This past Sunday, my coworker got married! Hooray! I am the biggest sap for weddings, and I can't wait to tell all about this beautiful night.
I'll start at the very beginning (a very good place to start). My coworker met her French husband shortly after coming to Japan almost two years ago. They got engaged a few months ago, and decided to have the wedding in Japan. This proved to be a major headache. In Japanese, it's called めんどくさい, which more or less means a pain in another place.
Japanese people love package deals. There's a reason why sometimes you stereotypically see buses and groups of Asian people all on a vacation or tour together. It is generally bought as an all-inclusive, plane-bus-hotel-restaurant(?) fare. I guess it is much easier this way; it's safer, too. It is also easier to get royally ripped off.
The package deals for weddings will often include everything- location, food, decorations, officiant, and sometimes even the dress. This whole ordeal usually ends up costing an enormous amount, which is made up for by things such as, more recently, guests paying a fee at the door, or more traditionally the payment of about $300 or $500 to the bride and groom (30% of which is given back in the form of a gift). As the bride and groom were both western, they preferred to have a western-style wedding. This meant they wanted to choose how everything was. In America, this isn't so difficult. There are a plethora of places to get married, lots of places whose staff are familiar with providing flowers, food, and other decorations, places to rent things like tablecloths and silverware, and anything else you need for a wedding. Due to the desire for wedding packages, these things were near impossible to find. Lucky for everyone involved, both the bride and groom have been here for a while and have had time to network a bit. It was catered by a friend, the pies and quiches (oh ma goodness.. delicious) were also done by a baker they go to, it was officiated by a friend, etc.
All of that means that obviously these past 2 months have been very busy and stressful (but also isn't that the case with a lot of weddings?). Anyways, fast forward to the day of the wedding. I show up to their apartment to help get ready and to pick up a few last things to decorate with. I volunteered myself to help set up beforehand. When the bride was ready to go and all of the pictures at the apartment had been taken, the small wedding party went to Lake Shinji for the small ceremony and I walked over to the reception area to help set up. It was about 4:10 by the time I got there. We were allowed to begin setting up at 4. The party started at 5:30. You see how we were destined to have a race with time?
Another friend of the bride and groom also said she would help, so we set to work. We had to set up all of the tables, place settings, decorations, and other things I can't think of I'm sure. Luckily, a wedding guest showed up pretty early and with her help, we finished just on time! Soon the guests all arrived, and the bride and groom entered to the song Ho Hey by the Lumineers which was really sweet. It was tough holding back the tears, but you have to do what you can to avoid the need to reapply mascara.
The party itself was really great. I had the job of making sure everyone participated in the guest book. This was a really cute idea. Everyone is under the impression that you can't find Polaroid cameras anymore, but that is incorrect. They just look different. For the guest book, each person or group of people would take a Polaroid of themselves, tape it in the book, and write a little note. How cute, huh? We ate quiche, hummus, pita bread, risotto, pumpkin soup, salad, pie, cheese cake, oh man oh man. A few speeches, a little dancing, some great live saxophone music, and the party was about wrapped up.
So it was a really fantastic time. Weddings are awesome.
In other news, we just caught the edge of a typhoon yesterday. The rain wasn't so bad, but it was enough for an umbrella. Unfortunately, the wind was bad enough that any umbrella was almost destined to fold over the carrier's head. Luckily, today it isn't raining. Unluckily, the cold seems to have begun. Time to think about getting rid of my summer clothes so I have less to take home when I leave.
Speaking of leaving, countdown to leaving Japan is about 3.5 months. Of course I am getting more and more feelings of wanting to stay. It's just easiest to know that if I really want to come back, I can. Japan really is such a cool country.
