Happy birthday!

August 12th was my birthday, and I became 32 years old.

Several weeks ago, I planned my birthday schedule which was to go to a delicious bakery to eat lunch and buy a special birthday cake myself.

My husband originally wanted to plan my birthday himself, but I found 2 nice shops on the Internet by accident, so I planned my birthday schedule myself.

I know I’m not a precise person, so my research is usually not perfect.

The day before my birthday, I read a printout of the cake shop again, and I noticed that the cake shop closes every Wednesday.

I had to change my schedule to only go to the bakery.

However when we reached the bakery, We saw the sign on the door on which said they were closed due to summer vacation.

Oh, my god!

We had to change our schedule again. Therefore my husband started to search for information of nice restaurants near by on his cell phone.

However I recalled Hasegawa Machiko Art Musium was located in that town. Although we were very hungry, we walked there.

Machiko Hasegawa is one of the most famous Mangaka(Comic artist) in Japan.

Her most well known work is “Sazae-san“.

Sazae is the name of the main character of the comic and Sazae-san was originally published in a local newspaper in 1947 and after several changes of newspaper, finally the series reached 6,477 episodes.

I think Sazae-san is loved by all generations in Japan, because of it’s heartwarming and sometimes modern cynical story.

When we see Sazae-san on TV, we feel relaxed and we can laugh every time.

The museum is in Sakurashinmachi, Setagaya, Tokyo.

At first, the setting of Sazae-san was in Fukuoka in which Machiko Hasegawa was used to live with her husband. After Fukuoka, she moved to Tokyo, and the setting of Sazae-san also moved to Sakurashinmachi, Setagaya, Tokyo.

The main street from Sakurashinmachi station to the museum is called “Sazae-san street”, and in that street, you can see many interesting sign.

A small summer festival was also being held there.

All the activities were very interesting for us and I really liked the atmosphere.

The most interesting activity for me was the one in which we can buy a small house and the imaginary right of land which is in the setting of Sazae-san.

I draw “Tama” which is a cat character in Sazae-san on the roof of my house. I felt very excited!

The following image shows the house of Sazae-san. Some customers at the museum bought their land in front of the house of Sazae-san.

The real estate agent is also a character in Sazae-san.

By my turn they were into the third subdivision. This image shows the first subdivision. There are many houses on the map.

I really like such an interesting activity!

After the museum, we felt very very hungry, and on the way to the station, we found a ramen shop which seemed not bad.

A TV personality had opened that ramen shop, and later I knew by accident that his birthday  is the same as mine!

The ramen shop’s name is David, and the taste was good!

After lunch we moved to Komazawa Olympic Park, which is at the next station to Sakurashinmachi. We originally planned to go walking in the park, however it was too hot, so we gave up walking and just sit down on the bench and talked.

After the park, we rode a bus to go to Sangenjaya which is a small town near Shibuya, and is sometimes broadcasted on TV. I had been thinking to go there someday soon.

The atmospere of the town was quite nice.

I had seen a small batting center in Sangenjaya on TV, which looked very nice. Especially the owner of the center looked like a friendly and kind person.

We finally found the entrance of the batting center. Wow, it was amazing!

That batting center is located in the middle of a maze of streets, and is very old and small.

Some families were enjoying batting. Of course, we also tried it.

I really think I’m not good at sports, however I really enjoyed batting.

After the batting center, we rode the street car which is called “Setagaya line“.

Wow, how cute! It had only 2 carraiges.

The small street car went through a Setagaya residential area, and within 30 minutes, it reached the last station, Shimotakaido.

The Shimotakaido shopping mall seemed quite nice.

We enjoyed window shopping there and then moved to Meidai-mae station which connects to Kichijoji station. We thought to take the train from Meidai-mae to Kichijoji, then Kichijoji to Ogikubo, which is the nearest station to our apartment.

We finally bought 2 small cakes for my birthday in Kichijoji and ate a delicious dinner which my husband cooked for me.

It was a long long day, however I really appreciate my husband for following such a unplanned schedule.