21/10 Singing Happy Birthday on a roller coaster

Last Tuesday (21/10), we went to a café in Suidobashi (where the Tokyo Dome is) to celebrate A's birthday. :D The Suidobashi area houses a lot of baseball-related shops and restaurants, I suppose it's because most people who come here do so to watch baseball matches in the Dome.

The restaurant/café we went to was no exception. Some of the items in the menu had baseball-themed names going on and the interior was strongly influenced by the sport as well. It was very spacious, the lights very slightly dimmed and the walls were covered with pictures of baseball players and random English newspaper names.

We had desserts! Tasted as yummy as it looks like. I had the mini pancakes (they were really mini) which were really good with the jam. Kind of tasted like lingon?

While eating, I kept thinking that I should match the other people's eating pace so I wouldn't end up having to poke my fork around in nothing. And it was then that I made the discovery that Japanese girls take it really slowly when eating! One of the girls had waffles (looked delicious) and once she'd start on a new piece she'd cut it into super-small-less-than-bite-size-sizes. I was on my third mini pancake when I noticed that she still had 3/4th of her dessert left. So somehow, we managed to stretch something that would take 30 seconds for me to eat into 30 minutes. Amazing! It's not like they wouldn't be able to eat at that speed, so I wonder why they do this? I suspect it has something to do with not wanting to be seen as a glutton. I ate really fast in the beginning so I wonder if people have that kind of image to me now? Oops. ^^; But I really admire how the Japanese girls are able to hold back when it comes to these things! Now when I think about it, I observed something similar when I was eating out with E in Ikebukuro. We were checking out some restaurants and saw a couple of girls eating in one of them. It seemed like they had been there for a while. E and I pondered a bit on where to eat but ended up going to that restaurant after a 5-10 minutes deliberation. As we sat there, I kept hearing how the girls clinked with their forks and knives, so they must've still been eating. By the time we finished our meal they were still working on theirs! Wow.

Anyway, back to topic! Suddenly the staff at the restaurant (they were all wearing baseball player and cheer leader outfits) came out with a surprise birthday cake and sang a song for A!

Awkward and fun, that's the way it's supposed to be!

Guess what we did after that? We went to ride a roller coaster to celebrate the occasion. Can you say random? :D

The Thunder Dolphin. Photo nicked from the official website. We rode when it was dark outside so we got to see lots of pretty lights when were thrown around in a cart senseless. :D As far as locations go, this must be one of the best roller coasters in Tokyo!

Once again I cursed myself for not thinking about what I had gotten myself into when I buckled myself in one of the seats, thinking that this little belt wouldn't keep me away from falling down to a sure death. Luckily it turned out that it wasn't only the belt, but the standard (although a bit small) pull-over-your-head-buckle-security-thingy as well. While the carts slowly rolled up the tracks, as you see on the picture, everyone burst into singing Happy Birthday for Amy! Now this is a really awesome thing to do! :D How many people have had a birthday song sung to them on a roller coaster? We timed it perfectly and had just finished singing when the carts had reached the top. AND THEN CAME THE FREAKING NOSE DIVE!

I thought I'd die for sure. Again. Man, this isn't good for my heart...