It's customary for Filipinos to have a lively birthday party with family, relatives and friends, and the Facebook page is full of photos of such birthdays. That's why I always feel like they are celebrating someone's birthday when I have a lot of family and relatives around.
There are a lot of decorations including handmade banners, birthday cakes with messages, and a lot of home-cooked food, which makes it very lively.
I don't participate in birthday celebrations since I live in Japan now, but I did go to my child's birthday party once. My wife and children were at my parents' house during the screening for the status of residence, so I went to Cebu with a radio-controlled car to celebrate. The party was held at a beach resort near my parents' house, and it was so successful that I can't even count how many people came to the party, it was a good memory for me.
As September 9th was my wife's birthday, I was going to take her to Kyoto, but she wanted to know if there were any places nearby with good scenery. Come to think of it, I live in Ibaraki Prefecture and I've never been to any sightseeing spots in the prefecture. When I showed her the pictures on the internet, she said she would love to go there, so we decided to go.
I usually take the train to Shinagawa on my way to work, but I took a train in the opposite direction to Katsuta. I sometimes take the train to Katsuta on the way home from work, but I didn't even know what kind of place it was. So I got off the train at Katsuta station and was surprised to see how grand the station was. According to my research, the number of passengers per day is 13,500, which is 1,000 more than our nearest station. Katsuta used to be Katsuta City, but it is now Hitachinaka City, with a population of 155,000, twice as large as that of Ryugasaki City where I live. The National Ibaraki Technical College is located in the castle town of Hitachi,Ltd. and there was a bus stop on the way to Hitachi Seaside Park.
The Hitachi Seaside Park is a national park. there are 17 national parks in Japan.Uminonakamichi Park in my hometown Fukuoka City and Yoshinogari Park where I grew up as a child were also national parks.
It was originally an army airfield, and after the war it was a firing range for the U.S. Army, but it was returned to the Japanese government in 1973, and at one time it was a candidate site for Tokyo Disneyland. Anyway, it's a big park, 7 times bigger than Tokyo Disneyland. So it was very hard to go around the park, and we walked for about 3 hours on a hot sunny day. It is a common belief that Filipinos don't walk, but my wife walked through it without complaining. Well, it seems to have the stamina to do a half marathon in Cebu as well.
I couldn't celebrate my wife's birthday with a large group of people like in the Philippines, but I think it was a good memory for her.
