Kuniko was up early today for her friend Tomomi-chan’s wedding. She got dressed and was out the door early, and I was left to sleep in, eat a big lunch and do some laundry. Not so exciting, but I was invited to the second party, so around 2:30 I headed out the door to go to Osaka.
Since I had finished all my flashcards I listened to music on the train with my mp3 player. It’s a bit old and bulky, but it holds 20 GB of music – plenty of tunes for just about any occasion. I was listening to the new Tool album on the trip down. It sounded pretty good.
First in Umeda I walked through Yodobashi Camera in search of an adapter for my new cell phone. I found it pretty quickly, and then walked around and just enjoyed some people-watching. There was a good mix of shoppers there. Lots of foreigners, too – come to check out the latest in Japanese electronics. In a bit of perfect timing Kuniko called me as I was leaving, and we made plans to meet at a nearby subway station. I caught the train without any trouble, but on the other end I wasn’t sure which exit to take to meet up with her.
Subway stations usually have many exits – Yodoyabashi station has 12 exits. I went up one that looked like a major exit, but couldn’t find Kuniko. Right then she sent a message saying she was at the northeast exit. Where the hell is that? I went back downstairs and looked at a map, and then according to the legend found exit 4, which seemed to be the most northeast exit. When I got there, I found out that it was in fact the wrong exit – no Kuniko. Finally we figured out via a series of phone calls where each other was, and we met up and headed to the place for the second party.
Kuniko was on the hook to do reception for the party, and it was pretty expensive. Women paid 6500 yen, and men paid 7500 yen. Once that was settled up I went inside and sat down with some complete strangers to chat while Kuniko was working outside.
The people I sat with were curious about me and it was easy to strike up a conversation. Most of them were visiting from Tokyo – I could easily pick up their standard Japanese… it was like right out of a textbook. We soon became fast friends and were pouring each other drinks and telling stories. They asked me all about my married life and work life and social life and drinking life and American life – I was really getting a Japanese language workout.
Finally things wrapped up outside so I said a quick goodbye to them and took my bingo card and beer over to sit with Kuniko and some of her old college friends. It was my first time meeting them, and they were really nice. They kept me in beer and we asked each other lots of questions. There was never a time were I was bored or standing around hoping to talk to someone. Everything just meshed nicely.
The place was a really nice upscale place, and the food was pretty good. It was drink-oriented food – not to say that it was bar food, but it was all food that goes great with beer. Having dropped 7500 yen at the door I wanted to make sure to get my money’s worth of refreshment, so I attacked it with gusto. Most of the wedding guests had just had a big meal at the wedding reception. I just had cheese and crackers at home, so there was plenty of room.
The format of the second party was a bit more organized than our own last November. They had lots of speeches and a couple of quizzes, and bingo. Bingo was really being talked up, and I realized why when they said what you could win – they announced that you could win some bottles of wine, cakes and candies, and even a couple of iPods were on the roster.
The first person won bingo and they had a serious gauntlet of things they had to do. First, they drew a number, and that matched up with their prize. Then, they listened to a trivia quiz about the bride or groom, and if they guessed the right answer then they pulled a lottery stick out – the lottery prize could be anything, from a butter knife all the way up to an iPod.
I was surprised to find that I was close to bingo early on, and then soon after that I pulled out a bingo. Another guest had won as well, so under the principles of “ladies first” she pulled a prize, and won a bottle of white wine. Then, I pulled a paper out of the hat. To be honest, I was more worried about the upcoming trivia quiz – a real test of my Japanese.
But, good news, I pulled out a paper that had the number “1” on it, and that corresponded to the top bingo prize, and iPod nano. The emcee congratulated me and handed it over, and announced that since I won the iPod, I probably shouldn’t take a shot at another one and I heartily agreed with him. That got me out of the trivia quiz, so I went back and sat down and got a round of applause from our table.
Suddenly the money I paid to get into the party seemed like a pretty good bargain. The bingo suspense continued, and eventually Kuniko won, too. She picked up some cakes which looked pretty delicious. Also, we walked over to the bride and groom table and said hello and took some pictures. They looked a little tired but very happy. It was my first time meeting Tomomi-chan’s husband, and he seemed like a really nice guy. Hopefully we can have them over for dinner sometime soon.
Just before we left I reconnected with the group of Tokyo guys that I had sat with before. They were just sitting around as a group of guys, so I collected the single guys and took them to a table of women just sitting around. I introduced myself, and then the guys introduced themselves. I got them talking to each other and it was going pretty good – I’m hoping that somebody got a phone number in there somewhere.
Kuniko and I headed back to the station and were lucky enough to get a seat for the long trip back. Finally we got home and were exhausted. We crashed out and went to bed right away. Lots of walking around today.
I’ve posted some pictures from the wedding (Kuniko took those) and the second party, so you can check them out here.
