Uncle Dave's wedding

The real purpose of our trip was to attend David and Harumi's wedding. We had a meet and greet brunch on Sunday. The food was fantastic. It was like a 10-course meal - all small portioned and beautifully arranged. Tesshin tried a few of the dishes. He especially liked the fish. There was about 20 of us (which included our family, Harumi's family and some of David's close friends from San Francisco) and it was nice because we all got along and it was great to see these two families blend toegther so quickly and easily. It also helped that there was alcohol involved. Afterwards most of the group went to Harajuku to check out the farmer's market and also to see all of the young people dressed in their crazy outfits (like the Gwen Stefani videos). Tessho's parents, Tesshin and I went back to the hotel to rest and plus, Tesshin was having diarrhea butt. Later that evening, our family went out for Yakiniku (Japanese version of Korean BBQ). That was really good. We stayed at the Dai-Ichi Hotel in Shimbashi. It was very nice.

Monday (Oct. 13) was the day of the wedding. This was also Tessho's parent's 35th wedding anniversary. I helped translate my father-in-law's speech into English. It was interested to hear that 35 years ago, when Tessho's parent's got married, David's parents stood beside Tessho's dad to represent the Aoyama family. 35 years later, Tessho's parents are standing beside David representing the Murata family. I think it was a proud moment for all of us to witness and be a part of.

The wedding was at 3:30pm. We started on the 4th floor. Had some cocktails and took pictures with the bride and groom. Then we moved to the 3rd floor where they had the ceremony. It was a Shinto type ceremony. This was my first time attending this type of wedding so it was very interesting and fun. They poured sake to all of the people attending and I finally learned exactly how much a person should get. I was asked to pour sake at Tessho's cousin's wedding. Looking back, I screwed up big time. Everyone must've gotten 10 times what really should've been poured. Oh well. After the ceremony, we had some more cocktails and then we went upstairs to the 21st floor for dinner. What an amazing view! A typical japanese reception will include hundreds of speeches. They had quite a few. Jeff made a speech but I missed it because of Tesshin's diarrhea butt (yes, he still had it on Monday). I was back at the room changing his clothes while Jeff was making his tear jerking speech. I'm so sad I missed it. Harumi changed from the traditional Japanese kimono to the Western style white wedding gown. She looked beautiful in both. There was no dancing but the party continued in David's room. I got to hang out this time since Tessho's mom babysat Tesshin for us. Overall, I think it was a great wedding. I know a lot of hard work and money went into this affair. I'm glad we were a part of it.