Friday night we visited Kuniko’s favorite restaurant Anonym in Motomachi for a birthday dinner. I arrived a few minutes early and made arrangements with the staff for some birthday arrangements, and when Kuniko walked in a few minutes later we celebrated her birthday with a couple of glasses of champagne. Once again the chef made a great meal, with lots of interesting dishes garnished with grilled radishes, roots and greens. My favorite dish turned out to be dessert – an apple shortcake laced with a slightly bitter green salad and iced milk. So good!
Saturday we went into Osaka to attend Chu-chu’s wedding. The ceremony and reception was held in an historic building in Namba, which apparently used to be a bank. It still had the L-shaped entrance, and a giant safe on the ground floor. The ceremony was informal and interesting, and everyone had a great time watching them tie the knot. The reception was held on the fourth floor, and again they did a great job with food and entertainment. Kuniko’s friend Ai-chan played the piano for everyone at the end of the ceremony – she looked nervous through the whole reception but relieved once it was all finished at the end of the day.
We moved on to the second party after the main one, and an hour later the bride and groom showed up to celebrate. I made a lot of new friends at the party – everyone seems to get more courageous after a couple bottles of sake – and they were even serving some local beer in bottles. The price was about double what I’d pay in the stores, but it was pretty good. Many people followed my lead and ordered local beer, but I don’t think it was very popular with the other guests.
Sunday was Kuniko’s official birthday, but we took it easy most of the day, sleeping in late and doing chores around the house. In the evening we visited Kuniko’s parents for a birthday dinner of oden and rice, and some homemade birthday cake. Kuniko’s dad had to leave in the middle of the evening to do a night shift at his part time job, so mainly we sat watching TV and talking with Keiko.
We also drove Kuniko’s car for probably the last time last night. We’ll trade it in for the new car this week, but I’ll still miss the little blue Demio. It was a good car for us…
