cont....

And Shannon, the amazing friend that she is, made birthday cakes from me and Kerline (another girl whose bday it was as well!) and had pinatas which we enjoyed whacking open.

I am 25!

My 25th birthday was quite eventful with lots of little (and big!) gatherings. The weekend before my bday, my high school girlfriends and some of their boyfriends and sister came up to Boston to celebrate. We did a Boston scavenger hunt, dinner and a comedy show. Lots of fun. Pictures to come when I get them from Thad's camera.

I also had margaritas with two dear friends, Kelly and Liz, the Saturday before my bday. This picture is horrible but serves as the only proof of that evening.


And, this year my bday coincideded with the Boston Marathon which is also Patriot's Day so we had the day off. And my law school friend, Shannon, had people over to watch the race from her beautiful rooftop deck.

BBQing

Shannon decided to "go green" and do a little recycling

Cherry blossoms!

In Boston, we have them too!

Barrister's Ball

On Saturday night, Northeastern hosted a "Law Ball" of sorts at a club downtown. The food and drink was great and overall it was a really nice night!

St. Patty's Day!

St. Patrick's Day weekend would not be the same in Boston without a little green and, perhaps, a little beer. I was too busy (with homework and fun!) to go to the parade this year but I got out my green-est apparel on Friday and Saturday nights. Which meant very little since the green skirt that I love so much (see St. Patrick's Day last year) was banned for being too "stretchy".


Matt and Me and my (Thad's) green socks

Thad and Kelly were dressed up as 80's St. Patty's Day go-ers. It was a little odd.

Jarred, Thad, and Matt in Southie

Me and Katie

Rob, Thad and Matt

Paths

My stepmother was so inspired by Japan that she has decided to make a Japanese garden in her front yard. She is currently particularly interested in pathways and asked me to take pictures of examples of Japanese garden pathways.

Last night in KZ

On my last night in KZ, the girls and I headed out to some of my favorite places to eat, drink and be merry.

First we visited one of my favorite restaurants- the Don Don Yakitori Bar. The owner was so excited to see me that he gave me a book he had written about his experiences in the Yakitori bar. Truthfully, it is all in Japanese so I will have a tough time reading it but I plan to do my best!

The pepper sticks are the best. We ordered dozens of them- the owner told us our heads would turn into peppers.

Me and Caroline and "the book"

Of course, a Saturday night in Kanazawa is not complete without a trip to Apre, the foreigner bar. Amanda and Fiona and I ended up there and saw all of the usual suspects.

This night also ended with Jenja :)

Takaoka Day Trip!

Caroline, Amanda, Marie, Travis and I took a little day trip to Takaoka (about an hour from KZ) to see Amanda's bf, Jamie, and see some of the sights.

Temple!

Jamie and the girls

Travis and the symbol of the Maeda clan, the plum blossom

Me and the third largest Buddha in Japan

Perverts, GET OUT!

KZ

On Friday night, Caroline organized a little party for me and a lot of people came out so it was really really nice to see everyone.





The evening ended in Jenga :)

Kanazawa

My gracious hosts, Pam (7 months pregnant!) and Heath

There is a HUGE temple near my old apartment called Daijoji which I never visited while I lived there. So I visited on Thursday and it was great! Beautiful, huge and impressive!

View from the Temple area

On the way downtown- The Blue Bridge!

Kanazawa, continued

Me and Lord Maeda

The snowy walk from the garden to the shrine

Oyama Shrine

Snowy grounds

Snowy!