Bachelorettes III

I wanted to give an update about my sister-in-law.

Sister-in-law = SIL
We met The boyfriend last Saturday over dinner at the in-law's tiny, cramped 2LK. Hey, they raised two children in this tiny apartment, so perhaps to them, cramming 6 adults in this place is nothing to them.

He is tall and thin, wears glasses and has funny ears. I thought he may have done judo, but he never mentioned it during our conversations. I think he is good-looking, but my husband kept whispering stuff like this to me.

Him: "Look at the top of his head. He's balding."
Me: "I think everyone has a slight thinning at the top of their heads. It's nothing to worry about.

Him: Look at those ears. How weird!
Me: Maybe he practices judo. Or maybe his ears look red because he has been drinking so much.

Yes, in the drinking department, he does hold his own, and that is A LOT when you compare him to my in-laws. I mean, my father-in-law is no drunk. He drinks one glass of beer, feels drunk, starts acting funny and then disappears into his bedroom for the rest of the night. My mother- and sister-in-law like to party, and Yusuke and I can barely keep up with them. The boyfriend was right there, keeping up with them, not a trace of drunkeness - except for the reddened ears.

I call him The boyfriend because I cannot refer to him by name, however, from now on, I will call him "Sensei." This is what my sister-in-law calls him. For anyone who has seen the Karate Kid movies, you would know that "sensei" means teacher or master. We asked why she had nicknamed him "sensei" and like everything is with her, she said, "It's a secret. I can't tell you." So, right away, I imagined that she called him "sensei" because he had taught her the ways of the world...if you know what I mean. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.

So, Sensei has been dating my sister-in-law for the past year. They met at a three-week training conference for their company. They work in different departments. He is an executive. From what I can tell, she is more like an administrative assistant to an executive, but of course, she is sworn to secrecy about her job. When she first met him, he told her he was in charge of the Psycho Dept, and she just assumed that he was a teacher of some sort. This might explain why she began to affectionately call him Sensei.

I was eager to know more about Sensei and his relationship with SIL, and since I am the designated Say-it-like-it-is Foreigner of the family, I knew that it was my job to bring a few issues to the table. So, I asked her why the heck she had kept their relationship a secret for so long. And, I went on to tell her that I had been suspecting for a long time. Of course, I got no real answer from her. Just a shy giggle. A shy giggle? From my SIL? She must be in love or something because normally she is a stern (albeit heavy-drinking), serious OKORIPPOI (a person with a bad temper) woman.

After Father-in-law had retired to his room (oh, thank god he's gone. We can really party now!), we sat down and asked Sensei some real questions about his life and their relationship.

I think everyone is a geek about something. (I am a geek about scrapbooking. My husband is a TOTAL geek about movies. Shannon is a geek about reading sci-fi and romance novels.) Sensei is a geek about -get this! - building and riding bicycles. You know how some computer geeks enjoy collecting various parts of old computers and building "new" computers out of them. Well, apparently Sensei likes to do the same with bicycles. This guy is a gem!

Now, for the unfortunate news. There will be no $30,000 wedding spectacle. I would have liked to see SIL in a wedding dress (but I would never say that to her face!), so I am disappointed. Instead, they have invited both sets of parents (little brothers and their foreign wives need not apply) out to lunch and the parents will be asked to sign the papers as witnesses to the marriage. Then, they will go down and add her name to the family registry. This will take place in two weeks. I asked about a ceremony and a party (you would think that with this kind of family, they would at least get together and down a few bottles of sake), and she said they were thinking of having a small ceremony at a temple in Kamakura.

No laser light show. No emcee. No giant fake wedding cake. I am utterly disappointed.

Then, the good news. They are already apartment hunting, and the timing is perfect because we are hoping to get rid of some of our stuff. When I offered them our white leather two-seater sofa, my husband got really annoyed. I guess he wants to keep it for his "man's room". But, that would be a subject for another blog.

After SIL and Sensei left to go back to Tokyo, my husband promptly fell asleep on the couch with the bird (my MIL's pet) perched on his crotch and pecking at his zipper. What a nice photo opp that would have been! Then, I had to wash dishes with MIL, and the whole time she lamented about how dispicable it was that her daughter would be getting married even though she had vowed that she would never marry. How horrible that one's own daughter should fall in love and get married! I assured her that SIL probably didn't mean it when she supposedly "vowed" to never marry. Who does that anyway?

MIL's sadness about the whole thing made me wonder (while wallowing in my own selfishness), will I have to step in as wife of the only son and take care of her in old age? No wonder she is feeling sad! If I were her, I would not want MandeJ taking care of me either!