i just finished reading douglas coupland’s eleanor rigby and it’s one of the best books i’ve read in my life.
anyways, i keep falling further and further behind in my life updates, so i’m going to try to do a bit of catching up now.
so where i last left off, was the beginning of may, the end of okinawa, and therefore the start of kyoko’s wedding.
the day after i returned was her wedding day, so my coworker hisae came and picked me up bright and early, and her, another coworker kimina and i all went to the wedding together. my manager, who’s last day at okazaki was a week before, was there looking very adorable in a kimono. anyways, the wedding was held at this big hall/chapel/really fancy built for wedding type deal. it was very very beautiful and the day was gorgeous. everyone sort of stands around drinking orange juice and coffee and such and waits for the ceremony to start. the ceremony was helf in a chapel, very much like those at home. The priest was an older american man who did the ceremony mainly in english with a bit of japanese. the ceremony was pretty much the same as that at home. Kyoko looked absolutely stunning, her dress was gorgeous, and her husband wore a sort of traditional style japanese robe. after the ceremony we were all ushered outside to throw flower petals and blow bubbles at the new husband and wife as they ascended the hall stairs. after that the guests were all given plastic bags. i was confused and thought perhaps we were to now pick up the rose petals we had just scattered? but no, keyoko and tetsuyuki (her now husband) climbed back up to the stairs and perched themselves at the balcony where they then proceeded to pelt the crowd with candy, bags of chips and stuffed animals, which we were to catch in aforementioned plastic bags. it was terrifying. i managed to snag a couple goodies though. Right after that the bride threw her bouquet (which i didnt catch) and the groom threw his own bouquet, which was made of brocolli. this was a sort of joke thing, but there is no garter belt toss in japanese weddings. after this the guests were then lead to a hall for a delicious multi-course lunch. between courses, speeches were given by the boss’ of both kyoko and tetsuyuki as well as a couple close friends. The food was absolutely delicious, ranging from sashimi salad, to steak and brie and other fancy looking delicacies. alcohol is served immediately, despite the fact that it was not even noon.
This reception is quite the ordeal. it is extremely showy, with intense slide shoes and even movies made and the bride and groom coming out in costume and acting out scenes. it was quite the production. One of Kyoko’s cousin’s is in a J-pop group that is pretty big here in japan, named the Pure Boys so he of course sang a song, and then all us guests filmed a commercial for Asahi beer (I HAVE NO IDEA HOW THAT HAPPENED) …. but yea, apparently i will now be in a japanese beer commercial. Kyoko had another dress change into a gorgeous black full-skirted number with big flowers all over it and in her hair. After the lunch there are a few hours break, while the older guests head home and the younger guests get changed and head to another hall for the next party.
This hall is much less fancy, and more like something a stag and doe would be held at or a 50th wedding anniversary or something. here the guests play a flat rate of 3,000 yen, (like 30 bucks) for all you can eat and all you can drink. the dress is much more casual and the crowd consisted mainly of 20 somethings and early 30 year olds. The food was buffet style and like japanese style pub food. I had to give the initial kompai toast, which was absolutely humiliating seeing as pretty much nobody there knew what the hell i was saying.. but i did it and they all cheered and toasted and drank. Kyoko of course had ANOTHER change of dress, to a bit of a more casual traditional white wedding dress.
This finished early, around 8 or so, and there was apparently antother party afterwards at another location, but none of my coworkers were going, so i reluctantly headed home. Having been drinking casually since about 11am, it was not time to call it a night, so Susannah and i met up in Nagoya and had ourselves a night on the town.
After my very expensive week of visiting with Jarek and going to okinawa, i was left pretty much penniless and so the following few weekends were spent in okazaki. i Was able to convince beth to come down for the next weekend where we drank wine and ate cheese and a baguette by the river and then watched movies and drank more wine in my apartment. The weekend after i hung out with Brett, an okazaki aeon teacher who i met out in nagoya with susannah the weekend before, and him and i watched some movies and hung out for a while.
that is all i will leave you with for now, and i will hopefully catch you up with more soon.
but i will end with a couple thoughts:
I’ve realized that you never really miss hanging out with people until it’s made virtually impossible to. There are so many people i had the chance to see while i was at home, but for one reason or another we didn’t, or at least didn’t enough, and now it’s almost painful to not be seeing them.
Also, in 6 days it will be exactly 4 months until my contract ends. That feels like the perfect amount. If it was less than that, i think i would be stressing out about all the things i want to do, and dont have the time for. At the same time, if it was more than that, it would be too much. I look more and more forward to coming home, with every passing week, but at the same time i grow increasingly sentimental about leaving this place i’ve grown so accustomed to. Being here has made me feel like i am something extraordinary. im afraid to go back and be ordinary again.
