Tokyo in December - Parting Shots

Have you seen Lost in Translation? It's like a totally different movie after you've actually been to Tokyo. We decided to head over to the Park Hyatt Hotel, and have dinner where the movie was filmed. The restraunt is on the 52nd floor making for spectacular views along with some great ambiance.

A common sight around Tokyo - men in back suits en masse:

And a not-so-common sight in Tokyo - fishing on the Sumida River in the shadow of the high rises.

Sayounara!

The Main Event, Part 2

Finally the reception! Food! Drink! Pictures! The mother of the bride didn't speak a word of english, but her enthusiasm made it clear that she was very happy that we were there.

Even though it was December, the weather was gorgeous, and the garden in back made a great setting for more pictures.

After we assembled in the reception room, the bride and groom made their grand entrance to "All You Need Is Love" by the Beatles. There was a welcome speech by the groom:

The breaking of the drum by both families:

And then more speeches by both of their managers from work (they both work for 3M). I couldn't get over imagining my past bosses making speeches at my wedding, and snickered over how uncomfortable that would make them.

And then the first course in a ten course meal. There were also seven beverage glasses at each place setting: Water, sake, whiskey, champagne, beer, white wine, and red wine. You couldn't take a sip without your glass being immediately refilled as soon as you set it down. Luckily it was only noon by now and the time wasn't conducive to over-imbibing.

Right when the food was served, the bride left to change into a different dress, and we lined up to congratulate the groom and serve him a drink or two:

The bride re-entered, with her father on her arm this time (the first entrance was with the groom), in a western-style wedding dress.

The western-style portion of the wedding also included the cutting of the cake:

And letters and bouquets to the parents, where Yuko's mom was barely holding it together. "She's not my Yuko anymore" she was heard saying to someone...

We had a couple of hours between the lunch reception and the evening reception. A couple of friends of the brother of the bride took us for a walk and some coffee, along an avenue where there was some sort of autumn festival going on, and the colors were beautiful.

After dark we met at a bar/restaurant for the third event of the day. This part was hosted by friends for the bride and groom, and there were games, food, and more to drink, all to put the bride an groom on the spot. Yuko and Kouta had no idea what was going to happen, but it was all in good taste.

There was a great slideshow of each of them growing up, which included pictures of Yuko and David's parents at Yuko's high school graduation from Coronado High School in El Paso:

And even us! This was taken at our last trip to Tokyo where Yuko and her friend Aki were our tour guides:

David finally got to make a speech to a room where probably 10% of the people understood what he said, but Yuko and Kouta understood, and that's what counts.

There wasn't any dancing, and when I asked why, I was told "the Japanese are very shy people." This was reinforced by the fact that I only saw the bride and groom kiss once, and this only at the loud prompting of some very drunk co-workers.

After 14 hours of celebrating I was ready to get out of my high heels, and the evening soon ended with chocolate handed out by the bride and groom. My only regret was that I never learned how to say "congratulations" in Japanese... : )

The Main Event, Part 1

Sunday morning dawned bright and clear for Yuko's wedding day. David and I arrived at the Meiji Shrine nice and early at 8am with the bride's father (who spoke some English but better Spanish having lived in El Paso for a few years), and were able to wander around until picture time...

...along with the father of the groom, who was in charge of one of the little ones:

We ran right into Yuko and her groom on their way to pictures, both who were supposed to look fairly sober, but failed miserably. They looked so excited, and couldn't stop smiling at each other:

In case you're wondering, it took three ladies to attend to that hair-do:

Yuko was a beautiful bride...

We were lucky enough to be considered "family", and attended the private family introductions, and the signing of the marriage contract (I think that's what they were doing anyway):

Afterward, other friend were asked to come inside, and Yuko's friends had on beautiful kimonos (square on the back means married, bow means single) for the occasion:

There were a few last minute reminders of what to do during the actual ceremony:

And we were off in the procession through the shrine to the place where the ceremony was to take place. The bride and groom were led by the religious leaders under a red umbrella:

We weren't allowed to take pictures at the actual ceremony, but here are pictures of the video that was shown later. His family sat on one side of the room, hers on the other. There was much musical chanting, bell ringing and sake sipping, all in Japanese so I pretty much had no clue what was going on the whole time. It was pretty fascinating nonetheless.

Except the rings. I understood that part.

Afterward we all proceeded back through the shrine. It was a bit later in the morning by then, and quite a few tourists lined up to take pictures. I bet they were wondering what the gringos were doing in the Japanese wedding procession.

Yuko's friends were accosted by a group of Chinese tourists wanting to take pictures of them, but other than that the morning concluded without a hitch.

Off to the reception, stay tuned for Part 2...

Can you see anything?

We had a day off before the wedding, so we decided to take a day trip up to Nikko, north of Tokyo. There's a famous shrine there, along with a waterfall that the concierge assured us, when seeing it, that we would "be overwhelmed."

The bus ride was about two hours long, and by the time we got to the shrine, it was already much colder than in Tokyo. (I'm not used to whether under 80 degrees, and it was probably a cool 40 or so.) Our tour guide was fairly entertaining, his little flag for us to follow was really a car antennae and shoelace contraption, with which David was impressed because he could fold it up and put it in his coat pocket. "Genius!" he declared.

In addition to amazing Buddhist and Shinto architecture:

The shrine is known for a few things, including a carving of an elephant, which looks a little odd because the artist had never actually seen an elephant, only read about them:

Yes, that elephant has hair and claws. And there was a small old wooden building near the entrance, which at first you wonder what's the big deal:

And then you notice the carvings. It's the original Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil monkeys!

I always assumed they were from Grimm's Fairy Tales or something, but no, they are Japanese. The rest of the tour was great, too, amazing detail everywhere you looked:

After the shrine was a bus ride to the highest lake (altitude-wise) in Japan. A popular summer vacation destination, I'm sure it was beautiful, but it was full-on sleeting by then, and we only stepped outside the bus long enough to snap a picture with the lake in the background.

Last was the famous waterfall that the concierge was so excited about. As we approached the waterfall, you could hear the water, but when we got to the edge, "overwhelmed" was not the word that came to mind. More like... "where?"

In case you're wondering, this is what it looks like in nice weather:

I bet it would be pretty nice if you could actually see it. After a cup of hot coffee trying to warm up, I ran back to the edge to try and take one last picture before the bus left. The clouds had moved a bit, and this is the best picture I got:

Oh well, maybe next time.