how i spent my birthday

in the theme of summer write-ups, since it's summer, and reporting on things that have happened is the purpose of this blog.

On sunday (the day before my birthday) i watched Ogimi girls and boys play basketball. Baseball and tennis were cancelled due to rain, so the whole school was at the gigantic Nago gym with loads of other northern area junior high schools.
Ogimi girls won both games on the 11th, but the boys lost their second one. The girls were on fire: fast, furious, unstoppable. I'd never seen them play before outside of school practice, and was quite surprised. In the second game, they beat Ginoza JHS (Tracy's school) by 40 points.
On the 12th (my birthday) the girls played two matches. The lost the first one to Nakijin JHS (Rodger's school) and played the next game for 3rd place finish against a Motobu JHS. It was an exciting day of sports. I realized how much i cared for each of these girls and how much i wanted them to win and how proud i was of all of them, but especially of the twins, Mirei and Mikoto, who are awesome players, have great personalities, and celebrated their birthday the day before mine.
And perhaps i have a soft spot for them because my sisters are twins. Possible. :)


After the games, i rushed to meet David and Rodger so that we could drive together to Camp Schwab to meet Anna who agreed to accompany us with her pass to see the third XMen film. I liked it enough, but it not as good as the previous films. Direction was choppy, dialogue sometimes forced and filled with one-liners. The acting, however, was still good and basically the only thing that saved it, because there was basically no story to speak of. Sad, really. It could have been better.
A nice action flick, though, and fun in parts.

After the movie, it was dinner at Yukino with a few friends. I finally ordered something different at Yukino. I usually get the sashimi salad dinner set, but last night went for the sushi platter--fantastic. But the food wasn't as important as the company.
Josh surprised me with six tiny eclairs brighted by birthday candles and everyone sang. A bit later on, David came with a cake him and Ben got for me. It was delicious!! And the presents were great as well. The funnest were the watermelons i got from both David and Rodger, and they didn't conspire about it. The two watermelons made for a fun picture.
After the dinner we all went to watch the Japan vs. Australia match at a sports bar in central Nago. It was packed and the fans were excited. It was a fun game to watch, even though Japan lost. I drove home in very high spirits after a fantastic day. Even though i miss my family a lot, especially on my birthday, it was fantastic to feel how much my friends here care about me. I got e-cards and keitai messages from friends around the island, and they made me feel like i made a new family here, one that i love and care about.
Thank you all so much!!

and thanx to my sister who put together a great birthday surprise for me on the Fotki site and made my day!