Keisuke’s and Yukie’s Wedding

The wedding yesterday was so much fun! Tatsuya’s friend who got married is named Keisuke (pronounced kay-skay… you’re welcome, Mom and Dad.) They met when Tatsuya was an exchange student at Eastern Washington University (also where he met me!) Keisuke became one of Tatsuya’s best friends, along with his other close friends, Yamato and Masa, who were also Japanese EWU students. However, halfway through the school year, Keisuke decided he didn’t like Eastern, so he transferred to a language school in Los Angeles. It was there he met his future wife, Yukie (Yoo-kee-eh), who was one of his classmates. And because Tatsuya and I started dating seriously around the time Keisuke left, the four guys previously made a promise to attend each of each others’ weddings. So, as it happened, Keisuke took the plunge first.

The morning started off a bit rocky though. We planned to wake up at 6am so we could get showered and dressed, then catch a train from Higashi-Funabashi to Tokyo station, where we would meet Yamato and Masa, and all together ride the Shinkansen down to Shizuoka. I set the alarm on my cell phone, and doubled checked that it was set. (Can you see where this is going?) Yes, for some reason that I still can’t figure out, the alarm shut itself off, so Tatsuya and I slept in an amazing two and a half hours late!

We got ready as fast as we could to try and catch a 10:03 shinkansen that would get us to the 11:30 kekkon-shiki just in time. However, I had misunderstood Tatsuya’s Japanese when he told me the time we had to catch the train (I thought he said 10:30 instead of 10:03) so I probably didn’t light the fire under my butt as soon as I should have. We left the house at 9:20… and seriously, it was like a movie. We just managed to reach the shinkansen ticket counter right at 10:03. If we had gotten there even five minutes earlier, we probably could have made it. Ouch. And the next train to Shizuoka was a slower one which would leave at 10:26, arriving around 12:00. The invitation said the reception started at 12:30, so at this point we had to resign ourselves to the fact that we would miss all of the shiki. Major bummer. I think we kept our cool pretty well, all things considered, but it was somehow decided that everything which had happened up to this point was my fault, so I pretty much spent the entire 90-minute train ride in tears. Though I think if anyone deserved to cry, it was Tatsuya. We were late for his best friend’s wedding!

ANYWAY, aside from the morning dramatics, we finally reached our destination, and had a great time. And it really was a gorgeous wedding. They had a Western-style wedding, held at a wedding hall which had the chapel, the reception hall, changing rooms for the bride and groom, an outdoor courtyard, etc. all in one place. The site is also employed with staff who wait on the bride, groom, and wedding guests. Pretty convenient, don’t you think? To be sure, I haven’t been to a lot of American weddings recently, so it’s a bit hard for me to compare the two, but there are a few particular structural differences. At a Japanese wedding reception, there is typically a shikaisha, which my dictionary translates as a moderator, or master of ceremonies. Basically, she stands at a podium and announces each new activity on the event program, while narrating everything along the way (…And now it’s time for the bride and groom to share a drink…! Now the bride will present a special surprise gift for the groom…! Now we will watch a slide show…! Now it’s time to get up and go to the courtyard where the bride and groom will cut the wedding cake…! and so on.) For me, I felt a bit like we were all being micromanaged, down to the last detail. We couldn’t exactly relax, because we always had to be on our toes, waiting for the next thing to happen.

The food was delicious though, and of course I got some good pictures out of it all.

My assigned seat– I sat with Tatsuya, Yamato, Masa, and then one of Keisuke’s childhood friends, along with his wife. Each of our places had a card with our name on it and a personalized, hand-written message from the bride and groom. They wrote mine in English! :)

Tatsuya and Yamato!

Yamato and Masa!

Presenting the bride and groom! (I should note here that is NOT Yukie’s wedding dress. That is her reception gown. In Japan, the bride and groom typically change clothes several times throughout the day… something different for each stage of the wedding day. I’d say Keisuke and Yukie each had about four different outfits in total. This is a good reason why Japanese weddings are so expensive!)

BEAUTIFUL, STUNNING, ETC.

All of us!

While the guests had a chance to take a breather and eat our food, the bride and groom went away to change clothes. Presenting the bride and groom again, now in traditional Japanese wedding clothes!

Tatsuya and his buddies!

Tatsuya and me!

Cutting the wedding cake! It’s decorated like the American flag because they met in America! Aww.

The parents of the bride and groom take a bite first…

…And then the bride and groom themselves!

When it was Yukie’s turn, she forked up the largest chunk of cake possible, and tried to shove the whole thing in Keisuke’s mouth. Note her feral expression, as well as the looks of horror and disbelief on her parents’ faces :)

Yukie grins victoriously after establishing dominance in the relationship in front of all the wedding guests… hahahaha. Keisuke looks priceless here. Homeboy got owned.

