Jennifer Garner Proves She's Living Her Best Life on Ex Ben Affleck's Birthday

Jennifer Garner has a ramen-tic message to share with fans on Ben Affleck’s birthday.

The 13 Going On 30 took to Instagram on Aug. 15—which also happened to be her ex-husband’s 52nd birthday—to celebrate a different kind of milestone: her recent vacation to Asia.

Garner uploaded a gallery of photos showing her “dream trip to Japan,” as she called it, and provided a checklist of all the memories she made, including visits to the Tenryu-ji Temple and the Kinkaku-ji Golden Pavilion, both located in Kyoto.

In the pics, Garner—who shares kids Violet, 18, Seraphina, 15 and Samuel, 12, with Affleck—can be seen on a boat at sunset with windswept hair, sunglasses and a smile while holding a glass of champagne. In another photo, she posed in the middle of a busy walkway wearing a blue tee, shorts and tennis shoes while flashing two peace signs. 

And despite being a “former picky eater,” the Alias actress embraced the local cuisine in Japan. One pic showed her with her hair pulled back and wearing a plastic bib, smiling while eating a bowl of ramen—but the soup wasn’t the only local delicacy she tried.

“This abalone was alive in front of us five minutes ago,” Garner said in one video while holding chopsticks and a piece of the prepared mollusk. Before taking a bite, she added, “We have to honor it by eating it."

While the recap of her trip to Japan coincided with Affleck’s 52nd birthday, Garner didn’t publicly shoutout the Batman star, who she met in 2000 on the set of the movie Pearl Harbor. However, she seemed to show support in other ways as she was photographed stopping by his Brentwood, Calif., home on his special day.

Affleck—who finalized his divorce from Garner in 2018—also rang in his birthday with a visit from now-wife Jennifer Lopez. The “Jenny from the Block” singer was seen stopping by Affleck’s house despite ongoing speculation of marital issues between the couple.

Although they may have celebrated in person, J.Lo didn’t publicly acknowledge his birthday on social media. Instead, she appeared to be in the mood to reminisce, sharing a few throwback photos from her own birthday celebration in July, in which she’s wearing a sheer Dior dress with silver floral designs and posing next to a silver convertible. The caption simply read, “Dior.”