The Weekend Review: Rumiko's Birthday Party

Good (albight slightly insane) weekend.

So the skating rink closed early and I had to help my kids with a project and then talk to Yahoo BB about my internet issue, so skating never happened on Friday. No worries, though. I ended up checking out a new area of the 'hood instead, the famous (kidding) Mukonoso on Friday night. Nice area, fun time and how can I complain with italian for dinner (hey, I'm easy to please...).
Saturday
Saturday and Sunday, on the other hand, were a bit of a whirlwind (or maybe more of a kamikaze... in the original “divine wind" sense... since I didn’t really see it coming). Started early by meeting my fellow apartment-mates for "group gardening" (yup, bonding over cutting grass by hand) at 8am on Saturday morning. Talked to Tu and Miwa for a littel while before running to meet my ladies for discussion group afterwards, went home for about 10 minutes before Japanese class (conversation only with some test practice...) in the afternoon, and then finally got home again to sleep for a bit before heading back out to Osaka. I had a good time at each thing, but talk about being on the go.
I thought it was kind of funny that two of my ladies brought in the Kobe Shimbun article about Halloween, but neither of them realized that I was the witch in the picture. They wanted to know if it was a wig, too... ha! I told them all about the party and the fire (they didn't ask, probably because they were being polite, but knew about it when I brought it up...). Depending on the next event, it might be fun to invite them to come.
Osaka
Saturday night was my friend Rumiko’s birthday in Osaka (along with four other people celebrating) so Kel and I went in on a gift (cute green bracelet/necklace/earring set purchased on the way) and met the group at the Sony Tower around 8pm. We did the usual nomihodai/tabehodai thing at a cute restaurant in Shinsaibashi and I met-up with some old friends and some great new people. Might actually go to a music festival with one in a few weeks and meet up with another, this girl from Chicago who works with my friend Serene's brother at the Kyoto International School, when I go hiking in Kyoto...random.
Anyways, I realized it’s been too long since I’ve seen that group... or been IN THE CITY... so I'm going to try to get out more once life cools down. Granted, I love where I live and can’t handle not having access to nature and outdoor sports, but it was seriously a breath of fresh air to get out and into an actual city environment again. There's just something about the energy of all the movement and people that I get a high off of...
After dinner, Kelly and I stopped by to visit a friend who was bartending in Shinsaibashi and - surprise, surprise - we changed our plans to go home at the last minute and ended up staying out all night. The night actually turned out to be more low-key than other birthdays I have experienced, and besides losing (and then finding) my wallet on the street (yes, had cash, credit cards, license and my green card inside... let's not talk about how bad that could have been!), it was fun. This time, the big group sort of split up and we went to a little place in Umeda called Oasis. Daisuke recommended it, and I can now defnately see why he hates the clubs we have made him go to in the past. They were playing a lot more mellow electronica, but it was probably somewhere I would have gone in America, too. We danced and hung out for a while, but I started passing out on the couches around 2 or 3am (was with friends so it was OK). After a few cat-naps, we finally left around 4am, grabbed some noodles, and then Kel and I hit up a karaoke joint until our train at 5 (they have private rooms here and you rent by the hour – ideal for napping or killing time before a train).