Weekend Marriage

Today, I woke up with a headache and it is now 4:30 pm. The headache has not gone away yet, so I am glad that I opted to stay home and "recover." Meanwhile, I was able to get most of my recent "for sale" items packaged up and outta here before Suk finds out that I sold or gave away a bunch of dvds and videos that we don't need and will never ever watch again. I think he just likes to keep them for posterity even if most of them were given to him for free from his company and they are B-rated movies. Let others enjoy them...and then pass them on.

So, since I was at home today, I decided to watch a little TV. I very rarely turn on our TV these day, except when the Olympics was on. One reason is simply that the reception sucks in this building, and I hate watching three of everything. The other reason is that I don't find Japanese TV all that fascinating anymore.

I happened to turn it on to a drama - one of those syndicated ones that are on in the late afternoons. The name of it was Shuumatsukon. This means "weekend marriage." It is exactly what you think it is. A married couple who only see each other on the weekends because the guy works so late every night, and in some cases he has his own apartment near his company where he stays during the week.

Let me just say that if I had known there was even a term for this situation, I would NOT have opted to get married and move here. Suk sold himself to me by saying that it wouldn't be this way forever. Other people have told me it only gets worse. And, I read in the newspaper last week, that with the baby boomers starting to retire, the divorce rate is going up. They have this new term called "Narita Divorce." This is akin to the Honeymoon Divorce.

A "Narita Divorce" is when a couple who have not spent much time together due to the husband's working schedule plan a trip to a foreign country to celebrate his retirement, and when they get back to Japan, they file for a divorce because they realize that spending that much time together is not what it is cracked up to be. The article also warned that going on a luxury cruise is the worst idea for a couple like this because being stuck together on a cruise ship for weeks tends to cause even more divorces. In this case, the woman usually has an easy time attending social activities and making new friends on board, while the man holes himself up in the room and pouts.

The article suggests that you take short trips and weekend trips together for a while before going on a long vacation.

This is the latest news in my career as a married woman. My husband told me he had to ask my advice about something. He said that he may have a chance to take a business to L.A. to do some editing work on a trailer for a movie. I know that this is his dream, but he was worried that the business trip might end up being in March, right around or ON our moving date.

Oh my god - if he leaves me here alone during our moving date, I am sure that arrangements will me made so that his family will help with everything. Scenes from the MOVING WEEKEND FROM HELL flash through my mind!

After a moment, I looked at him and said, "I know it is your dream to go to L.A., but what is your priority here? We have been planning this move for a year now."

I know he understood what I meant. I hope he gets the opportunity to go, but his company always has such great timing! They love to spring things on him at the worst times, and guess what?! They DO NOT CARE one way or another if it has any effect on his family...I mean, his wife.