My post was too late for the 4th… oh well. But at least I celebrate on the 4th here. I bought a beer and some fireworks, and went down to the river with Hitomi, and sang the national anthem until a jogger ran past and told us it was illegal to shoot off fireworks at the river. Oh well, we got a few good ones off beforehand.

I’ve been meaning to do a thorough wedding review, but haven’t found myself with any free time since… well, it’s hard to remember. Today was a big moving day. Hitomi and I packed up about half of all my possessions and took them to her house, and then relaxed for the first time in a thousand years on a beautiful, hot summer day. It was a wonderful weekend. So now, in my fairly barren room (and feeling kind of nostalgic back to when I first moved in here and there was nothing, and it was this hot) I have just a smidgen of free time to post some words.

The wedding was fantastic. Everyone was worried about the weather (and I mean everyone, even shopkeepers who I had mentioned the wedding to), as it was right at the start of the rainy season. But luckily, for the entire week, there was only 1 rainy day. We had hot, sweltering heat, but that’s easily manageable next to torrential rainy-season downpours.

My family arrived as planned the day before the wedding, my aunt and uncle 2 days before. They mainly rested in Osaka, which is good because I was worried about them getting lost or starving to death or something. Hitomi and I woke up around 4 am on Saturday morning to go drive down with her father in a minibus to get them from Osaka. It was a long drive both ways, but it was fun. Everyone was energetic and talkative, and we all had a good long chance to catch up. We ran into Hitomi’s uncle’s family by chance at a highway rest stop on the way back to Echizen, and they were really excited to meet everyone. That night we had a *huge* dinner at Hitomi’s parents’ house, with her whole extended family. I think my family was pretty shocked by it, but everyone on both sides had a wonderful time eating, and drinking, and eating, and talking, and drinking, and eating, and exchanging presents. Gary also played some Japanese tunes on the recorder, and mesmerized all the old men in the house with them.

The wedding day was wonderful. I slept plenty and then went to the salon to have my kimono put on. Erik came and filmed it all. We took taxis to Hitomi’s house, and met her family again. They were all dressed in kimonos, and Hitomi looked so beautiful in her wedding kimono. My family took some photos of the house and area, Hitomi and I posed for photos, and then she prayed to her family butsudan, then we all drove to Otaki shrine for the ceremony.

Everything happened so fast, and it was hard to believe it was happening, so my memory is a bit of a blur. The ceremony went well, but I was given 5 times as much sake as I was expecting to get, and so I fumbled a little bit when I read the (very long) Japanese wedding scroll. Also, my parents were unexpectedly asked to do part of the ceremony too, so I had to hunch behind them and translate what they were supposed to do. It wasn’t any problem, but it was funny. Halfway through the ceremony, Hitomi’s nephew started to snore, but it was so loud I thought maybe my uncle had fallen asleep… I wasn’t able to turn around to see though, so I didn’t know who it was until afterwards.

After the ceremony we split up into groups. Hitomi and I changed out of our kimonos and into our tux and dress, then took some photos, and went to Yumeya. The dinner was wonderful! We had met with the restaurant owner many times, and she was always sweet and helpful, and she told us she had confidence in her cooking… well she was right! It was a busy meal, though; we had lots of speeches to do, lots of presents to give. Gary and Dad did a wonderful recorder performance, and Erik gave a best man speech in Japanese which was really cool. Dad gave a really great speech too, and my friend Hiro translated it, though it was a very difficult speech to translate (Hiro did an amazing job carrying over the non-translatable subtleties into Japanese though). Unfortunately for me, I had forgotten my Japanese speech notes at home, so I couldn’t say exactly what I wanted to say to all of Hitomi’s family and had to do it off the top of my head. I did an ok job, but it was kind of sloppy.

After the wedding, a huge amount of stress had floated away. The next week of touring around Japan with the family was still a bit of a stress load, but nothing compared to the actual wedding.

We had a great time touring. The first day it was rainy (the only rainy day all week), but we were inside mostly, so it was fine. We went to the lacquerware village, the paper-making village, and a soba dojo, then to Fukui city, and while Hitomi had her braces re-put on, I gave a fast tour of Yokokan and the Fukui Castle ruins. Then we had some difficulty withdrawing money from the only international ATMs available… but we maanged ok. Afterwards we went home and my parents treated us and Hitomi’s family to conveyor-belt sushi.