Of course, if any of us felt downhearted that the tight wedding reception schedule kept us from visiting with our friends, or with the bride and groom, or just kept us from general eating, drinking and merriment, we wouldn’t have to worry. Because in Japan, that’s what the nijikai, or afterparty is for!

After the wedding reception, we hopped on a shuttle bus over to downtown Shizuoka, where we partied at an American-style restaurant bar (staying true to the “American” themed wedding). The place had the look and feel of somewhere perhaps like Applebee’s or TGI Friday’s. The food was similar, if not a bit Japanified.

Some of the food we had… taco salad, chicken wings, egg rolls, and veggies with dip, and marinated tofu.

Keisuke and Yukie welcoming us to the Nijikai! Now the fun really starts!

Pouring a champagne tower, setting a tone for the rest of the evening

The whole gang again! LOL at Yamato’s gangsta pose

The three dudes again… our table was so swamped with food and drinks because the wait staff kept bringing us stuff. As you can probably imagine, by this time I had myself a third trimester food-baby

They kept the fun going with various other nijikai activities. The bartenders put on a bottle-juggling show while they made cocktails for the bride and groom (I have pictures of those too, but I don’t think they came out very well), and then we had a raffle game where the guests received free prizes! One of them was two passes to Tokyo Disneland, which Tatsuya and I really wanted, but it ended up going to the wife of Keisuke’s childhood friend, who sat with us! Oh well, I guess they were technically in our circle, at least. But I got a prize too, I won a little bath set with fragrant salts and fizzies and whatnot.

However, that wasn’t the only thing I received there, because Keisuke and Yukie had a surprise for Tatsuya and me. At the end of the party, our names were called. We got up, and were then presented with a special bouquet and boutonniere from the bride and groom! They congratulated us on our engagement, and told us that we are next! I guess the pressure’s on, now!

Passing the torch

It was such a sweet gesture, coming from a couple I had only met that day! But Tatsuya told me that Keisuke has always been such a kind and thoughtful person… I guess we shouldn’t have been so surprised! (Boy, Tatsuya sure was though… the look on his face when they called his name was classic! The nijikai shikaisha was like, “Look at him, he’s so surprised! He can’t believe it!”)

Another Japanese wedding custom I forgot to mention before is the oshuugi-bukuro. This is a wedding gift of money that the guests give to the bride and groom. You can click on the link to see the specifics, but this gift ain’t cheap. It isn’t like America where it’s like, “here’s 50 bucks to buy yourselves a new toaster, or whatever.” No, depending on who we are and our relationship to the couple, we pay anywhere between 30,000-100,000 yen (which is the equivalent of $300-$1000, ignoring exchange values.) Tatsuya and I gave 50,000 yen, which is typical for a married couple to give… since, as an engaged couple, we are essentially married.

Now, you might be saying, “wow, the couple gets that much money from each guest?! Getting married in Japan is awesome!” On the other hand, remember all the stuff we did? All the places we went? All the food we ate? All the outfits they wore? The bride and groom would be lucky if they were able to recoup most of the costs for the wedding from the oshuugi-bukuro. But I guess for a new couple just starting out, every little bit helps, I guess!

Plus, as guests, we were definitely spoiled. We didn’t go empty handed, either. Everyone received wedding presents, and because Tatsuya and I got raffle prizes and also our special gift, we were carrying three bags of stuff on the train ride home! When I got home, I took a picture of our haul:

What we actually have is everything there times two, since Tatsuya and I each got our own bag of gifts. We also got to keep the centerpiece from our table at the reception:

Can you imagine the Japanese people at my table volleying back and forth, trying to defer ownership of the centerpiece to one another? Oh well, childhood-friend-and-wife got Disneyland passes in the end. I think I would’ve preferred that though. At least it gives the apartment a little bit of color and autumn cheer… don’t you think? :D

So all in all, it was a really good wedding. I really enjoyed meeting and spending time with Tatsuya’s buddies (funny though, except for Masa, I don’t really recall seeing them around the EWU campus much!) It was one of those moments where you stop and realize, “when did I become acquainted with such cool and interesting people?” When the four of us were taking the shinkansen back home, Yamato was telling us all about his training to become prosthesis specialist. Seriously, how awesome is that? While Masa on the other hand, is currently debating whether to go to graduate school for international relations (same as what I’m studying!) or get a job now. Even though I didn’t necessarily always understand the three boys’ conversations 100% of the time, I could just tell that their topics were so thoughtful and intelligent. Tatsuya’s friends are amazing… he is very lucky. And I feel lucky to be associated with them! I’m glad I can have fun with all of them again at Tatsuya’s and my own wedding. Whenever that will be. Hahaha.

~ by Elizabeth on October 12, 2009.