Back in March, Ross and I were invited to a wedding of two people from his factory. At first, we were thrilled - great, a social occasion in teh diary! Then, once we arrived here, we discovered that, as the boss at such a wedding, Ross would be expected to a) do a speech and b) pay up to $1,000 for the privilage! We were less thrilled. Then we got invited to a house party on the same night.
At first, all was doom and gloom. However, we decided that we had to go with the flow, and as it turned out we had a lovely time: KK wrote Ross's speech, and Yamada-san (our Japanese teacher) practiced it with him, the amount we had to pay was less than we thought, and the w
edding finished at 7:30pm, so we were also able to go to the house party!
So at 2:30pm the American babysitter, Jess (whom I had met at an Australian 'piss-up' lunch) arrived, good - first plan worked OK!, We got dressed up in our smart togs (Ross had to wear a black suit, white shirt (bought yesterday from Uniqlo!) and white tie (kindly leant to us by KK!), sweltered our way to the nice air-conditioned train, and traveled the hour to Disneyland where the wedding was in one of the hotels.
It was all rather bizarre - imagine an English wedding transported to a parallel universe (like when Dr Who lost Rose Tyler). So the wedding started exactly at 4pm (we all had to queue up out side until the allocated time!), the bride walked up the aisle in teh white dress, just as you'd expect here, the ceremony was all in Japanese, except 'You May Now Kiss Your Bride' and 'What God Has Joined Together Let No Man Break Apart'. 10 minutes later, it was all over, and we went to the courtyard to have a 'flower shower' (all militarily organised by the Wedding Organiser Crew). Then upstairs to drop off our gifts and receive our allocated seating plan.
Then a wedding breakfast - what was really bizarre was that Ross was the guest of honour - on the best table, and first on the seating plan. What was also bizzare was that at these weddings, only one person per couple is invited (so I really shouldn't have been there!). The speeches were all done at the beginning, Ross did really well, doing his speech all in Japanese - and they all seemed to get it (at least they seemed to smile at the right places!), then they cut the cake (and ate a mouthful each - how odd is that!). The food was very tasty and all French (with a knife a fork - nice to watch everyone else struggle for a change!!), We were served beer by the bride's father (didn't realise we were supposed to stand and bow - bit of a faux pas, but soon worked this one out and bowed for the next people!)
The whole thing was like a show for the audience - 4 film shows, various speeches, a couple of karaokes, very entertaining. Halfway through, the bride changed her frock into a ball-gown affair (complete with a hoop!) and has a drum-roll, lights-down reveal as she enters the room, they have this lighting candles ceremony where they go to each table, and light their candle and have a chat - which is very nice, then light the big candle on teh stage. Then at 7:30 the Wedding-organiser-extraordinaire announced 'Arigato Gosai Mashita' (thank you and goodbye) and we all trundled off home!
So now Ross and I were able to 'let our hair down' and take off KK's still (fortunately!) white tie, and made our way to another large apartment where there were about 30 other parents from school, and had a lovely time at the party. Sadly had to leave before it all got messy to get back in time for Jess the babysitter to get her train.
A successful day all round!
At first, all was doom and gloom. However, we decided that we had to go with the flow, and as it turned out we had a lovely time: KK wrote Ross's speech, and Yamada-san (our Japanese teacher) practiced it with him, the amount we had to pay was less than we thought, and the w
edding finished at 7:30pm, so we were also able to go to the house party!So at 2:30pm the American babysitter, Jess (whom I had met at an Australian 'piss-up' lunch) arrived, good - first plan worked OK!, We got dressed up in our smart togs (Ross had to wear a black suit, white shirt (bought yesterday from Uniqlo!) and white tie (kindly leant to us by KK!), sweltered our way to the nice air-conditioned train, and traveled the hour to Disneyland where the wedding was in one of the hotels.
It was all rather bizarre - imagine an English wedding transported to a parallel universe (like when Dr Who lost Rose Tyler). So the wedding started exactly at 4pm (we all had to queue up out side until the allocated time!), the bride walked up the aisle in teh white dress, just as you'd expect here, the ceremony was all in Japanese, except 'You May Now Kiss Your Bride' and 'What God Has Joined Together Let No Man Break Apart'. 10 minutes later, it was all over, and we went to the courtyard to have a 'flower shower' (all militarily organised by the Wedding Organiser Crew). Then upstairs to drop off our gifts and receive our allocated seating plan.
Then a wedding breakfast - what was really bizarre was that Ross was the guest of honour - on the best table, and first on the seating plan. What was also bizzare was that at these weddings, only one person per couple is invited (so I really shouldn't have been there!). The speeches were all done at the beginning, Ross did really well, doing his speech all in Japanese - and they all seemed to get it (at least they seemed to smile at the right places!), then they cut the cake (and ate a mouthful each - how odd is that!). The food was very tasty and all French (with a knife a fork - nice to watch everyone else struggle for a change!!), We were served beer by the bride's father (didn't realise we were supposed to stand and bow - bit of a faux pas, but soon worked this one out and bowed for the next people!)
The whole thing was like a show for the audience - 4 film shows, various speeches, a couple of karaokes, very entertaining. Halfway through, the bride changed her frock into a ball-gown affair (complete with a hoop!) and has a drum-roll, lights-down reveal as she enters the room, they have this lighting candles ceremony where they go to each table, and light their candle and have a chat - which is very nice, then light the big candle on teh stage. Then at 7:30 the Wedding-organiser-extraordinaire announced 'Arigato Gosai Mashita' (thank you and goodbye) and we all trundled off home!
So now Ross and I were able to 'let our hair down' and take off KK's still (fortunately!) white tie, and made our way to another large apartment where there were about 30 other parents from school, and had a lovely time at the party. Sadly had to leave before it all got messy to get back in time for Jess the babysitter to get her train.
A successful day all round!
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