a cute Dayan battery-operated night light. It is SO cute! My travel buddy got me a lovely summer scarf, a bottle of wine, and a Garfield back support cushion, but I'm not taking it to work. It's staying home where it's safe!

One surprise we saw was that it snowed! It was just flurries and didn't last long, but the temps dropped like lead over the course of a few hours. It was relatively warm in the late morning considering the time of year, but it was downright cold by the time we left the restaurant.

We headed for Kamakura since my travel buddy wanted to stop by a shop for dinner, if we're lucky (the place is tiny and gets packed on the weekends) or get some mapo tofu sauce made at that shop if we're not. It turned out to be the latter. We did, however, enjoy some nice wakocha chai (wakocha/和紅茶) is black tea made in Japan. The tea is milder than the black tea made elsewhere.

It was a great day in great company. Hope to do this more often this year.

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