This weekend I joined the wedding party of Mr. and Mrs. Minamimoto. Mr. Minamimoto is one of my former students, and he invited me along with some other former students to attend both the reception and the second party in Osaka. The wedding ceremony itself was held Japanese style, which means that it was a private event with just a few family members. Afterwards, the much larger group of guests met for a reception inside the temple grounds.
The reception was very nice – there was a barrel of sake opened with a huge hammer, plenty of delicious foods, and we could get to know some new people, including meeting the bride and groom’s parents. They were very happy about marrying off their kids, and it showed in their faces.
After the reception we traveled by taxi over to the location of the second party – an Italian restaurant in the newly remodeled Osaka station. Apparently it was the first time they had hosted a second party, but they did a pretty good job. I made the “kanpai” speech, and everyone seemed to have a good time. I also had a chance to talk with a few new people who came up and introduced themselves. One was a guy who introduced himself in English, and we discussed language education at Kawasaki, another with a guy who introduced himself in Japanese and we talked about traveling overseas. Finally a beautiful young lady introduced herself in Japanese and asked me if I taught private English lessons.
After the second party wrapped up some of the group proceeded to a third party, however the bride and groom begged off to go home and rest up. I don’t blame them – it was a long day for them. We went down into the underground izakayas in western Osaka, which are always a pretty interesting experience. These places are designed for big groups of people and quick turnaround. I don’t often get a chance to go, but when I do things are always interesting. One of our group members was a drunken female lawyer who was pretty noisy. I could tell that if I was sitting at the next table I probably would have been annoyed, but since she was at our table there was nothing to do but roll with it. Luckily nobody got out of hand.
By the time I got back home it was nearly 11 pm, so it turned out to be a pretty long day. I was just glad to have helped out a little with the party and to be able to see the bride and groom happy on their wedding day.
