October 11 was my 64th birthday.
I'm not particularly emotional about it. I'm going to be 65 next year, so I just think that if I work for one more year, I'll get my full pension.
Looking back, I don't have many memorable birthdays. The one that sticks in my mind is my 40th birthday. It was celebrated in a big way at a friend's Italian restaurant with a bunch of colleagues and friends from work.
I don't remember doing anything special on any other milestone 20th or 60th birthday.
Unlike in the Philippines, I don't think there's anything special about Japanese birthdays as an adult, aside from celebrating a return or long life.
Last year, I was going to celebrate my birthday with my wife in Hakata, my hometown, but I cancelled it because my flight was cancelled due to typhoon No. 19 and I spent it at home.
Yesterday I woke up in the morning and my wife sang Happy Birthday to you. It was kind of embarrassing.
In the evening, they baked a whole roasted duck in the oven and made me a mini cake. It's a modest birthday, but I'm glad I'm not alone.
If I hadn't been married, I'm sure it would have been a birthday that I wouldn't have done anything about. I'm just grateful to have someone to celebrate it with. When I think about it, I'm really glad I got married.
In the olden days, people counted their years by counting, so every New Year's Day they would age one by one. That's why a monk named Ikkyu made up a rhyme: "Kadomatsu is a milestone in the journey to the underworld, bored and ungrateful.
The kadomatsu is a pine tree that hangs at the entrance of a house on New Year's Day.
I don't know how long I'll live, but at least I'm getting closer to the underworld each year.
Maybe that's why birthdays are both happy and unhappy. But it was a birthday that I thought about how to celebrate my limited life depends on how I live it.
