Shinto Wedding at Rokusho Shrine

I'd like to preface this with saying I successfully got rid of one bag of burnable trash today.  SO PROUD OF MYSELF.  Unless you've been in this situation yourself, it's probably a bit hard to understand how I felt about it.  XD

Sunday was rather unbelievable.  Hands down one of the coolest things I've gotten to do in Japan and a good part of my life.  On top of being invited, I was treated as a close family member.  TT^TT  I wasn't able to take all the pictures I wanted because I didn't want to disturb the ceremony.

Late in the morning I caught a train to Toyohashi, where I changed from JR to Meitetsu (different train companies) and caught the Special Rapid into Higashi Okazaki.  I met up with Yoshiko (my host sister) and she took me to the location for the wedding.  To my astonishment, it was the shrine I'd gone to the other day.  o.o  I hadn't even known what to expect for the wedding - Eastern, Western, traditional, modern... (they got married in January in America, so this was a second wedding) and I soon found out I was in for a real treat!

We parked and went into the... uh... building.  XD  It's a modern building apparently used to staging events.  I'd never met the bride - an American - or groom - the son/brother of my host family.  She was done up as a triditional Japanese bride - wig and all, and he looked very sharp in his outfit too.  We chatted briefly when we were introduced - I'm sure she was tremendously uncomfortable.  She said the outfit was very heavy and the wig was itchy at the front.  ^_^

This is the first picture I took.  :>

With some family members.  The lady on the bride's left is my host mother.  Note everyone is wearing brown slippers provided by the shrine because you can't wear your shoes inside!

After standing around awkwardly for about twenty minutes (I don't know how long everyone else had been there), we moved outside.

A picture of Lori by herself.

We kinda just gathered outside and took a few pictures.

Satoshi-san and Lori outside.

Then the priest and priestess came to pick us up.  O_O

Soooo legit.

Let's get a closer look at this guy. *A*

We were organized into a line to process up the hill to the shrine.  I was afraid we'd be going up the stairs of doom.  I was afraid for myself in my high heels, but moreso for Lori in her finery and her mother who was a little overweight (and not super young) and needed to rest often.

See what I mean by I was included as close family?  I was RIGHT UP FRONT, behind the parents, next the siblings.

It turns out there's a tricksy paved path that goes around the steps of doom, but it's still pretty steep.  We stopped in the courtyard area of the shrine so that all of us could purify ourselves.  The priest went first and showed Lori how to do it, with Satoshi doing it too and translating.

Remember?  Rise one hand then the other, then pour some water in your left hand and rinse out your mouth.  The priestess then gave each person a (really nice) paper towel which you could use to dry your hands and wipe your mouth, if you needed.

Loir and Satoshi, but this picture is also so you can get an idea for how awesome Lori's dad's beard is.  Onlookers included friends of the family and probably some strangers.

Heading into the shrine.  The lady in black on the left of Lori was her handler.  It was cool watching her help Lori stand and sit and herding her to the correct positions, then fluffing the bottom of the kimono into the correct position.

We headed inside, walking in the little gate and removing our shoes and placing them on racks.  This time, there were no guest slippers and we all proceeded in sock or stocking feet.  We sat on little folding stools and I discovered that the carpet on the floor was like a heated blanket!  My feet were nice and warm!  There were traditional instrumentalists sitting in the back and they accompanied the ceremony.  I didn't have a chance to take a picture of them.  D:

This is basically the view I had the whole ceremony.  There was a big wall in front of me (well, there was on on either side) so unless you were sitting in the middle, you could only see the bride or groom.

Again, I was seated up front with the family, which was super flattering, seeing as I'm sure I knew the bride and groom the least of everyone in there.  And as I said, not everyone fit inside.  Maybe 30 of us packed in there.  It was a small area.

A quick shot of the interior.  Even though I asked if pictures were okay and got a positive reply, I was hesitant to take many.  D:  But please note the fantastic carvings.  <3 

There ceremony began with music and the priest doing stuff I couldn't see.  This was the story for most of it. We all were cleansed or blessed or something when the priest waved a paper thingy... ugh.  I don't know how to describe it!  It's like a stick with lots of folded paper...  anyway, he waved that at us.  The bride and groom exchanged sake.  A while later, they exchanged rings.  It was actually rather a short ceremony, as far as weddings I've been to.  Then the bride and groom came to sit next to his parents, so my row scooted down to allow for them.  We all had a small cup of sake.

Cups for sake.

Aand that was about it.  It was really cool, but like I said, it was basically impossible to see and I couldn't understand a word of it.  We exited the shrine's main building and some people wanted to take pictures outside.  I was one who wanted that, but I was shanghaied by the aunts of the groom, who wanted a picture.

I don't remember their names, but the one in blue looks JUST LIKE her brother and sounds a lot like him plus who knows how many years of smoking.  Anyway, she's absolutely hilarious.  I couldn't even understand most of what she said, but just the way she spoke and her mannerisms were great.  If not being able to understand her wasn't quite so frustrating, I'd want this woman around me on a regular basis.

I did get a good picture of Lori before the bride and groom left in a REALLY COOL car.

Note how the doors are different on each side.  I can only imagine it was designed specifically for traditional weddings where the bride can barely move and has a crazy head-dress (usually a hood-like piece larger than what Lori wore)

I took a picture of the pond and cherry blossoms as I chatted with Lori's brothers, then left and headed to Kame-han sushi.  <3

It was so nice to go toe Kame-han again!  They were really busy for the party, but I did hand over my gift to them.  I wasn't able to bring something from home because I had to pack gifts from home for my host family and co-workers and that took up a lot of room and weight as-is, so I got some local sweets at the Kosai gift-shop place that's right by my apartment.  XD  They looked nice and were packaged in the traditional Japanese gift-giving style, and a big part of it is just the gesture anyway.  It was well-received.  :>

I tried to keep up on taking pictures of the bajillion courses we had during out three-hour meal, but I did miss a few of the little things.  Ready?  This is pretty crazy!  (Notations on what I did and didn't actually eat)

One of the tables for the party.  My seat is the second one in (again with the groom's family).

