Yesterday my friends and I went out for my birthday. Normally I do not like to celebrate my birthday, and I try to avoid telling everyone about my birthday except for my parents, but my friends at Akita International University (AIU) found out about my birthday so they wanted to celebrate it.
For my birthday, my friends bought me a jacket from Uniqlo and we walked to this "Ninja Park" that was about two miles away from the school. Our group consisted of thirteen people and two of them were Japanese students. Within our group three of us had bicycles.
At the "Ninja Park" our group of thirteen broke into two groups and we tried the obstacle courses at different times. The obstacle courses were pretty fun and some of them were pretty challenging. The obstacle courses had a lot of bridges, ropes, and surprises for us to try.
The final obstacle course we tried at the park had us climbing a tower that gave us a view of Akita when we reached the top. We had the option of using the stairs or climbing to the top of the tower using the ladders and ropes.
 |
| Climbing to the top of the tower |
At the top of the tower I could see Akita Airport and all of the trees below us. The view was pretty amazing and it worth climbing to the top of the tower.
After climbing the tower, we returned to the entrance of the park and regrouped with some of the other group members. Four of our group members had to leave early before we regrouped so only nine of us remained. Two of the four group members had bicycles and both of the Japanese students left early.
When the nine of us were ready to leave, we stared walking towards the university. Unfortunately two of the girls got into a bicycle accident while we started walking home so we had to call the ambulance. Apparently I had let both of the girls ride my bicycle at the same time and they had lost control of the bicycle.
Two more students went with the girls to the hospital to assist them and the rest of us returned home as quickly as possible because we wanted to make sure the girls were okay. At the university, we thought that we would have to help pay for the girls medical bill and assist them in getting back to the university.
Thankfully when the girls returned, the insurance paid for most of their bill, and they received a ride back to the university from the university staff. In addition, one of the girls sprained her ankle and another girl had minor scrapes and bruises.
The girls were accompanied by police officers and a translator was present when they returned. After learning that the girls were okay, I thought the police officers were going to confiscate my bicycle but they did not.
Instead I got to ride with the police officers, girls, and translator to the area where the accident took place. The girls had trouble walking so I had to show the cops the area where the girls fell.
 |
| The police car I rode on my birthday |
The police cops gave the girls and me a ride back to the university and left shortly. The girls tried to apologize because they thought they ruined my birthday when they got into an accident today, but I was happy that they were safe and I got to keep my bicycle. Although the original plan was to go drinking when we returned to the university, I thought this birthday was pretty memorable because I got to ride in the back of a police car and assist with an investigation.
