Happy birthday to me!

Today was my birthday! :) In Japan anyway. In the states my birthday has just begun... ;) Mwahaha.

Anyway, it started out alright.. Wake up at 9:00 and catch a ride from a neighbor to my Japanese class (the 1-on-1 volunteer one). I didn't really want to go, but I did, and it went well.
After that I caught a ride back to the house, and had lunch. Food... Always good. :p Then I got online for a while... Checked my e-mail, and I had already gotten some happy birthdays. :) My mom asked if I found my present in my suitcase, and I hadn't... She put it in one of the front pockets, a place I hadn't checked yet since I only put the battery charger instructions there (something I didn't need that much...). So I found it, and opened it. It was a zebra pin we got at Bi-mart a while back (that I had forgotten about, actually). :) It looks good with my beaver shirt. :p

After that we went to a talk thing... It was somebody from Florida (he's an English teacher here now though) basically talking about his life and how he ended up in Japan. It was nice to have something in mostly English... And fun to listen to. :p I decided I want to go to Florida... I want to go to the Kennedy Space Center. That place sounds awesome.... I think they were the ones the OMSI video conference was with (the one I went to in 6th or 7th grade).
After he told his story they had a question and answer kinda thing, and someone asked about BSE, or mad cow disease. Now, there's probably a reason behind this... I've come to the conclusion that Japan reports about 2 things on their news. Livedoor (an Enron-like scandal) and American beef. Evidently they started allowing American beef here again, but one person screwed up and sent the wrong part... So now they have to talk about it on the news EVERY SINGLE DAY! It's getting old... Very fast.
This is when Kurt (the speaker) gave us an interesting fact.... One I researched when I got home and found evidence that it's probably true.... America has had one confirmed case of BSE, right? And that cow was from Canada. Because of that one case, Japan stopped importing our beef. Well, interesting fact.... Japan has had TWENTY confirmed cases of mad cow! TWENTY! And they're worried about OUR beef? I mean, 20 isn't enough to worry about either, but America is significantly bigger, and we've had ONE case!
So I thought that was pretty funny. Especially because no one in America really cares about mad cow... It's just Japan that seems to be freaked about it. I'll wait until they confirm quite a few more cases before I start getting concerned.

After that, we came home. I got online again, and got to chat with Kento for a while. Then I had dinner, and a cheese tart... Yummmm... That cheese tart has been waiting for me since Thursday! And it was delicious.
After dinner, Tomoko and Nanako gave me my birthday presents... :) A doggy shirt and plushie. Yes, plushie. I've been on Neopets too long.
Anyway, they're really cute... :p I'll post pictures.

So my birthday went well. I guess this makes me 15 now.... I'm OK with that. It'd be sad if I wasn't...
But anyway, today was pretty good, but I'm excited about TOMORROW! :) Can you guess what I'm doing tomorrow? Can you, can you? At least try? Oooh..... It's Sunday, so Grandma works again..... So......

I'm going ice skating!!!!!! :) With Yuutaro, Nanako, Tomoko, and whoever else might be coming (I know those three are going, anyway). I'm so excited!!!!!! :) Ice skating! I haven't been ice skating in at least two years! And I've only been once.... I'm really excited.... Yay!

I'm also excited about Thursday, which is the planned day for going to Chiba Zoo. Which means LOTS more animal pictures are on the way... :p