The next day we had beautiful weather, and we went to Tojimbo and Eiheiji. I always love Tojimbo, but it was my first time to go in such gorgeous weather. It was really perfect. And the smell of the sea breeze mixing with the pines was just amazing. Eiheiji was nice, and though it’s not my favorite temple, it was the only really big temple we got to go inside of all trip, so it was a good experience. It was very peaceful and relaxing, and we could hear the monks ringing a huge brass bell, so that was pretty cool. That night we went to yakiniku to celebrate our last night in Fukui.

Then we headed to Kanazawa. It was roasting-hot, and we were all a bit sunburnt, but we had a wonderful walk around Kenrokuen, had tea in a teahouse there, and went inside Kanazawa castle. We took a long walk to Ninja-dera via Mr. Donuts, which everyone loved. Kanazawa still feels like a second home to me, so I was happy to visit again, though I have to say I like Fukui better now. After ninja-dera we drove to Awara city and stayed in one of the onsen hotels. It was my first time, as well as my whole family’s first time in an onsen hotel, and it was just fantastic. We all had private outdoor baths, and in the morning Erik and I went to the public baths again. It was the perfect way to relax after so much walking around.

The next day we went to Kyoto for two days. Again it was very hot, but luckily not rainy. On our first day we exhausted ourselves walking from Sanjuusangendo to Kiyomizu temple, to Maruyama park, to the Yasaka shrine, and finally Gion. By the time we got to Gion everyone was so exhausted that they couldn’t live their heads in time to see the maiko crossing the street. But it was fun anyway.

Our second day in Kyoto my mom was sick, so unfortunately she had to stay in the hotel and rest. The rest of us went to Fushimi Inari Taisha in the morning. We bought a yukata for my mom, and did the first small climb, after which we debated whether or not to continue for the whole mountain. None of us had worn bug spray and everyone but me was wearing shorts (I learned my lesson last time I went there) and had become a delicious meal for the mountain mosquitoes. Had we climbed further I think we’d have had little blood left for the descent. Plus, I really wanted to go on the our next stop, Uzumasa, and everyone relented to me happily. One day I plan to climb all of Fushimi Inari Taisha… just not during mosquito season. So we left there and took a train to Uzumasa Eiga Mura, the Toei Movie Studio amusement park (stopping at Gusto for a corn pizza lunch). I absolutely love Renaissance fairs, Colonial Williamsburg, and the like, so I was really looking forward to this place. It didn’t disappoint me at all! Every minute there was like a dream for me. I think everyone else had fun, but honestly, I didn’t notice because I was enjoying it so much. We saw a ninja show, went to the haunted house, and walked around the Showa- and Edo-period movie sets. We also saw all the super hero costumes (think Power Rangers) and watched a 3-D show which was delightfully cheesey. At the end of the day, Gary really wanted to get a costume photo, and I secretly did too, but thanks to Gary’s decisiveness we all went to the photo studio and shelled out big bucks for novelty photos. But at any price they were worth it! High quality costume shots that you definitely could not get anywhere else! First Gary took one, then Dad decided he wanted one too, then I finally convinced Hitomi to get one with me, and lastly Erik gave in and did one too. Sandra didn’t cave, but maybe next time… Anyway the photos were great, and I consider mine to be our second wedding shot. After going home, we still had a bit of energy. We ate dinner at an “Irish pub” and then Erik, Hitomi, and I went to karaoke. It was Erik’s first time to do Japanese karaoke and he had a lot of fun, and I had a lot of fun singing with him (Hitomi knows I always complain that I don’t have a fun partner to sing with), and Hitomi had fun watching two white men act like total nerds.

The next day we went to Nara. We were all exhausted and Hitomi had a bad fever. We went to Todaiji and were attacked by incredibly smart deer who could actually read hand singles (“Attack HIM! HE has the food!”) and knew when people were just walking around or about to buy food. Seriously, they were smart. And vicious. They must also have learned at some point that biting people holding food makes them give it to them faster, out of fear, and so that’s exactly what happened when we bought the food. And their heads are right at, uh… crotch level, so those were not bites I was willing to test my luck with. When you had no food the deer were as passive as stuffed animals, but once you had a deer senbei, they were bucking and butting, biting and nuzzling like a herd of… animals. Anyway, it was a fun experience. When we got to Todaiji, we were definitely amazed by its size. It is seriously impressive! But we were just worn out. So we went and had lunch at a Japanese cafe with poor food and rude staff. Most of us returned to the hotel and slept all afternoon, but Gary and Sandra, true travelers, went out for more sightseeing. Hitomi and I conked out for a whole 3 hours before it was dinner time. We went to an izakaya and had some yakitori, which my family tolerated fairly well.