My place-setting.  Already feeling I'd really have to try hard to eat the meal.  I'm attempting to be a pescatarian while I'm in Japan, but Lori's sister is a really strict vegetarian (Lori's pescatarian too), and I was feeling sorry for her too.

Close-up on the crab meat in a half-shell.  The darker stuff on top is.. uh... well, they call it something that sounds like 'miso' but in this case it means the innards.  o.o (I left the innards.)

Oh boy.  //orz  Each person got a fish with its fins artistically splayed and a lemon in its mouth.  I think the black 'eye' is a sticker or something, because it didn't seem real.  I didn't poke at it or anything to try to find out. D:  The dish is two large chunks of said fish, wrapped around shiso leaves in a bit of a sour dressing.  The dark green is seaweed. (ate it)

This was a 'tea' of sorts.  More of a palate-cleanser, it was a bit salty and warm and had cherry blossoms floating in it.  From what I garnered from my eavesdropping, it's a special kind of cherry blossom that isn't from around here.  We drank this while waiting almost an hour for the bride and groom to change and join us.

The orange stuff is fish eggs with some grated radish on top.  There were two green things on a long pine needle which were EGGS, not olives like I thought they were.  In the shell is some sort of sea creature, which had been primed, but needed to be pulled out of the shell to be eaten.  (I tried one fish egg under pressure and are the green eggs, then gave the rest to my host mother because she loves things like that.  The fish egg didn't have much taste, it more weirded me out than anything)

Yes, that's a lobster body.  It's a bit hard to see, sorry.  There was a bed of some shredded veggie there, fleshing out (no pun intended) the sashimi on the platter.  Sitting on the lobster tail is lobster sashimi, and also there we have some tuna (the red stuff) and some other white fish.  (I managed to eat this dish with much quick chewing and swallowing and lots of wasabi and soy sauce.  I particularly hate shellfish.  TT^TT)  When the waitress was collecting the plates, a couple of the older ladies requested to keep the lobster bodies to use for soup stock.  I was 100000% grossed out and impressed at the same time.

Tempura.  Shrimp and a couple kinds of veggies.  Instead of dipping it in the usual sauce, you were supposed to dip it in a bit of salt.  (Ate it)

Sushi course.  The rolls are tuna, the yellow thing is some sort of really hard roe which seemed like plastic.  In the front row, we have some sort of clam, eel, and tuna.  (I left the roe and clam, taking a cue from my host sister anytime she said she hated something and wouldn't eat it.)  The roe is apparently a rather symbolic thing, also commonly eaten are New Year's.  

A clear-broth soup with a ball of some stuff.  I dunno what the heck it was, but it wasn't bad. (Ate most of it)

Finally, desert!  A strawberry sliced in half, a bit of pineapple, and a pics of very sweet orange with some Japanese jelly. (ate it.  :> )

The wedding party went through so much beer that the restaurant ran out of the brand we were drinking and the last few bottles to come out were Kirin instead of Asahi.  O_o  Those of us who were going to be driving had to abstain because the legal blood alcohol level for operating ANY vehicle here in Japan (even a bicycle) is absolutely 0%.  So we drank a ton of tea instead and went through many bottles of that.

After dinner, I went over to my family's house for a little bit.  It was nice to see Gackt, but I had heard at dinner that he had some sort of medical problem and now his back legs don't work?!  O_o  I was rather anxious to see what this meant.  Gackt is a dachshund, I should clarify.  I asked Lori about it when they got there, to see if Satoshi had explained it better than I could understand.   I guess it's something like a slipped disc?  She wasn't sure either, but I guess he's been like that for a while now and it's not fixable.  For a dog who can only operate his front legs, he's got a lot of spirit!  He powers around and his back end just sort of comes along with him.  It's upsetting, but in my long life full of pets, I'm thankful to have never had to have been the one to make any sorts of calls on their medical treatment.  Anyhow, he was still very sweet and loved the little squeeky pig I brought him.  Apparently, he's quite fond of the other toys I've sent.  ^_^

I stayed for a little while and shortly before Yoshiko was going to take me back to the train station, we heard that something was messed up on the tracks and so I wouldn't be able to get that train.  I was perfectly fine with taking JR instead of Meitetsu, but my host father said he'd drive me back.  O_O  It felt SO BADDDDD because by car it's an hour each way.  But my host mother packed a large bag of food (leftovers and snacks) and we left, with Satoshi riding shotgun for a return-trip partner.  I felt extra bad with Satoshi in the mix, but I couldn't really decline, either, with my first day of school in the morning.  I absolutely had to get back!

So, we had a nice trip back, with some light conversation.  I learned that they have an ancestor who was high up with Oda Nobunaga, to the extent that his name is mentioned in Oda's biography.  O_O  Gotta read that - I wonder if there's a translation of it available.  Same last name (Tsukamoto) and then some totally rad old-fashioned name.

I'll wrap it up here!  It's getting late and I've been going to bed early to get lots of sleep so I look decent for school.

As a side note, I think I messed up my Skype.  I accidentally clicked on 'don't allow' when it popped up asking about internet access... and now it won't connect.  I think I may have to re-install it because I can't figure out how to fix that. <_<#

My next entry will be about my first week of school, and hopefully I'll post that tomorrow.  :>