We had our wedding photo shoot on Sunday. The kimonos were very impressive, one was red and one was white. And then there were the two wedding dresses, one was a traditional white dress and one was green. Rie was really happy with the make-up that went along with the kimonos, as she has been telling everyone. Some unofficial photos

[qdig path=wedding-photo-shoot]

I didn’t actually take very good photos but then again that wasn’t my job on the day. The official photos should be ready before we leave for the UK. The total cost of the wedding photos? I don’t know as Rie’s parents are kindly paying for it but I know that it is a rather large fee.

And then on Monday we had the second of our house warming parties. We had two because it was difficult to accommodate everyone. From the two parties I discovered a few differences between our cultures. The first one we had was last Sunday, and from that one I learnt that a house-warming party means something different to me than it does to Rie. She (and apparently her friends) were expecting a dinner party like event. For me a house warming party means drinks, snacks and chatting. She got into a bit of a tiss about not preparing enough food…

Well that was the last one. The one this Monday was definitely a house-warming party the way it should be, drinks, snacks and chatting. It had to be because although we did prepare some food there was no way we could have prepared dinner for the 30+ guests that turned up. All at the same time! That’s where I learnt the second difference between our two cultures. Most of the guests this time were Japanese. When I sent out the invitations I said come any time between 7-10pm I didn’t expect that most of them would turn up at 7pm. Back home people would turn up through the night.

It was get fun though, about half of the guests were my ex-students. It was really really great to see them again. I felt genuinely touched that they came. As someone else said “they are good people”. I just feel a little regret that I didn’t have enough time to talk to them all for as long as I would have liked and I am sure Rie felt the same.

If anyone who came is reading this, Rie wants me to mention that the reason the water in the aquarium is a yellowish-green colour is because we put in some medicine. There was a fish that was poorly. Thanks to the medicine and also the water heater we added to the aquarium all the fish are really genki now.

And last but not least: “kite kurete arigatou!”