Followed that up the next day with a birthday celebration for my friend Char at one of my fave restaurants--Asian Kitchen. This place serves absolutely enormous parfaits for birthdays; so big, in fact, that they have to be ordered ahead of time. You may have already seen what Char and I managed to get last year, but that pales in comparison to what we got this time. (Check out last year's post here.) I guess I'll have to refer to the latest one as the "Super-uber parfait"?
Check out my weekend:
- Left: the team I came to watch is wearing green. This is the schoolyard where they practice every weekend, which also happens to be the same elementary school where my host mom works as a cook. Note that in addition to the lack of greenery throughout the entirety of Tokyo, they have also apparently decided that children would be better off playing on a gravel/sand mix rather than grass at school, too. This is what pretty much every school and park I have ever seen in Japan looks like.
- Right: Kanta got to be goalie for a little while! We won't talk in detail about how that turned out, though... :)
- Left: at the end of soccer games, instead of doing the high-five-"good game" thing that American children do, the players line up and bow to each other. Here is a shot of my little guys bowing to the coaches of the opposing team, which is also done at the end of every game. Got to give the Japanese credit for the extreme politeness...
- Right: and here they are after their third and final game in the tournament. Unfortunately, the two that I came to watch have their heads turned, otherwise I'd tell you who they are...
- Left: Char (L) and Maki (R) were the birthday girls (Maki's was the Tuesday before). No joke, ladies and gentlemen, the parfait really was as enjoyable as they make it look. The picture doesn't do it justice, either; it was bigger than it looks here. Check out the spoons that came with the parfait, too.
- Right: I, of course, was delighted to be able to join in the consumption of such deliciousness, even though it's nowhere close to my birthday. (No, I didn't get my own parfait, it's the same one from the other picture...)
- Left: This is what it looked like after we'd inflicted as much damage as our stomachs could tolerate. Not bad for just three girls, huh? This moment documents the end of nearly 45 minutes of stuffing our faces with bananas, strawberries, cherries, kiwi, mango, pineapple, whip cream, pudding, cake, ice cream, chou pastries, chocolate syrup, cornflakes, sprinkles...well, you get the idea.
- Right: Nothing to do with the other pictures from the restaurant, but this is the sign near the entrance. It's just saying that you have to go down the hall if you want to buy cigarettes or use the restroom, but that explanation still doesn't make it any less odd.
