Cherry Blossom Adventures

Tomorrow I will have been back in Japan for two weeks- it seems like longer because in that time so much has happened- I have caught up with friends, Shun has returned to work, I have started looking for work myself and much more. A bit of an update is needed I think…

• Since Shun works all day and I don`t go out everyday (I try to get out of the house at least for a walk or a trip to the coffee shop each day though, if I have no plans) I have become addicted to Gossip Girl. I watched the first season when I was in Japan last time (thank god for torrents) and I have the second season on the go this time. Sure it is trashy but I can`t help but become addicted.
• As the Gossip Girl addiction is evident, I do know that I need to find something to keep me busy and I have been looking for work. I want to find a part-time job or even a few private students to keep myself busy but it is proving a little difficult. I spoke with a friend over the weekend and she said she would let me know of any international schools she heard of that are looking for summer school teachers. I wouldn`t mind working full time for a month or so even if I did have to travel into the city. Would be just nice to be doing something. I also need some private students- I am working on a mini poster to put up around this area and have signed up for a couple of private student sites but so far not too much luck. I have been filling in some of my extra time with study- see, my Japanese is quite crap. A year away obviously did nothing for it and my level has definitely gone down hill. My biggest problem is kanji and reading- no matter how many kanji I study I seem to forget them within five minutes so I am trying to work on that!!! Any hints are welcome!
• Last weekend Sarah & Nay came to visit me here in Chiba- It was great to meet up with both of them again and this was the first time all three of us had gotten together at the same time. We speak a lot on Skype, and I have met them both before (and Nay came to the wedding!) but as I said it was the first time for all three of us to be together- funny thing was it didn`t feel strange at all- in fact it felt like we had all been together many times before. We had a great time chatting and catching up, doing a spot of shopping and meeting up with Khea for lunch at Ueno on the Monday. It was my first time to meet Khea and she was adorable! I hope to meet up with her again soon for coffee since we are reasonably close to each other. Our bubs will be 4 months apart too so as they get a bit older I am sure they will be able to play with each other!
• This weekend coming I am heading to Niigata to see Sarah and Ryohei! Shun will come up on the Saturday and so will Nay & Naoki. I am interested to see the rice paddy that Sarah has been living on . I am going up on the shinkansen on the Friday afternoon and Sarah will meet me at her local train station. I have all my train transfers written down in my little book so hopefully I won`t get loss (Sarah laughed at me when I asked which exit to meet her at- since there is only one. I can`t help it- some of the big Tokyo stations have 5 or 6!)
• Shun and I had a busy weekend- on Saturday he went to his friend`s wedding reception while I met up with some friends in Jigyuoaka for lunch- we had a BBQ planned but the weather was not very kind. I do hate rainy season! We went to a place that did curry (I should of known from the start this was a bad idea- goma-chan does not like curry!)- and their specialty was yaki-curry which was basically like a curry pie with rice on the bottom the curry, lots of vegies and fruit (it had pineapple and banana) with egg and cheese on top- it sounds disgusting right? That is why I didn`t get it but Junni, Hiro and Cat did and they thought it was great- I stuck to the normal beef curry while Sumi had the soup curry. It was really yummy, but unfortunately it did make me sick.   After saying goodbye to my friends I went to Ebisu for the wedding “nijikai”- basically in Japan you have a ceremony and reception and at that reception are your family and work collegues and the reception only goes for about 2 or 2.5 hours. Shun went to that part as well since he is one of Toshi`s closest friends but in most cases wives/gf`s/partner`s are not asked to attend. The “nijikai” is what happens later, usually on the same day later in the afternoon or night and it is like a second party/reception where all the friends come. There were about 80 or 100 people at the nijikai. It was a lot of fun- usually there is food, drinks, games and maybe some singing. We sang the couple a song. It seems a bit strange but it was a lot of fun. Shun and I decided not to have a “nijikai” when we returned to Japan although we have been asked when it will be. Basically because we had a surprise engagement party last May before I went back to Australia which was kind of like a “nijikai” since there was food, drinks, games and a slideshow of pictures of us growing up and also wedding cake. It seems to be the year of weddings this year for Shun`s friends- he was the first, now Toshi and Kenta and Shin have wedding ceremonies later this summer.
• Yesterday we had a wedding party thing for Shun`s extended family- only Shun`s parents, brother and sister and law and grandmother made it over for our wedding so I had to be “introduced” to the rest of the family so 20 of us met yesterday at a Chinese restraunt. Basically it was just eating and drinking and chatting and family gave us “gifts” and Shun`s father showed them wedding photos. It was fun and not nearly as bad as I had imagined. Nobody cared that I didn`t speak keigo, a polite form of Japanese so I was fine. There was a lot of talk about whether goma-chan will look like Shun or I and whether it would be a girl or a boy- so far there are two great grandchildren on Shun`s father`s side of the family and two great grandchildren on the other side of the family. On the father`s side, Shun`s grandmother has two great grandson`s and she would really like this one to be a girl so she can dress it in kimono. On the otherside, Shun`s grandparents have passed on and I don`t think anyone really minds but so far there are two girls on that side. We will have to wait and see!!!
• Shun and I have pretty much decided on baby names we think- we have a couple for each sex that we are pretty set on so I think we have our names decided- I am one of those people that thinks you have to see the baby first before deciding on a definite name though so we will have to wait and see!!! We have kanji picked out for two of the girl`s names and one of the boy`s names- I have no idea if they are “lucky” kanji or not though!
• I have been living with the in-laws now for almost two weeks and so far it is not going too bad- Shun and I plan to look for our own place in July and hopefully move out by the end of July or start of August. I have lived with my in-laws before. When I first returned to Japan just before my 21st birthday I lived with Shun`s family for six weeks until I found my own place and moved out- Shun stayed here for two months and then ended up moving into my tiny 1K in Kichijoji with me. Then again, before I moved back to Australia I stayed here for about 3 or 4 weeks and each time I stay it gets easier and easier. MIL gives me my own space- I am allowed to come and go as I please with no explanations and I take care of my own breakfast and lunch and I usually help her with dinner or at least with setting the table and getting everything ready. I do my own washing, but she does Shun`s works clothes (and irons them- i refuse to iron and only buy clothes that don`t need ironing)….When Shun & I live by ourselves he does not wear a suit to work but when he lives here he does so if she wants to iron and wash the white shirts that is fine by me. I would make Shun iron them himself if he wanted to wear a suit to work when it was just the two os us- I used to just take a couple to the dry cleaners before he would need them for weddings or on days he had meetings because they would come back pressed- that was my idea of ironing. Haha. So yeah- living with the in-laws not so bad. The only issue I have (actually there are two things) is that we don`t really have our own space to unpack stuff and I can`t really do any cooking which I miss. The second issue is the family dog. See it hates people that are not blood relatives. I am serious- it hates ALL people. Sarah and Nay will confirm as they had the pleasure of meeting the little monster. So every time I go downstairs the dog barks and snarls at me- Shun`s parents scold it etc but it makes no difference. As soon as I sit down, it is fine- in fact it likes me then and comes up to me if I am eating toast cos it knows I will give it some of the crusts. It is just evil though- and it is annoying to have to stay upstairs most of the time cos the dog goes crazy. I miss Abbey- Abbey was crazy but at least she loved me!
• Oh in other news- I did an early tax return and got a stack of tax back- I don`t know why but when I checked our Aussie bank balance today I was pleasantly surprised!!! Thank you ATO. At this stage that money is going to stay in there since it is connected to my credit card anyway AND I think the exchange rate is just going to get better and better (I hope!) so we might just leave it in there for now unless we really need it!
• Well this update turned out a bit longer than i expected- and if you got this far- good on you and I give you and A+ for effort! Hopefully now, I will find my blogging groove and get back into staying on top of the updates. Oh what am I saying, I doubt that will happen.

