Grant’s Wedding and Beyond
so, I wrote this like 2 weeks ago, but I haven’t uploaded it…Australia tomorrow!
Yikes, last blog was awhile ago I think. Well at least one of substance. But today I’m at a visit school without internet so instead of actually, planning for lessons next week, I’m just going to sit and write a lengthy blog about what I’ve been doing, which is pretty much nothing. Um, in the last blog I said I’d be going to
Tokyo, which didn’t happen, cuz I didn’t have the cash. I did go to the Global Citizen’s Festival. Here are the pics. Click here. I pretty much did nothing the whole day other than walk around and mess with kids and I was a lone dancer for an all girl Japanese punk band at one point, but none of the kids would dance with me. LOL.
And here are the pics from the Nagano soccer tournament, the video was in the last blog….face it I’m getting good a videos.
Above is the akabeko (link to what an akabeko is) the Fukushima team name. Aizu is an area of Fukushima prefecture.
And after that I went to Grant and Junko’s Wedding. Here’s the video, 2 parts.
The wedding was interesting to say the least. Seeing as everyone on the groom’s side had no idea what was going on, including the groom. Stand up, sit down, grant stands, junko stands, a bow here, a bow there. The video is long cause a lot of people didn’t end up going and I wanted to keep as much of the ceremony as possible in it. But man, it was hard/weird to try and record without looking like an ass. I think I got enough of it. But the whole room was SOO silent the whole time. Mo wouldn’t even turn on her camera because of the noise it made when it turned on. And because it wasn’t like a church style and more like…well, small stadium seating, junko’s family could shoot us dirty looks whenever we did something that you know, wasn’t correct. It was funny to watch an entire side of foreigners having no idea what was going on and trying to capture all of it while having some semblance of respect for the ceremony. To be fair, Grant had no idea what was going on either. Junko had to stand him up, sit him down and they had to tell him to drink the sake 3 times, as is custom, not just once. After the actual wedding was done with it was simple enough for us to follow along, cuz it turns out, Japanese wedding, totally different, Japanese reception…pretty much the same, but still a bit off. We all sat at really nice tables, the whole thing was really well done. BUT, the bride and groom make separate entrances…3 of them! First in their traditional kimono, grant’s alone was worth a million yen, about $10,000. Then people speak a bit and then we eat a bit. Then at some point they snuck out and BAM, another entrance, in western garb this time. It was weird that they had a spotlight on them the whole time as well as, you guessed it, a smoke machine at the door. Like a cross between a David Copperfield show and a wedding. Then at one point, they went around to each table and lit the candles on it. The significance of this? I have no idea, but then they lit a huge candle at the front which seemed to be a big deal…why? Once again, I don’t know. But, after the reception, at the 2nd party, where people who weren’t invited to the wedding proper were allowed to come along and join, we, the foreigners, knew what was going on. There was karaoke and drinking…that was easy. Although, I did make an ass of myself, by giving a terrible speech. Grant had told me that during the first reception I was to give a speech, so when his friends from back home started giving speeches I began to prepare by ordering a bottle of sake and drinking all of it, quickly. After which, I wasn’t even called on to give a speech. After that I thought I was in clear, but I was obviously a little bit too drunk. And in the 2nd party, I was asked to give a speech. A little too intoxicated at this point, I agreed and I remember it starting something like, “Grant is not a handsome man, Grant is not generally a smart man. Junko is awesome…best decision ever Grant….”
YIKES. At least everyone else at this point was hammered so it didn’t go over that badly. The bouquet toss was thrown…to the men…and then we headed out to the 3rd party at a piano bar, which was a lot of fun. And obviously there was a 4th party at a bar we frequent when in Koriyama. I got back to where we were all crashing around 4:30 or 5am.
Other than that, I went to the fire festival…for the 3rd time.
In total senpai (senior) fashion. Didn’t take the train with anyone else, drove down, stayed for like 2 hours, then drove home. Didn’t go out and party with everyone else, didn’t even drink a drop. Here are the pics, I think I took a total of like 14, if u want to see more, then go back through the pictures. Since I’ve been back I’ve been out drinking a total of like 4 times! How adult of me! Um, so that was in the beginning of November and since then, I really haven’t been up to much, trying to save for my Australia Trip.
I’m leaving on December 20th, flying to the Gold Coast, then staying there with Moody’s family until the 27th. Then we’re going to fly to Melbourne and I’ll be there till January 3rd and then I’m going to Sydney with Bryn, another JET friend who lives in Melbourne. I come back on January 9th (the Friday) just in time to snowboard for the long weekend, Saturday, Sunday, Monday.
Speaking of snowboarding, I’ve already been 3 times this season and I’m going again this weekend and next weekend. AWESOME!! Other than that, I got nothing going on.
There is a bonenkai (end of the year party) tonight for Higashi, which I’m attending and probably getting quite intoxicated at and maybe I’ll make a video of it cuz they always do the most ridiculous stuff. The other day, a JTE asked to borrow a pair of my sunglasses cuz some teacher is dressing up like Jacku Bawau from twenty foouuur. So that should be um…interesting. Well, that’s it for now and I feel like I’ve at least written something substantial for once. This is the first one I’ve written that’s you know, got stuff in it since April…YAY ME!
