December 16-22 (Mon-Sun) - Gokekkon, Omedetou Gozaimasu ~♥~

(Congratulations on your wedding.)

Monday: After a workout, cleaning, and 4 hours of karaoke, I was invited to go to dinner with Mako and Hugh and his visiting family/friends. Lots of fun! His whole family has a good sense of humor.

Tuesday: Last class for the year at Yoshikawa. That night Hugh and I combined our first class for a Christmas class. It went well. 

That night I made pumpkin soup with daikon, apples, potatoes, carrot, onion, ginger, and cinnamon. Yum! Supplemented by pork because meat is necessary. 

And by pumpkin seeds, first time ever, a success.

Wednesday: I had special Christmas classes at Okabo Elementary. I taught the kindergarden, 1st, and 2nd grade. I’m tired of teaching Christmas stuff… but the kids were pretty good. In the last class they sang for me, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Except in Japanese it’s just ‘the red-nosed reindeer’, so even the teacher was surprised to learn the reindeers have names. 

More Christmas classes that evening. Games are good.

Thursday: At Yanagi, I taught the kids bingo. I was a little shocked they hadn’t played it earlier, and mortified that I have introduced it to them. Iyaa….

At my private class the kids got really into the game. Yay! And Mrs. Miwa sent me home with another bag of goodies.

Friday: Today was cleaning day at UFO. I went early to start, and helped scrub the floor of the office room. It was really, really dirty :O I was tired at the end. But we did get donuts afterward.

Saturday: Classes. The owners of the Nanjo location gave me cakes; ‘hitokuchi’ means ‘one bite’. 

Sunday: I attended my first ever wedding ceremony in Japan. It was beautiful. You’ll forgive me for not posting photos of people for privacy reasons.

First, here is the envelope with my cash gift. Traditionally, the envelope should be white tied with red, and the amount should be in odd one-man bills. (One man is approx. US$100.) The story is that if the amount is even, like 20,000 or 40,000, if it can be split between the couple, then they will (eventually) get divorced. Also 4 is a no-no for various other reasons.

The top reads ‘congratulations on your wedding’, cranes symbolize long life, and the bottom is my name (in Japanese). 

I can’t say it was a traditional Japanese wedding. For one, people don’t usually have ‘traditional’ Japanese weddings anymore, most brides choose to be wed in ‘churches’ by ‘priests’. Hugh and Mako designed their own wedding and schedule, and were married by the groom’s father. They actually submitted the paperwork — or, ‘created a family’ — in August.

Here is my place setting. The character at the end of my name reads sama and is honorific. 

Here’s one of the dishes.

Here’s one of the gifts I received:

It was a cheese baumkuchen. 

Part of the reason the cash gift to the couple is so large is to pay for the elaborate ceremony and things like the fancy part-favors. 

I really enjoyed the wedding. Kaori acted as translator between Japanese and English, so she was quite busy. I sat with the family and friends and helped with some of the translating. 

It was a beautiful ceremony.

I got to take home some flowers!

Recent Japanese:

nomikomu (飲み込む) = to gulp down, to swallow; nomikomaseru = to be swallowed

mugen (無限) = unlimited, infinite

yuugen (有限) = finite

awateru (慌てる) = to become confused

gyakukouka (逆効果) = backfire, counterproductive; lit. opposite result

hakuchuumu (白昼夢) = daydream; lit. white noon dream

gyakugire (逆切れ) = being angry at somebody when it’s your fault; the perpetrator being angry at the victim

oroka (愚か) = foolish, stupid