Dan Pan - The Travel Man!

I think the last time I celebrated my birthday was when I was 10 or 12 years old. I realized at a young age that big birthday bashes were a big hassle, and I didn't see the fun in planning, organizing, and then running around the party to make sure my guests were having a good time.

This year, however, my host family decided to throw a birthday party for me and invite all our HIPPO friends to participate. I was fine with that -- if someone else throws me a party, I wouldn't have to hassle myself or feel any pressure. Bring on the part-tay!

March 23rd, a Saturday, began like any other ordinary day. That quickly changed when the mailman came in the morning and presented me with a fatty surprise.

My parents (with the help of some relatives this time) sent me yet another package filled with goodies from America. I guess I kinda-maybe-sometimes complain that fruit in Japan is too expensive, so the package was mostly composed of dried fruit. Oh, and lots of socks. My mom asked if it was cold and if I needed any socks before she sent the package, to which I replied "no". But, for some reason, I guess she still decided I need socks. Um, okay. I love my mom

My par-tay wasn't until evening, so a few friends and I planned to go out for hanami before the par-tay started. In Spring, Japan is covered with beautiful pink cheery blossoms, and Japanese people enjoy having picnics under them -- an activity called hanami.

When I arrived, I was surprised to find not a few people (like we had planned) but a group of 11 friends! I guess word of my pre-par-tay hanami par-tay got out, and many friends decided to come and join. I love my friends

When we arrived, my friends were ushered in and I was told to wait outside of the door. I assumed to find a few HIPPO members inside, maybe some friends of my family, oh, and probably even some Russians who came to HIPPO the week before to participate in home-stays.

When I was finally let in, I realized that I was completely wrong. It was not a par-tay. It was an Ō-ban-buru-mai.

An Ō-ban-buru-mai is the Japanese word for a big, big lavish party - kinda like the parties thrown by Gatsby in The Great Gatsby.

[By the way, the word "Gatsby" has a completely different meaning in Japanese culture. In Japan, Gatsby is the name of a hair gel for men. Once, I asked my Japanese friends if they knew about The Great Gatsby, and they all simultaneously began singing and dancing to the song from the Gatsby hair gel commercial. It was quite funny.]

Anyway, the moment I walked into my Ō-ban-buru-mai, I was greeted by a parade of people who had gathered from all over the Tokyo area to celebrate my birthday with me.

The cake said "Daniel, Happy 20th Birthday" and included a drawing of my face in portrait. IT WAS HUGE! It made Costo look like it was selling cupcakes for kiddies. I can't believe my host mom baked that. I love my host mom

After eating cake, we watched a slideshow of my time in Japan, danced to SADA, and listened to people give me birthday wishes. There were even video birthday wishes from friends who couldn't come to my Ō-ban-buru-mai, including last years Hippo intern, Sakkun, now currently in Canada. It was very touching - I even let some tears drop.

The mass of people who came to my Ō-ban-buru-mai also included two friends from my Japanese church. Seeing them was also a huge surprise - I keep HIPPO and church totally separate. How did church people come to my Ō-ban-buru-mai? I later found out that my host mom secretly contacted my church and invited them. And even though there was another church event that day, they still decided to come. I love my church

It was difficult to wrap my head around the fact that March 23rd began like any other ordinary Saturday. By the time the day was over, I had received a package from America, hanami'ed at Ueno Park, celebrated an Ō-ban-buru-mai, and received enough presents to make myself a memorial. Wow.

The entire day was an overload of surprises and emotions. I so blessed by my heavenly father for this opportunity. I am particularly grateful for such a wonderful host family, who took the time to plan something so wonderful for me. I am moved beyond words. I love my host family

The Ō-ban-buru-mai was not the end of my birthday festivities. At the office on Monday, my co-workers surprised me with a cake that was covered in fruit, and a bag of some quality brown rice (my favorite Japanese food).

But that's not all. The next day, some other HIPPO members took me out to a fancy French restaurant and surprised me with some fancy birthday dessert

Oh wait. There's more. The day after that, during a HIPPO club meetings for college students, the members surprised me by singing "Happy Birthday" and giving me tons of my favorite thing in the world, FRUIT!

