This has truly been a week of celebration. First of all, my birthday was this week (Tuesday), and everyone fell head-over-heals to make it special. Last Sunday I came home from Koriyama and Carrie, a teacher at Wakakusa, asked me to “step into her house for a minute.” Inside I got a huge, “Surprise!” from all of the other teachers, and the ingredients all lain out to make my favorite Indian meal. Even though I think we may have used parsley instead of cilantro (hey, we can’t read every Japanese word yet), it was still extremely yummy. Throughout the week the birthday celebration continued. I received cards and packages from all over the world, and actually on my birthday, the girls made American-style pizza and my mom’s carrot cake. The next day the Makis made me a birthday sukiyaki dinner (onions, tofu, mushrooms, glass noodles and beef sautéed in a yummy sauce), and gave me a beautiful arrangement of flowers and an amazing music “ball” that plays a traditional Japanese children’s song. The birthday day itself was actually very memorable, too (I mean besides the amazing party the teachers threw), for reasons that at least none of us could control. At exactly 6:38 AM, while I was getting ready for school, the doors in my apartment began to shake and a lengthy, intense earthquake commenced. In Funehiki we live on very stable non-fault-line rock (I’m sure there’s a name for it – bedrock? – I don’t remember), but we feel the tremors when other parts of Japan shake and tremble. This particular earthquake began in the ocean and was a category 6.9. It set off the tsunami sirens all along the coast. Fortunately, though, the tsunami that actually occurred was only 50 or so centimeters high, and hardly any damage resulted from the earthquake at all. I found out about the other landmark event that day around 3rd period at school. The TV in the teachers’ office was turned on (the first time since I’ve been here), and on it I saw a woman, in a very expensive-looking car, being driven slowly past hundreds of people, continually bowing in graceful, perfect form, while wearing a plastered half-smile on her face. She reminded me of a bobble-head doll in slow motion. Tamaki sensei explained to me that she was the emperor’s youngest daughter, and she was about to marry a commoner. This act, apparently, also changes her status to commoner. I don’t understand all the politics behind it, but apparently it was a historical day. And speaking of historical days, Saturday we celebrated Thanksgiving! A family in Miharu, a town about 15 minutes by train, owns an American-style house, and every year opens it up for groups to celebrate American holidays. So, we had our turkey – amidst a very eclectic group of people including Japanese, American, German, Canadian, and even Thai. The food was the only “normal” or “familiar” part about the festivities, but apparently, very exotic in Japan. Turkeys have to be imported, therefore they can cost about $50-$60 for a 10-ish pounder. Even with the mix of people and the lack of “normalcy,” to the dinner, though, it went very well, and we all had a wonderful time, leaving the table with smiles on our faces, our belts loosened by one or two notches, and the feeling that just maybe we added one more brick to the bridge between cultures. It was a very good day, and week for that matter, of celebration. I am thankful I was (am) in Japan this Thanksgiving. What are you thankful for this year? (The following pictures were taken at my birthday party and Thanksgiving dinner. We're a wild bunch, we are, we are!)