Surprise!!

SURPRISE!!
Yes, it has all been a big lie. And I have been the ringmaster of deception. But now I shall lay out the whole plot. Read all the horrid details my friends, if you dare!

Yukiko thought none of her friends could come to a party because it was a holiday. True enough, but I had contacted them weeks before and we had come up with this great plan. Special thanks to Hiroko for her sneakiness. I encouraged Yukiko to phone her friends to invite them out to El Pancho's, a Mexican restaurant we like, for her birthday. Of course they all said they were busy. Yukiko was pretty bummed because often her friends are busy on her birthday and she doesn't have a party. I suggested we go to the restaurant anyways and said a few of my friends could make it. I had to say someone was coming or she could have just decided to cancel the whole thing.
So the reservations were made and everyone had to keep their guards up. I became the point-man as I was with Yukiko for most of the week. A few times she said she was going to phone her friend Kaori to double check if she could come to the restaurant or not. I said that's a good, while secretly fumbling to email Kaori and warn her in advance.
The day before the party I bought a nice birthday cake from the department store Sogo in Sannomiya. I was on my home from Tokushima and was hoping to drop it off at Hiroko's apartment as she lives near the same train station as us. Alas, my lack of planning hurt us here. I hadn't made plans with Hiroko to give her the cake so she wasn't home at this time. Luckily my friend Dan was home and he volunteered to hold onto the cake for me. Even more importantly, he agreed to bring it to the party. Thanks buddy! The side trip to Dan's made me a little late getting home. Naturally I blamed my tardiness on the horrible traffic on the highways and said my bus had arrived late. Yukiko was a little miffed and my spaghetti was only luke-warm by the time I started eating.
On the big day Yukiko and I spent most of the day relaxing and cleaning up around the apartment. We also did some gardening. I gave Yukiko some yoga DVD's and some little, cheap knick-knacks. Of course she liked the cheap knick-knacks best. When will I learn. The present she most enjoyed was to take me shopping though. As most of the world knows I have the fashion sense of a colour-blind ferret. So Yukiko likes, no loves, to take me shopping. It was like a scene out of Pretty Woman with me being fawned over by all the shopkeepers as Yukiko mixed and matched for me. However, I'm still amazed that in the land of Sumo I can't find a belt that fits me properly. I ended up getting some great jeans, work pants, and a batch of shirts from the Gap. We finished just in time for our reservations. Our reservation, meaning Yukiko and I, was for 6:45. Everyone else was supposed to be there at 6:30.
As we got into the restaurant a waiter directed us to a big table in the corner. It was somewhat dark so we couldn't make out if anyone was at our table yet. As we got closer we could make out Dan sitting one one side. I couldn't see Yukiko's friends yet so I started to get worried. Luckily though, they had found a shadowy corner of the table to hide in and were videotaping away as we arrived. When they stood up and yelled "surprise" Yukiko was just stunned. I don't mean just surprised, but dumbfounded. You could see her trying to work out what was going on and not having much success. She had no idea what was going on. It took a few minutes for her to realize that it was a 'surprise' party and that her friends had been tricking her for weeks. It took even longer for her to figure out that I was involved in it too. Doncha love it when a plan comes together (lights a big stogie here.)

A slightly out-of-focus picture of our great group of liars. Well, technically, Dan didn't lie about coming to the party. But I'm sure he could have :)

I think she looks happy, don't you?

The cake. Apparently in Japan, you're not supposed to bring a cake to restaurants as they will specially prepare one for parties. Who knew?? But they kept it for us and delivered it with impeccable timing. Once again Yukiko was shocked and couldn't fathom when I had the time to get it, as I had been with her for most of the week.

No wishing for more wishes!

Kaori + Hiroko + Yukiko = good times. Congratulations to Hiroko as she is expecting a baby!!

Doesn't this look like one of those photos that would have a summary like, "last photo taken before the deceased was repeatedly stabbed with a dessert fork."

Lastly, we'd like to send a shout out to our good friends Neil and Rachel who just welcomed their first baby, a girl named Jayden, into the world. Well done! Jayden was born on May 5th, which is a doubly special day in Japan because not only is it Yukiko's birthday too, it's also 'Children's Day.' How appropriate.