SIL and Sensei's Wedding Extravaganza

I wanted to write about SIL's wedding ceremony, but I don't want to go into much detail about the ceremony itself. I really would rather write about an "incident" that occurred.

Here is a rundown of the day. We awoke at 5:30 to travel to Tokyo and spend the day at a small shrine. Only 8 people were invited - the parents on both sides, the sibling on both sides and his/her wife/husband. We arrived at 8:30 and since there was a lot of downtime before the ceremony would start, I brought my dress, makeup and hair stuff with me and got dressed in one of the private rooms. I decided to do something experimental with my hair, which is normally down or in a simple ponytail. That was the funnest part of the day.

I finished dressing all too soon, and then we family members just waited around for SIL and Sensei to finish dressing. I was afraid to talk much because Suk always gives me dirty looks whenever I say anything mildly inappropriate. Okay, that is a foreshadowing of what is to come.

Turns out the father of Sensei is quite funny and loves to be the center of attention. Unfortunately, he likes to talk about baseball, which is not funny at all to me, but he does laugh a lot and he makes others laugh. He is much different from Sensei who is the quite, observent type.

Finally, SIL came out in all her glory - a beautiful white kimono with the headdress and cap. She had so much makeup on that you could barely recognize her. I think getting married in that kind of costume was something she had always secretly dreamed of, and that is why she paid for Suk and I to have professional photos taken of us wearing those Japanese wedding costumes. I'll add a photo of us later today. (I'm sorry but I cannot reveal the identity of SIL and Sensei due to the nature of their jobs, so no photos of them can be part of this blog!)

SIL and Sensei looked truly happy and calm with each other. I am so glad she found someone like him - really nice and smart, smart enough not to get in her way when she has an opinion about something, and she seems willing to compromise with him. I have to say that according to them, they DO argue and fight, even on their very first date! At least they don't fib like SOME couples we know who go around claiming that they have never had a fight!

On with the wedding. We posed for photos outside, and then proceeded to the shrine for the ceremony. Before the ceremony, the Shinto priest gave us a lecture about what to expect during the ceremony and how to do certain things. Why does he have to do this?

Well, because most Japanese know next to NOTHING about this religion, and the only time they whip it out is for ceremonies like this. Also, it is kind of rare to get invited to an authentic Shinto wedding. It was my second ceremony, but the first time for Suk. (The first wedding I attended resulted in d-i-v-o-r-c-e, so I didn't dare bring that to anyone's attention for fear of bring bad luck to the day, but how many times did people say to me, "Oh, it must be so interesting to experience this part of Japanese culture!" I wanted to say, "You tell me. Is it interesting?")

The ceremony took 40 minutes. There were two priests and an assistant. The young priest did all the work and then played some kind of flute during some parts. Oh my god...I much prefer Christian music with real words about eagles and mountains and ashes. I thought my ears were going to split in half. The old priest got up to do the most important parts of the ceremony, and every time he sat down, his stool would squeak like a loud fart. I wanted to die. (Another figure of speech which Japanese people do use all too often!)

After the ceremony, we noticed it had started to rain pretty hard. We were given umbrellas, and SIL and Sensei looked so cool sharing an umbrella. In Japan, sharing an umbrella with a lover is considered to be the ultra-romantic scenario. Plus, rain is good luck on your wedding day. (It rained on our wedding as well!)

Then, we went back to the waiting room and waited for about 90 minutes while SIL was changed into an orange kimono. They had to redo her makeup and hair, so it took a while. The mothers and Sensei changed into western clothes. Finally, it was time to eat lunch.

This is wear the story begins to get interesting, so I will continue in the next post.