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Well I am finally, finally, finally doing a proper wedding post! I managed to upload some photos to flickr (not as many as I would of liked but I am sure that there is only so many wedding photos people want to look at) and to facebook. So thought it time I post some pictures here as well…

First though, I want to say thank you to all of those that commented on my last post and offered up congratulations and their opinions on goma-chan`s sex. Also sorry to Heather, Nay & Gaijinwife`s whose comments somehow ended up in my spam folder but I have now rescued them!!

It has been more than three weeks since Shun & I married- hard to believe since the time has flown by! We had such a magical day and we really couldn`t of asked for a nicer wedding day. I think everyone had a great time and I think the best thing was that the Aussie guests and international guests all got on so well despite the language barriers that many of them faced. Everybody was snapping away, taking photos (and yes, both Shun & I admitted our faces got sore from all that smiling) and enjoying themselves.

I started the day at my mother`s- we got up early to a bit of a breakfast buffet (as in my, Cat, Erika & my Thai friend Panni as we all stayed at mum`s the night before- Mandy, another bridesmaid arrived around that time also) before heading to get our hair and make-up done (and mum took Panni & Erika to the wedding place).

The day went by quite fast, as most say it does, but I got to enjoy most of it (and goma-chan gave me a break and I did not throw up on my wedding day- WOOT!) and managed to get around to speak to most people who had come to share our special day!

The photographer met the boys at the hotel (also where the ceremony and reception were been held) to take some photos there first before coming to mum`s place.

Then onto mum`s place to take photos of me and the girls and also a couple with my parents.

Arriving at the venue… (in Rolls Royces!)

Saying our vows and signing the certificate

Everyone who made it

Shun & I with his family

Shun & I with my family

With friends

Wedding party shots down by the beach…

Now the important part- THE CAKE!

Those edible people on top- those are Shun & I!

There are quite a few more shots over at flickr- and when I get more time I will probably add more but due to the size of the professional photos it does take time.

The reception went well until about 11pm, by which time I was exhausted! Some of the guests, who were staying at the hotel, partied on until morning. Many of the boys from Japan flew out on the Sunday morning (their taxi came at 4:45am), two of whom had only been in the country for 24 hours. We were so lucky that a lot of our friends from overseas and interstate could make it over for the wedding!

My bridesmaids, (and Shun`s groomsmens of course) did a wonderful, wonderful job. Shun & I are so lucky to have such wonderful friends, we really are. Catherine & James both made speeches- James, being the best man, put in a lot of jokes but he pulled it off okay (and I take my hat off to him because he translated the whole thing as he went and most of the jokes came across loud and clear to the Japanese that were there!). Cat,  also gave a lovely speech, which nearly made me cry (in fact I may have dropped a tear or two-nothing compared to her though!)- she spoke about her own parents who are also in a mixed marriage and how they had made their life work so well.

My father gave the first speech, and while he was incredibly nervous he did very well. He thanked Shun & I for putting up with him for this last year (and how me moving to Japan at 19 caused an international disaster when I met Shun!). Shun`s father, also gave a wonderful speech, in both English in Japanese, that he had been practicing for several months I think.

Shun also spoke- thanking the bridesmaids, and all our friends and family who came for the special occasion, many of whom had to travel. He also talked about how lucky he was to have met me (Awwwwww!).

There was a lot of dancing- and Shun & I danced to “Song bird” by Eva Cassidy (but the band sang it) for our first song. If you don`t know it- here is a youtube version.

I have to say, that for a wedding day, I think one of the most important things is for the bride and groom to have a good time and Shun & I can both say we had a faboulous day- we really really could not have asked for a more perfect day to celebrate our love and marriage.

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