Tyler and Mihoko up at the wedding table....

Tyler and Mihoko arrive at their wedding party with a spotight, and a parasol.

Saying their vows.

Tyler and the priest waiting for Mihoko and her Dad to arrive.

Mihoko and her mum share a moment while dressing for the ceremony.

Make up went onto Mihoko's face, neck and hands.

Mihoko completes hours of dressing for her wedding.

Mihoko surrounded by dressers and family prior to the wedding ceremony.

The finishing touches....

Tyler getting sick of the photos in the hour before his wedding....

Tyler looking like a samurai.. kinda.... sorta....

Mihoko's dad walks Mihoko down the aisle in the dress rehearsal.

Sharing the cake.

"You've been a bad blogger. What's going on there?"

My brothers pixelated face came through as clearly as rural Australian internet speeds allow via our skype webchat on my monitor screen earlier tonight.

"Yeah, well, I've been overhauling my whole frikken life - too busy!"

He shrugged at me in that oh, whatever-way that may as well have seen him rolling his eyes at me.

He made me feel guilty and so, here I am, finally blogging about Tyler and Mihoko's wonderful wedding down in Isahaya, just outside Nagasaki in Kyushu last month.

Yes, OK, so I'm like, a month behind.... (Can't believe it's already been a month!)

So. It was a 3 day extravaganza, with a pre-wedding dinner at a fancy restaurant with the 2 families finally meeting for the first time the night before the wedding. Poor Tyler had his work cut out for him trying to translate every single word and joke for both families, but he did a stellar job and the evening was quite delightful for everyone there. Kat, Darin & I (and baby Jake) were down the "kids end" of the table, with Tyers little bro and his wife, and explained the food and conversation as best we could. It was a lovely night so we walked back to the hotel from the restaurant via the spectacle bridge (a double arched bridge that, when reflected by the still water underneath, looks like a pair of glasses). Took lotsa blurry pics. Bonded. Everyone being very polite and not swearing, there were godly people in our midst...

The morning of the wedding, both Tyler and Mihoko had to leave breakfast early to go and start dressing. Mihoko's family wanted a pretty traditional wedding, so the couple were to wear traditional kimono's - with Mihoko in the big "horn" wig and white hat. They were cool about me photographing them getting ready, so I spent most of the 3 hours there with them, watching them get into their kimono's with the help of professional dressers provided by the hotel.

At this point I should mention that we were all staying at a hotel that specializes in weddings, churns them out day after day after day. It has a chapel on the 4th floor, alongside a bunch of multi-function dressing and waiting rooms, and event rooms. They also have their own minister. He happened to be a white American dude, and from what I could gather, he was actually a real priest, not just one of the fake ministers so common in the wedding-biz here (it is considered de rigueur to be married by a foreigner, has been for a while.).

Anyway, watching poor Mihoko getting trussed up into that mighty kimono was an excruciating experience. She started in a little white cotton robe, and had inches of white makeup daubed onto her face and hands and neck, then, slowly, her torso was wrapped in great swathes of cotton wool to remove all her curves (this doesn't happen with a usual kimono, just a wedding kimono) and then robe after robe after robe.... layers and layers of cloth. It was INCREDIBLE. And then, a great wig, and finally the domed white cotton hat to hide her horns (don't ask!)!

Tyler was also dressed by a dresser, she actually sewed him into his hakuma (men's kimono) and tugged and tied and pulled all sorts of cummerbunds and ropes and stuff with impressive flourishes - it was exhausting watching the whole process, couldn't help but wonder if they were making it more dramatic because there were foreigners present? They even did his hair, it was cute watching them turn him into a samurai with his hair tied back.

The wedding ceremony was, strangely, a christian ceremony. It was quite amusing, the minister seemed quite nervous and he ended up forgetting the rings (until Tyler reminded him). But there was a good deal of emotion present in the room too. Seems everyone cries at weddings, don't they!

Once the ceremony finished we were all free to wander around for a while before the reception, so that the couple could have their official family photos taken. Kat, Darin & I took Jake outside for a walk in the fresh air - it was a gorgeous day and we were worried we wouldn't get to see any of it! Got some lovely pics of their little family, all dressed up in their wedding best - Little Jake was wearing a bow tie and was hands-down the star of the show (sorry Mihoko and Tyler!).

The reception started a bit later and so began an hilarious afternoon of formal tradition mixed with copious amounts of beer and nihonshu (marched out in portable crates by maid-frocked girls as soon as the welcome was announced) and karaoke and performances..... it was a hoot.

The poor couple had to make a couple of costume changes as is the done thing at Japanese wedding parties, and they also had to waste buckets of beer in a secret container beneath the wedding table. It is customary for guests to approach the newlyweds with a bottle of beer to pour a glass for each of them, and toast their happiness together. Neither of them had eaten since breakfast so I was kinda worried - watching the endless parade of well-wishers - that they were both going to be smashed but then they let me in on the not-so-secret-secret.... The staff came by every so often and swapped the bucket for an empty one.

Anyway, the party finished after some emotional speeches by the couple and their parents (Tyler's Dad had everyone - himself included - in tears) and we were all ushered down to the foyer (Darin and I swiping leftover bottles of beer from the table near the door as we were ejected) to mingle and go on our merry ways (the foreigners and younger folk to the nijikai (second party) at a cool local bar, the oldies at Mihoko's folks place).

The night ended with a drunken wander home along the river back to the hotel and yet more (quieter) beers in the wedding suite with Tyler, Mihoko, Kat, Darin and baby Jake.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the story of Tyler and Mihoko's wedding. I will be putting more pics up from the wedding in my various internet locations but I wanted to wait till the couple saw the pics first and, well - we've all been so busy that they didn't see them till today.

I shall make a sincere endeavour to start blogging again more regularly from today, these are exciting times and I really should be sharing them more with my beautiful family and friends.

Speaking of which, Anna in Houston, thank you so much for your donation! The morning it arrived (Friday, I think) I did a little dance (a usual event when an unexpected amazon box arrives) and promptly made a cuppa and sat down to read it and didn't get up again for 2 hours. Truly valuable stuff, and a timely arrival, too. Thank you!

frangipani wrote this on April 20, 2008 10:53 PM