Sho mo nai!

Multitudes of Mantises (Manti?), Bathroom Crickets, and a Happy Birthday

I like birthday. I'll become old man.
And yet I like birthday.
I like birthday. Because you celebrate
Happy happy happy birthday!

A big thanks to everyone who came out last night after church to sing karaoke with me! And thanks for treating me! (>_<)
Normally I don't mention my birthday has happened to anyone who doesn't ask until several weeks after it has happened, but 25 is not just any birthday. It's like 10, only bigger. You can count your years in small fractions of a century. 25 is only rivaled by 50 and 75, and of course 100. I plan to have a massive party when I turn 75. I don't expect to make it to 100, you see.
And it was a way to get people to come out for karaoke. If there hadn't been karaoke or the chance for it, I probably wouldn't have mentioned it at all.

Anyway, so my birthday events included playing a videogame until 3 am sunday morning, then sleeping in until just when I needed to leave for ultimate frisbee, but my wake-up call was a call from home to wish me a happy b-day. (Thanks for calling!) Of course, upon waking I had forgotten that it was my birthday. They called and were like "Happy Birthday" and I was like "Buh? Wa? Huh? Oh yeah, right!" We talked for only one hour, and then I ran out the door.

Being an hour late for utlimate wasn't so bad. They were playing a modified version because of small numbers (only 8 people total). You have to always cross the center line, when you get possession like in hockey, but then you can score on either goal (each a frisbee) if the defense on one end is too tight. It was fun. We played for yet an hour and a half after I arrived.

Then church, where Brian spoke, and then driving Derek to the ferry, and then karaoke! As I drove home I realised that all I had eaten all day was two slices of bread, so I picked up a meal from Lawson's, drove the rest of the way home and ate my expensive cheap gyudon as I watched Titan AE. (I know it'a pretty poor, but it's in my apartment and I find myself watching it again and again and again. Maybe b/c it's the only sci-fi movie I have?)

It's been a long time since I have been picky about my birthdays. Really, if I can enjoy it with friends I am generally pleased with the day. I kinda like the Bilbo Baggins way, the throwing a party for all your friends, though I've yet to go so far as to buy gifts for everyone, maybe when I turn 75?

In other news, autumn in Kamikatsu is beautiful. And a bunch of the good insects come out. There have been LOADs of praying mantises (how DO you pluralise that, anyway?) this year, more than any past year I have been here. My guess is that's from the general or total lack of typhoons hitting Tokushima this year. Also, I am on my second bathroom cricket. I don't know why I have bathroom crickets, but I do. They have been there for what feels like a month. (This is the shower room, the one with the bath, as opposed to the toilet room, which is on the other side of the apartment). I cleaned the shower room until it sparkled for the first time since the spring this past week, and for the first time the cricket started chirping. And now he chirps happily in my shower room every evening. I guess crickets like clean living spaces? Motivation to clean more often? We'll see.

One song that I sang (or attempted to sing for the first time) at karaoke last night was the song "Happy Birthday" by Mongol 800 (aka モンゴル・ハッピャク or monpachi). I also tried Monpachi's "Chiisana Koi no Uta" by myself for the first time with mixed results. Anyways, the words to the Happy Birthday song:

I like birthday. I'll become old man.
And yet I like birthday.
I like birthday. Because you celebrate
Happy happy happy birthday!

I'm looking forward to so happy day.
What will you present for me?
Please hold on me.
I'd like you to do nothing for me.
So hold on me. Please give me your love.

I like birthday. I'll become old man.
And yet I like birthday.
I like birthday. Because you celebrate
Happy happy happy birthday.

posted by Fletcher @ 4:34 p.m.