Ok, first some of Yamamoto-san's pictures from the fitting. Note the white gloves.
They tried valiantly to fit Vivi's stubby toes into her Japanese sandals.
So blonde. Such cuties!
This was when they were done and taking everything off and I could breathe again! Little did I know how grateful I would be for the many layers on the actual weekend of the event . . .
Our "wedding weekend" began Friday night in Miyajima. We loaded up the car and met Yamamoto-san (center--he's the painting supervisor at the clinic) and Takemoto-san (right--the photographer) for a Japanese style dinner at a hotel.
Then we got on the ferry and they took us to a guest house in Miyajima to stay the night.
We gave our kids a bath in the Japanese tub and put them to bed.
Then we locked them in the room and went to a different part of the hotel to practice the ceremony. Our "rehearsal dinner."
We could not understand a word of it, but there certainly seemed to be a lot to discuss.
We woke up early the next morning and ate the breakfast they'd gotten for us the night before (egg salad, ham and cheese, and pork cutlet sandwiches, rice balls with salmon in the middle wrapped with seaweed, and fruit).
Then we all got into the rental cars to head to the top of the mountain. We took a wrong turn along the way and one of the cars got stuck, so we had to get out while they un-stuck it. It reminded me quite a lot of our Boundary Peak adventure . . .
We met this very interesting and long earthworm while we waited. I thought it was a snake at first. Maybe it was! We're still not sure.
After we got the cars to a good stopping place, we put the kids in the hiking backpacks and proceeded up the stairmaster trail to the top of Mt Misen. It had snowed the night before so there was snow on the ground in some places.
But a beautiful day in spite of the cold! I love my iPhone camera . . .
Takemoto-san took a few pictures of us on the way up as well.
At the top they let us go to the bathroom (Japanese squatty potty style porta-potties with no toilet paper = not very fun) and rest for a minute. We said hello to the deer.
Then they ushered us into a small building where they had a little space heater set up and all their equipment (which I assume they had brought up on the tram that goes up the mountain) and started getting us ready. There were two ladies in charge of us--they got us dressed and did my hair and makeup. I had to wear a wig for the ceremony so they fitted me with this snug cap to keep my hair out of the way.
We did a quick run through in "costume" and then it was on to the main event! We walked across the courtyard to where they had the ceremony set up in front of the shrine.
Then we listened to this monk chant and beat his drum. Rafe was transfixed!
We wondered if the monk was perpetually cold. His robes did not look very thick.
After that we poured boiling water into the tea kettle using the special ladle.
The tea master then made the tea with green powder. They brought over sweets that I think are supposed to counteract the bitter taste of the tea.
And they brought the tea over for us to "drink" in a beautiful cup. Yamamoto-san had explained to them that we don't drink tea, so they told us to just pretend. It looked very green.
Then we stood up and they presented us with an envelope that contained our vows that they had written for us. They wanted us to read them aloud. It was something about making a happy and loving family and promising to adore each other. Vivi seemed skeptical.
Then they brought out our rings on a pillow.
And we both tried to ram rings onto cold stiff fingers in a loving, graceful way :)
And then they told us to kiss. When we practiced the night before, they told us our kiss was WAY too long. We went for a quick peck.
And we were married! And our children were miserable . . . It was SO cold, they were just crying until Yamamoto-san gave them Japanese candy.
This plaque was in front of the shrine. I'm not sure why, but it seemed fitting to have a wedding at the "Lover's Sanctuary."
After our wedding day pictures, they whisked me back to the room and put me in a different kimono and stuck a bunch of hair ornaments in my wig for more pictures. The Japanese people that happened to be hiking that morning and walked past were really excited about this outfit and kept shouting "Omedetou Gozaimasu!" (Congratulations!)
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| The women directed me to stand pigeon toed. I guess that's the way it's done here! |
Inside the shrine is Eternal Fire Hall.
It was smoky.
We took some pictures with the eternal flame that I'm sure were very symbolic.
Mostly I felt very ignorant and did as close to what I was told as I could manage with the language barrier.
One more thing with fire and ashes. I hope we did it right . . .
Then Drew got to take some SAMURAI PICTURES! I was laughing. A lot.
But I must admit Drew looks good with a sword.
What with his piercing blue eyes, and all.
The team bought the kids some play samurai swords to keep them occupied. They are surprisingly sturdy.
I was whisked away again for another wardrobe change. Vivien was a big fan of this one ("She is like a princess!"). They wanted to take the banners out of these pictures, but they were frozen into their supports.
Posed!
I have never seen anything like this hat before, and they didn't tell me what it was.
I was supposed to put my hands on the ground, but then my arms stuck out of the sleeves almost up to my elbows. The Japanese people all shook their heads. So, they let me put my hands on my lap instead. Too tall.
I thought this kimono was so pretty with the cranes on the bottom. It was just sheer and then they put the blue underneath it. Here's a picture of some of the people that were involved. There were more in the wings. We're not sure what everyone's job was.
When we were all done they tried to brush my hair out for me since it had gotten rather messy after the wig and the hat, but the more they combed it, the bigger it got. They looked at it kind of sideways, then I smiled sheepishly and stole Drew's hat.
We had another traditional Japanese meal with the whole team. They told the lady that owned the restaurant we had just gotten married, so everyone kept congratulating us, and probably wondering about our two kids . . . The lunch was kind of like a business meeting for them, where they discussed many things in Japanese while we muscled down our eel, intermittently thanking us profusely for our participation, and asking us if we knew anyone on the base who would like to have a Japanese style wedding. We took another picture.
As we were leaving, Yamamoto-san gave us this traditional envelope you give to people for their weddings. He said there was money inside for the tolls and gas. There was way more money in there than we spent on tolls and gas.
We left feeling somewhat exhausted. It's so hard to not be able to communicate with anyone, and then with the cold and the late night and the early morning and the general unfamiliarity of the whole event, we were ready to be home! At least we have a good story, and pictures to go with it.
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