John's 40th Birthday Celebration!

For months I have been wondering what to do for John's birthday. I wanted it to be extra special for him. I thought about a surprise birthday party with a BBQ and game night, but most of our couple friends husbands are gone for some time, so John would be with "The Girls". I decided to pamper him and surprised him with a pedicure last Wednesday. He had no clue what he was going in for, otherwise he might not have gone. He really enjoyed it and there was another man in the salon getting a manicure, so that was good.

I was able to get reservations at the New Sanno Hotel in Tokyo, which is an Armed Forces Recreation Center. I went a few months ago with my friend Sarah. I booked for March 8th and Lauren was able to babysit for us. Last week we called to see if the Japanese room was available and lo and behold it was. I was so.... excited John was going to be able to experience the Japanese room. The New Sanno is about an hour away on a good day, so if need be we could get home quickly. We left Saturday around 0830 so we could do some sightseeing, before we checked in. We walked around Roppongi all day long, just taking in the sights. The Japanese are so funny, because the concierge was telling us that it was much too far to walk to TGI Friday's from the hotel and that we really should take the subway. We asked for walking directions anyway and she was really concerned that we would be walking 20 minutes, it is safe, but the Japanese mentality is why walk if you can take the train or subway. This is not the first time I have come across this.

We walked to TGI Friday's, because we were craving some good, old American (junk) fast food. We took in so... much, so many sights, so much to see. Small neighborhood shrines were everywhere. We walked by the French Embassy and the Russian and Chinese Embassy. It was a beautiful, sunny day and a great day to explore.

We wanted to take a picture of this dog leaving the puppy salon and well she, well the photo says it all.

We had lunch at TGI Friday's, wow, $17.00 for a burger and my fajitas were $26.00. I guess if you want foreign food you are going to pay the price. BTW a fresh chicken roaster on the economy runs about $18.00, not roasted, raw, 2 pounds and you can only get the frozen Tyson chicken roasters in our Commissary. A small watermelon the size of a cantaloupe is about $18.00 on the economy and I have seen some $26.00 cantaloupes on the economy. Ouch! Fruit is definitely a luxury here. Our Japanese friends usually bring Mikan oranges or strawberries for us as gifts and believe me I know what a luxury it is. A bag of oranges or a basket of strawberries isn't really the norm in the US, but here it is a real treat to receive I love recieving fruit I think even more than wine, scary.

Our lunch was great and our waiter was fantastic and went above and beyond the call of duty. He went into the back and printed off several maps for us to help us find some specific store we were looking for and we didn't even ask him to do this. We told our waiter that we were walking to the Tokyo Tower and once again we got the, Oh you don't want to walk it is too far, take the subway. We asked how far and he said at least a 15 minute walk. Our waiter brought John a birthday sundae and we sang happy birthday to John. We walked to the Tower only to find a line of hundreds of people which looked like a 3 hour wait to take the elevator up and look at Tokyo. John said that was not something he wanted to do was spend our time in line, which I was happy with that answer, but I would have done whatever the birthday boy wished.
We explored more of the Roppongi District and went back to the hotel, where we enjoyed the beauty of the room and played some phase 10 before our dinner reservations at the Japanese Restaurant at the hotel. Dinner was wonderful and we enjoyed watching the chef cook our meal at the Teppanyaki Bar. We played more Phase 10 and John just couldn't seem to win. The next day we slept in and went to Brunch at the hotel which was marvelous. We literally ate our way through Tokyo this last weekend.

Sunday we came home in the afternoon and celebrated John's Birthday with the kids. In the evening John opened presents and we had ice cream cake. Needless to say I was looking at a full week of running every day after John's birthday weekend.

John had a great birthday and we both had a lot of fun celebrating in Tokyo sans kids, which was a very special treat and then ending it with a family celebration.