Springtime in Japan is marked by the blooming of beautiful cherry blossoms, called sakura. For a couple of weeks in mid-March and early April, all of the cherry blossoms simultaneously bloom to transform the country into a wonderland of pink petals.

Sakura is an iconic symbol of Japanese culture, often found in anime, manga, Japanese art, film, and music. It is a symbol of the start of spring, of a rebirth of life. Unsurprisingly, this is also the time when Japanese schools and companies start their new year.

Explaining the beauty of the cherry blossoms is nearly impossible, so I've decided for the rest of this post to only include photos:

It's springtime! The trees are blooming and Cherry Blossoms are beginning to sprout. BUT, before winter is officially over, I have another winter story I'd like to share...

My friend Tango, who took me up three mountains in the Okutama adventure back in November, invited me to go snowboarding in Niigata. The cold Siberian winds from Russia cross over to Niigata, hit the mountains, form thick rain clouds, and pour down snow all day long. That is why Niigata Prefecture is the best place for anything snow-related.

Tango's younger sister and last's years HIPPO intern, Sakkun, also came along on the adventure. The four of us met at Shinjuku late at night to catch the bus that would arrive in Niigata the next morning.

Even though I live near the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California, which gets tons of snow every year, this was the first time I had ever snowboarded in my life. As a result - I fell. A lot. Evidenced by this picture:

The best thing was that we came on a weekday. The entire ski resort was practically empty. The ski lift had absolutely no line, so we could snowboard down the slope, quickly get on the ski lift, and snowboard down again.

A couple of days later, while we were still sore from snowboarding, Sakkun and I decided visit Tango at his family's Soba restaurant in Okutama. I heard many good things about that restaurant, but never made time to check it out. Once I learned that it offered all you can eat soba and udon, I quickly found time. Sakkun and I were on our way to Okutama.

Not surprisingly, the morning of our trip, it unexpectedly began to snow and almost every single train was delayed. Because of heavy delays, we began to doubt if all you can eat soba and udon in Okutama was even worth it.

After a few seconds of consideration, we decided all you can eat soba and udon in Okutama was worth it, and continued on our trek. All you can eat soba and udon in Okutama is always worth it.

To our surprise, even though Okutama was the epicenter of snowfall, our train wasn't delayed once. In fact, our train car was completely empty! We had the whole car to ourselves.

Okutama, which is covered in wild nature, is a beautiful place. When it's covered in snow, it is absolutely marvelous.

Finally, we got to Tango and the Soba shop. And yes, all you can eat soba and udon in Okutama was very delicious. I ate four servings; soba and then udon and then more udon and then soba. It was quite pleasant.

After we finished eating, Sakkun and I stayed to help clean up. We changed out of our commoner peon clothing and put on some hardcore all you can eat soba and udon in Okutama gear.

If you ever find yourself in Japan, and you happen to be hungry, I know a wonderful place. It has soba and udon. And it's in Okutama. And its all you can eat.

I headed over to Ryogoku, which is the Tokyo area famous for everything Sumo related. It is also where the Sumo wrestlers live and where the Sumo matches are held. That entire area is a mini Sumo world full of Sumo shops, Sumo museums, and even Sumo restaurants with big Sumo rinks in the center.

The Kokugikan is the name of the stadium where the Sumo matches happen. It seats up to 10,000 people and holds three of the six annual Sumo tournaments per year.

You immediately realize that you're in a Sumo stadium the moment you step inside of the building because the entire perimeter is covered in ginormous pictures of Sumo wrestlers.

I used to think that Sumo was just the Japanese version of America's WWE Smackdown, but apparently, it's completely different. Sumo wrestling has it's roots in the Shinto religion and even today, modern Sumo matches are full of ritual elements. When a wrestler steps onto the rink, he preforms traditional practices like clapping his hands and stomping his feet to drive evil spirits away. There is also a pile of salt on opposite sides for Sumo wrestlers to throw onto the rink for purification.

