It was Kazu the Greatest's birthday a while back, so I decided we should throw a big party for him! Ewan was in Australia for the actual day, so we organised to have the party the day after he got back (Sunday). Originally we wanted to go to Sakura-gumi, the crazy popular Italian restaurant in Ako, but it was ridiculously expensive. So I got Yoko to help me out and she suggested Budo-ya, a great, slightly odd izakaya near the post office. I really like the place - it's great for parties and their food is pretty decent too.

I decided to make a big basket of gaijin food for Kazu, so picked up some stuff in Himeji and some from 47 Liquors too, and threw it all into a basket from the 100 yen store. I also chucked in some fireworks that I happened to notice in the 100 yen store, haha. Somehow I managed to ride to Kazu's house with it all, and was really happy at the surprise on his face when he saw it, lol. He was really taken aback that we had organised a party for him and received a gift, as he said that his family never really did it. So I was extra happy that we had, as he's one of my best friends in Ako and a great bloke.

It ended up with six of us at Budo-ya (Mitsue, Yoko, Nate, Ewan, Kazu and myself) which was groovy, as except for Kazu the Gay, this was pretty much the Minato-ya crew :) After dinner we went to Saion for a few drinks and then it was home to sleep for another busy week!