It was wedding day today. Kuniko and I have a mutual friend, a teacher that we both taught with at Takasago Minami. Her name is Obara sensei, and she is a really friendly lady who was nice enough to chat with me at Takanan when I was working there. Since then we’ve been to several parties with her, and today was her wedding day.
She was getting married at a hotel in Northern Kobe, so Kuniko and I got all dressed up and piled in the car for the drive over. We made it in plenty of time, and we followed the directions until we found the right lobby. There were several other weddings happening that day, so it’s not like you can just say, “I’m here for the wedding.”
After a fairly long wait, they announced that they were ready for us, so we lined up according to whether we knew the groom or the bride, and then headed down some escalators to go outside where the wedding was going to be held. On the way down an old lady on my left got a little carried away and took a header on the escalator. I saw it as it was starting to happen and was able to stop her from falling. I caught her kind of between the rail of the escalator and the guy in front of her, who was oblivious to the whole thing. She was remarkably heavy – it surprised me. I managed to get her straightened up. Strangely, she didn’t acknowledge me at all. I was expecting to turn around and get a round of applause for saving the day, but everyone kind of pretended that nothing happened. Hmm. Must be a cultural difference, I guess.
We took seats outside under the huge overhang of the hotel, and they got the ceremony started. It was an interesting one. I learned a new Japanese phrase today, 人å‰çµå©š (jinzenkekkon), which literally means a marriage in front of people. I asked Kuniko what that was all about – aren’t most marriages in front of people? She explained that there was going to be no priest, so it was kind of like a marriage in front of people, as opposed to a marriage in front of God. Ah, I got it.
Since there was no priest, there was an announcer, and she announced everything that was happening, even though we could clearly observe it ourselves. “Now, the wedding will begin”, “Now, here is the groom”, “Now, here is the bride”, “Now, they are on the stage”, “Now, they are signing the paperwork”. Every move they made was announced, and it seemed like they had to just follow along with the directions.
That said, the place was pretty dramatic. It was surrounded by shallow pools of water that ran from the base of the hotel all the way down to a big plaza that was a public space, so there were people that stopped to watch the wedding as well. At the end everyone released balloons, and they even had some balloons that looked like doves. They made sure we stood in a particular spot and sure enough, when we released the balloons they were almost all captured under the eaves of the hotel overhang, thereby not polluting the environment. Clever.
After the ceremony we went inside to attend the reception. This was the first wedding reception that wasn’t mine, and it was pretty traditional. The room was really nice – very casual, with comfortable couches and bookcase with candle and a really relaxing scheme. Although it was casual, the atmosphere was anything but. The people attending were not just family and friends but bosses and coworkers. The bosses had the tables closest to the bride and groom, and the families had tables the farthest away. Having gone through the planning of our own wedding it was really interesting for me to observe what was going on. The bosses made speeches, and finally we could drink. I did my share of beer drinking, and Kuniko’s share too, since she was driving. We only knew one other guest, another teacher that Kuniko knew from working at Takanan before I got there. She was with another former Takanan teacher who I guess had been a crush of Andy, the ALT before me. That guy had a crush on everyone, it seems.
When the time was right Kuniko and I went over and greeted the bride and groom. I knew they were exhausted with all the greetings, but they were really nice to us. It was our first time meeting the groom, and he had a good sense of humor. Instead of taking the picture standing stiffly behind them like the other people, we sat on the couch with them and took it. They were laughing and enjoying it all. They make a great couple, and I’m sure they’ll be happy together.
The food was really good. It was a mix of Western and Japanese, but there were no forks so the food was already cut into bite sized pieces that you could eat with chopsticks. They thought of everything. I really liked the steak, and there was lobster too – so I was completely satisfied with the meal.
Near the end of the ceremony Obara sensei read a letter to her mother, thanking her for everything. It was a pretty detailed letter, and she cried through the whole thing. Luckily, the beer was still flowing, so I sipped away in the dark while everyone was sniffling and holding back their tears.
I did talk a little with the lady sitting next to me, and it turned out that she knew an ALT that I knew back in Futami. He’s kind of a young crazy Canadian guy, and apparently he’s giving lessons for cash in Kakogawa on the side. The lady spoke pretty good English, and I could tell she was dying to try it out on me. I chatted with her for a while and learned a little about her – she seemed nice. Single, too – she went up and tried to score the bride’s bouquet. If I had five yen for every good looking single girl that I know in Japan, I could buy another plasma TV.
Finally, the show was over, and we took our considerably large bag of loot and headed out to say goodbye to the bridal party and their family. Then we gave Kuniko’s friend a ride to the Akashi station and we headed back home. We were tired out but we did manage to open our gifts and we got a lot of good stuff. There was even some red beans and rice that were marked as “Eat Today!”. We had that for dinner and we were covered.
We watched a movie as a nightcap, “Lost in Translation”. I recently got it on DVD and I was surprised how much more I could understand of the Japanese this time around. Kuniko of course could understand everything, and she laughed at some of the translations in the movie. I really like the movie, but Kuniko was kind of lukewarm about it.
I posted some pictures from the wedding here if you want to check them out!
