This post is way overdue, but I’ve been so busy and I didn’t get a chance to write it until today. Anyway, the big news is Hitomi and I are engaged! It happend on Valentine’s Day, though it was longer in planning.
In January, I went with my friend Minako to Fukui city and searched all over for an engagement ring. It was such a stressful experience coming up with a ring, a stone, and finding a price my poor self could afford. We went to 5 different stores, and the experience at the 3rd store was so tiring and difficult that I was ready to give up and buy the big rip-off they were offering me. But the 5th store we went to was wonderful and helpful, and I got the perfect ring for Hitomi at finally a reasonable price. I have to say though that none of it would have been even remotely possible without Minako’s help. It goes without saying she helped with translation, though I probably could have stumbled rudimentarily through that on my own, but she also gave me lots of advice, was a hand-model for me, and gave tons of support. Phew! Anyway, to go on…
The ring wouldn’t be finished until Feb. 14th, which was just perfect timing. So I took the day off work and didn’t tell Hitomi, planning on surprising her. Unfortunately, she got pulled into working on the 14th, so I had to alter my original plan, which was to hike up a mountain and give her the ring at the top at sunset. However, I was able, with the day free, to completely clean my house, buy some flowers and sushi, “cook” dinner (Kraft Mac’n'Cheese — her favorite), buy some presents, and otherwise make a very good atmosphere. When she came home she was really surprised, needless to say, and we had a great dinner and exchanged gifts. Afterwards, we drove up to the top of the same mountain, next to my house, and watched the night view of Echizen, which is surprising beautiful for such a rural area. I had planned a really nice speech in Japanese, but at the time I was too nervous and forgot most of it, so it ended up being much shorter. The ring was wrapped in a brown box so it looked like more Valentine’s chocolates, and it was great for surprising her. I suppose that’s the long and short of it.
The One Ring
So the next week, we went to Hitomi’s house and I did a very slightly formal asking of her parents for their daughter. Luckily they like me, and they’re not so formal, and they already had been expecting it, so it wasn’t scary… although I was still really nervous. Again I prepared a nice long beautiful speech in Japanese for them, and then forgot 1/3 of it while I was speaking. But I managed to do better than when I proposed to Hitomi, and everything went very well.
Since then things have been super busy. Hitomi was preparing for a study meeting in Tokyo this week, after which she will enter the hospital for a month for her jaw surgery. So we had to get a lot of stuff done before her admittance into the hospital. Working like monkeys on crack, we did most of my paperwork needed to marry over here, including registering my name in katakana instead of romaji, officially registering my hanko, and getting the forms which I need to take to the embassy as well as the official license forms. Also, she and her mom went out and spent a day visiting every wedding hall in the area, trying on kimonos, etc. And then yesterday the three of us went out again and finally selected the reception restaurant, reserved the shrine (we were lucky and got a beautiful, ancient shrine, which also happens to be Hitomi’s favorite shrine), picked out kimonos for both of us, selected Hitomi’s dress for afterwards, and more… I can’t even remember it all we were so busy. But we got a lot done and it’s much more relaxed now (except for the fact that she is going in for surgery now). We also managed to do it on a *very* tight budget, which is great, as weddings over here are Monopoly-man-expensive.
Anyway, that’s the news of Lake Wobegon. I have to get back to painting now… too much work to do!