A Japanese wedding

A Japanese Wedding


On October 13th, I attended a wedding of a friend of mine named Taichiro. A good month before that he invited all the ALTs to an engagement party to celebrate the wedding that was coming. The party itself was fun because he held it at George’s House, the place I met him. The owner, George, made a lot of food that I liked because he knew I was coming. No one else complained because how can you go wrong with chicken with fries? He also prepared some beef stuff (I don’t know what it is actually, but it was good).

Joe being amused by what the sign says.

Fast forward to the wedding day. We were told that it would be held at the community center in my town. Luckily for me, it’s a 5 minute walk. Around noon, all the ALTs headed there to meet with the guests from the actual ceremony (We weren’t invited to the wedding itself, just the reception.). We had to sign the guestbook and give our present to the lady in kimono handling the seating chart.


The present itself was something I had a slight issue with. We were told to cough up 20,000 yen for the wedding (which is about $200). The issue was I really didn’t know the guy and while it was fine inviting us and all, but $200?? I didn’t even give Matt that much on his wedding. Anyways, around 12:45 the wedding party came in and stood by the door to the hall, signaling people to start coming in. We had to bow to the groom’s parents, the groom, the bride, the bride’s parents, and the wedding party. I had back pains just walking into the room.


The table itself was already decorated and food was already out. We sat for another hour waiting for the guests to arrive and find their seats. The wedding started with opening ceremonies (the Japanese really love their need for customs). First it was a talk from the father, which was 30 mins, then the priest who did the ceremony, another 30 mins. Then it was the bride’s father, then some other people I don’t know. Basically it was another hour and a half of watching my food sit there taunting me.

As with all Japanese food, I didn’t know what I was eating. I knew there was a potato dish there, and salmon. I think there was also roast beef as well. However everything else was a mystery. There was some yellow stuff in a bowl, as well as sushi and sashimi. I gave those to Andrea in exchange for the potato stuff. There was also lots of alcohol. Considering it was a Sunday, I didn’t drink very much knowing that I had to come into work on Monday.



The main attraction to having a reception in the community center was the stage. They performed a whole lot of stuff for the wedding. I watched everything from Taiko to some guy hitting a dragon with ferns. There was also a comedy sketch where his friends were talking about his bad habits and casting it away in a box. It was very funny. George also played his guitar, as well as Mayumi (my piano teacher) playing in the background. Our table was the drinker’s table, considering that’s how we all met Taichiro.

The wedding was over by about 5, with most of the party going to the nomikai (2nd party) at George’s House. However, I was already tired, full, and sleepy to be going to another party. I went home and enjoyed the party gifts he gave us.

Sports Day 08

Sports Day 08

I spent this year’s sports day at my north school. It was scheduled to happen Sunday, but due to the weather, it was bumped to Monday. I left my apartment at my usual time to find a lady trying to get into my taxi. After a few awkward minutes standing there, the taxi driver politely told the lady that it was reserved for me.

It takes a good thirty minutes to drive there, and I arrived to a school already bustling with activity. There were students everywhere doing whatever job was assigned to them. I saw a few tending the field, a few tending the tents; others were running back and forth getting various things from inside the school. There were a couple teachers acting as traffic cops directing them to their various locations. The weather was good today, no rain, not hot (yet), and a cool breeze from the ocean.

I entered the busy office with “Good Mornings” from teachers running by to finish up loose ends. For all that planning they were doing before, it seemed like they were rushing to get things done. The whirlwind commotion finally stopped about 8:30 when all the teachers sat down for the morning meeting. It mostly consisted of who was supervising what events for the day. Meanwhile, I was checking my email, Facebook, wiki’ing various topics throughout the entire meeting. At 9am, they finally started the Sports Day.










The event started with the Vice Principal (Kyoto sensei) announcing the opening of the games. He was soon followed by the students marching in and marching a lap around the field. They formed their lines in the center of the field as the team leaders were called to the front. The leaders recited a pledge to try hard, keep fighting, and all that motivational stuff. Shortly after, the Principal (Kocho sensei) made a short speech about the history of the sports day and its importance in the school. The whole opening took about an hour. In that time, it started to get hot and I was standing right in the sun.



The games began with the sprints, and the entire morning was all relays and various distance races.





One of the more interesting events was a game in which a person walked on top of their teammates’ backs. They proceeded for about 20 yards then coming around a cone. It was funny to see the teammates scrambling to get in front of each other so that the person on top could walk. It reminded me of the scene in 300 where Xerxes came to meet Lionides for the first time and having his slaves get down and act like steps.



Another interesting race in the morning was the caterpillar race. The students would gaher in teams of five and tie their ankles together. There were many types of this game throughout the day, but this one involved the most people in a single team.

The final two events of the morning had me playing in them. The first one was rolling a tire frame with a stick 20 yards and back. I have never done anything like this before, so I was the slow one. At one point, someone yelled “Show us your American Power”. At this point, I was thinking “We already showed you that power, atomic power.” I chuckled to myself as I slowly finished the race, which surprisingly wasn’t in last place.

The other game I was involved in was a “catch” game. A student would launch a ball from a distance and me catching it with a basket behind my back. This was a similar game I played last year at Uonome Jr. High school; the only difference was that instead of bouncing it off the ground, it was launched from a student. I managed to catch it on the 2nd try, but our group was the 3rd from the last to finish. After that event we had lunch.

At lunch, all the students ate outside in the tents with their friends and family. The teachers were in the teacher’s office eating ordered bentou from the supermarket. I brought my own lunch because they didn’t inform me on anything concerning lunch (people not telling me stuff, what a surprise). We spent a good hour before starting the afternoon activities.




The afternoon games had fewer races and more games. The first game after lunch was my favorite, the tire wrestle contest. Tires of various sizes were setup in the middle of the field. Two teams would line up on opposite ends facing each other. I could see the students planning which tire to get as they pointed with their grip gloves and whispering on strategy. The gun went off and they all scrambled like jailbreak prisoners to the tire. The chaos of it all was very funny. There were students being dragged by the opposing team while holding on to a tire. There were some tires that had no fewer than 15 children trying to drag it to their side. The most memorable one was a girl being dragged as she called for help around her. Like ants, her teammates came and dragged it across the field back to their side.










After the tire race was the gymnastics exercise. The students would get in various formations, such as pyramids and body displays, such has the human fan. It was very interesting, knowing that they had practiced it for a long time but I’ve never seen them practice.





The cheers came after the gymnastics. The teams did their own cheers to music and choreography. Even the PTA got involved in their own. The PTA had a game in their cheer where some of them would read a clue and then proceed to the crowd for their help. Some things I saw was “Get a pair of glasses”, “Give these flowers to random people” and “Find someone who does this job”. The PTA were also dressed in cosplay stuff. I saw so many men in dresses that I question this island sometimes…


The final event of the day was the Relay Race. This relay race had every student running, and everyone cheering. All the people who were sitting down for most of the day were up on their feet cheering their hearts out. All the kids ran so hard, some falling after passing the baton to their teammate. I guess this is the race that counts.

All in all, it was very fun. I enjoyed being involved with the students again. It was nice to see something that you don’t see in America. I wonder if it’ll be my last sports day.