After completing the rituals, the wrestlers squat in the middle of the rink facing one another, then simultaneously spring up and begin wrestling. Whichever Sumo pushes the other Sumo out of the rink wins. If any part of the Sumo's body, beside his feet, touch the ground, that Sumo loses.

The entire Sumo event lasted for about five hours. Five whole hours of preparation stomping, clapping, squatting, salt throwing ... and occasional 3 second battles.

At one point, I got a little tired of watching the match from the second floor, so I decided to sneak onto the first floor - where I could see the Sumo wrestlers up close and personal.

The spectators on the floor seats who see Sumo wrestlers up close and personal pay $abajillion.00 for their seats. I probably wasn't allowed to be down there, but the good thing about being such a big white foreigner is that if you ever get caught being in a place where you're not supposed to be, you can just say "No hablo Japanese!" and run away. Works every time.

After 5 hours of watching Sumo wrestlers stomp and throw salt, I was ready to call it a day. On my way out of the stadium, however, I was able to make a quick Sumo friend.

No, I did not just bang the keyboard in the heading to make the title say "Seijinshiki." Seijinshiki is an actual Japanese word, pronounced say-jin-she-ki, which is the name of the Coming of Age ceremony in Japan.

In Japan, a person is considered to be an adult when they turn 20, and a ceremony is held especially for them. On that day, the 20 year old girls wear kimonos, boys wear suits or hakamas, and they go to the Seijinshiki ceremony at a local city office.

One evening a few months ago, I received an invitation from the Japanese government inviting me to participate in Seijinshiki, too. Even though I won't be 20 until March, I was still invited because the Japanese school year is from April to March, placing me in the same grade as everyone else who already turned 20. The Japanese expression used in this situation is "giri-giri safe" [which means "just barely made it".]

My host sister, who goes to university in Osaka, also turned 20 in November and we went to Seijinshiki together. She wore my host mother's kimono and my host family rented a red hakama for me

The morning of the ceremony was cloudy and a light rain was falling. However, maybe an hour before the event, it began to snow. It doesn't usually snow in Tokyo, so it was very special. My family said that I am lucky and the snow fell especially for me.

However, the snow kept falling. And falling. And falling. What started as simple snowflakes turned into a hardcore blizzard. A few hours later, EVERYTHING was covered in snow and it felt like it had been snowing for days.

The ceremony itself made me feel as though I fell into a sea of suits and kimonos. All of the young adults where walking around, chatting with friends, and taking photos.

Being a big and burly Caucasian man, it was not very difficult for everyone to notice me. I received lots of stares and puzzled looks from the otherwise entirely Japanese crowd. I think they thought I was some Seijinshiki crasher or something. I even got interviewed twice, once for television and once for the newspaper.

I think there was another event immediately after the ceremony, because once the ceremony ended, an announcement told everyone to leave the building. Staff members began ushering everyone outside into the freezing snow blizzard. All of the boys in their suits and girls in their kimonos had nothing to do but to stand in the falling snow.

All of the girls and some boys who decided to wear hakamas, myself included, had a difficult time standing in the snow since we were also wearing tabi [traditional socks] and zori [traditional flip-flops] along with our kimonos and hakamas. Oh and no coats, either.

Our parents couldn't pick us up due to heavy traffic and our host dad was having trouble putting chains on the car tires. We couldn't take a taxi because taxis and buses were having trouble driving in the snow. Everyone just stood outside in the snow not knowing what to do or how to get home.

We finally decided that the best thing to do was to walk to the nearest train station, maybe 15 minutes away, in the blizzard.

Walking on snow in socks is a pretty painful experience. Within minutes, my feet were numb and I could not feel them when we arrived at the station.

To our disappointment, all of the trains at the station had stopped due to heavy snowfall. I took off my soaking wet tabi socks and walked around the station barefoot.

However, my host dad was finally able to put chains on the car tires and come to the station to get us. From the station, we drove to a picture studio where we made ourselves pretty again and took some family photos.