A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I invited my parents, our daughter and her family to a fancy Japanese restaurant and celebrated my mom's 88th birthday. In Japan, we have a tradition to celebrate people's long lives when they turn certain years. These birthdays are called 還暦 (kanreki 60) 古希 (koki 70) 喜寿 (kijyu 77) 傘寿 (sanjyu 80 米寿 (beijyu 88) 卒寿 (sotsujyu 90) 白寿 (hakujyu 99), and my mom turned 88 years old in October.

I had been really looking forward to celebrating her birthday, so I'm very grateful that she's still quite healthy and has a sharp mind.

We had a traditional Japanese multi-course meal called kaiseki, and it started with a cup of tea.

My parents were so happy to see their great-grandson, Shion. I'm glad Shion remembered his great-grandparents so well.

The mushroom in the soup is called matsutake (松茸), which is one of seasonal food in fall in Japan. Matsutake has been rare recently and very expensive. We were lucky to have it.

The restaurant celebrated my mom's birthday as well by serving sekihan (red bean rice 赤飯), which we eat special occasions like birthdays.

This restaurant, Kitcho (吉兆) is especially good at presenting its dishes in beautiful and creative ways. Everybody was impressed by the presentation in the picture below.

We were thrilled to open the tiny containers to see what was inside.

I'm a huge fan of mushrooms, and I was particularly impressed by this mushroom rice. I asked one of the nakai (traditional Japanese waitresses 仲居) how to make it, and she kindly shared the recipe. I'm not sure if I can cook exact like this, but I'd love to give it a try.

The first dessert was grapefruit jelly.

The second one was zenzai (sweet red bean soup) with chestnuts.

Finally, we had a bowl of matcha. I enjoyed the second dessert with this matcha to make the bitterness of match milder.

The kaiseki meal started with a cup of tea and ended with the tea.

The last picture shows Shion's bento. He's still so young to eat such a course cuisine that my husband ordered a special bento for him. He ate it up and surprised us.

I was extremely happy that I still have both of my parents with me and can celebrate their birthdays together. Next month will be my dad's birthday, and he'll turn 94 years old. 94 isn't a special number for birthdays, but we'll celebrate it at a French restaurant.

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