Our final full day we went to Himeji. It was a very long trip, but the train ride was easy enough. Himeji was probably the hottest day. Oh man was it hot! But the castle was worth it. I love castles, and I had been wanted to see Himeji Castle ever since coming here — especially since it’s going under reconstruction for 5 years starting this month. It was just so impressive! Huge, commanding, beautiful. Unfortunately pretty crowded too. But I absolutely loved it. And luckily the inside of the castle was quite cool and refreshing. After the castle we went to Kokoen, the gardens next door. They were really really pretty, but we were all just too hot and tired (or at least I was, and Hitomi was still feverish) to enjoy it fully. But it was a great day anyway. We rode back to Osaka this time, carrying our ridiculously heavy baggage (plus mandatory souvenirs for all of our coworkers, as is required by Japanese law) on the cramped local train the whole way back.

In Osaka we went out to our final dinner, Japanese food, and to karaoke one last time (this time everyone went). We said goodbye to Gary and Sandra that night and to my family in the morning. It was a really fun trip and Hitomi and I were both so happy to have 5 of my family members there, and be able to tour around for a week. I couldn’t have hoped for a better week, though it wore us both out.

Last week I caught the fever that Hitomi had in Nara/Himeji. But I only have one week of work at my company left, and nothing could get me down at the thought of that. Even the horrifying prospect of being unemployed with no visible sources of income for perhaps many months can’t damper the joy that thought brings me. Maybe I’ll feel different next week… but for now, even the strain of packing and moving is not enough to tire me out. However, it is bed time.

Courtesy of UNIQLO.

Where did the time go?

Yikes!

Well, as you can see, some time in the past couple of weeks I did roll out a new site design, though it’s different from what I had been working on before. I like this one, but it’s only about half-way finished. That is, it works, and it’s on the right track to where I want it to go, but it still needs a lot more personalization to reach what I want. I’m afraid it will stay like this for a while, though, until at least after the wedding.

I can’t believe how fast things are going. We’re mostly set with the wedding plans and travel plans now, though there are a few more tasks to finish. Last weekend we had Aeon’s BBQ party at Katsuyama, like the one we had last year in August. It was fun and exhausting, as expected, and fortunately the weather was much cooler this year. Other than that, my life has been utterly consumed by work, as it has for about half of my stay here in Japan… I’m really looking forward to ending that and actually being able to look for art-related work, actually have time to paint, and energy to do *something* after work. It’s really scary at the same time, but above all it’s going to be a huge relief. Only a few weeks left!

I had my final study meeting yesterday at work. And I’m at the point where classes are almost a count down. Roughly 7 weeks are left. Some weeks fly by fast and other plod along so slowly it’s ridiculous. Today also marks 1 month of Hitomi and I being married. Wow!

I’m in the process of looking for a new job, and drafting out a plan for the next year or two that I can hopefully stick to as a self-made goal. I’m going to need some serious self control and discipline if I’m going to be able to get a productive amount of artwork done. It’s daunting I think, but not impossible.

Scott Hanselman’s Computer Zen – FizzBin – The Technical Support Secret Handshake.

This is just awesome and has to be shared.

May is an awesome month. The flowers here are so fragrant, and the temperature is perfect. It’s the kind of weather where you can be comfortable in any kind of clothes, you can leave your windows open, and you don’t have to use any heating or AC. The days are longer, the sun is warmer, and the wind is just cool enough, not cold. Very nice. It’s also now five years since I did my homestay in Kanazawa. So the smells of May in Hokuriku really take me back to that month. Of course, I probably wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t had such a wonderful time on my homestay. Yay for May in Japan!

I mentioned how last month I was furiously working away on the wedding invitations. After making and sending them all I realized I didn’t make an extra for us to keep, or at least to scan… but I do have the digital files of the images. They look OK on the screen, I think, but they were really intended to be printed on Japanese paper, so the effect isn’t quite the same. On the rough, handmade paper with tons of little fibers and pigments in it, the pictures looked really nice, I think. But here it is anyway just to show:

Irises

The irises were printed in the corner of the envelope, which had a dyed gradient across it.

Otaki Shrine

This was the main invitation. It’s very dark because it was printed to go underneath a piece of vellum-like washi which had the text and information on it; it was sort of a backdrop piece. Anyway, this is the big, ancient shrine in the mountains where we will be married.

Pi-chan

It’s Pi-chan, of course! She was printed on the RSVP return postcards.

Anyway, these images don’t really do justice to the whole piece, which turned out to have a very cool handmade wedding feel to it. I’m really happy with how it turned out.