July 2nd (Day 6)

The day of the wedding

The view from my room looked towards the bay and was really nice. There was a large strange building and a giant saw visible a short distance away.

The first picture is supposed to be a fire hydrant. Looks like a robot.

The second machine is an umbrella vending machine - or some sort of robot.

The 'Palclean Wall' was an area where smokers could stand behind and smoke indoors. It had motion activated fans suck up the smoke.

Confusion and Discord!

The previous night, after dinner and before we went to our own rooms (on separate floors) I asked A, M, and S what the plan was for tomorrow. They agreed to meet on the first floor for the breakfast buffet at 9:00. At 9:02 I arrived at the breakfast room and didn't see anyone. When we checked in the hotel gave us breakfast vouchers to get into the dining area. I didn't know how to use them so I loitered around the entrance until I saw some people go in and hand them off to a guy standing in the doorway. I used one of my two tickets to get inside and discovered they weren't there either.

Since I had already spent a ticket, I went ahead and ate breakfast. As I was finishing up, H and M came in. She tried to explain what was happening today but I didn't understand her broken english. Later A came in by himself and explained there had already been several confusing incidents. Hiroyuki didn't have a razor and wanted to borrow one from A. He got the room number from M and left. When he arrived on the 15th floor, he had forgotten the number and had to return to his room. This time M wrote the number down and he took it with him again. She also called A to tell him to expect his father. When he never arrived A went out looking for him. He found him as he was returning to his room being supported by a maid. He had been wandering around for about 45 minutes and was about ready to collapse. They got a wheelchair and took him to breakfast. Shamara, because of nerves or whatever said she wasn't feeling well and stayed in bed.

At breakfast M tried to convince me to speak something and stand up but I had difficulty understanding what she wanted. I would have been ok with saying something short but I didn't want to mistakingly say the wrong thing in japanese.

'kyo wa jozu ja arimasen' = 'Today, I'm not very good'
'kyo wa jozu ji arimasen' = 'My hemorrhoids are acting up today'

Akira eventually stepped in and we decided I would just stand up in front of everyone and look pretty (hard enough for me to do). I wasn't that worried, the odds were slim I'd see these people again, they all have my best wishes in mind, and they're here to celebrate. I was a little disappointed S didn't do the full Japanese wedding thing. It would have been an interesting experience for her and would have been much more fun to watch.

After breakfast, A went to the McDonalds in the corner of the hotel and bought food for S. On the way back to the room we stopped at the 3rd floor to check out the 'waiting room' and the chapel. The itenerary had us meeting in the waiting room at 12:45 and socializing till 1:30 with the guests. The room was stark with rows of chairs lined up against the wall. The image of everyone sitting in a row staring at each other for an hour was hard banish from the mind.

A quick trip out to sightsee...

I had two hours to kill before I had to dress up so I went outside to take pictures of the area. It was very photogenic. After taking a few pictures I realized I was running out of space on my camera so I ventured to S and A's room to dump images onto their laptop. Shamara was sitting forlornly at the window (having just finished her mcdonalds) and she crabbed at me and jumped in bed when I teased her about it.

With my camera empty I ran back outside to take pictures in the 1.5 hours left of relative freedom. Wandering first towards the giant space table thing I eventually made my way inside. The Tokyo big site was was used as a convention center and was mostly empty when I walked through it.

After taking a picture of a giant green steel ball I was accosted by a woman trying to give me what I first thought was an official convention badge before I realized it was a promotional card for american express. She stood beside me and told me to peel it up and waited expectantly while I revealed the kanji underneath. She spoke something and I said, "I'm sorry, I don't understand" then she announced in broken english, "Present! Present!" and motioned that I should walk around the corner to the little kiosk she had set up nearby. I suspected a trap and not wanting to go anywhere near the kiosk I thanked her and walked off.

The convention center was empty with only a few people lounging around. I eventually found the gigantic escalator that led to the top of the structure but the lights were turned off at the top, all the hallways were blocked with signs, and cleaning people were out vacuuming. It was sprinkling slightly when I finally exited the building but I ran down the path towards the large ferris wheel I could see in the distance. It was the biggest ferris wheel I've ever seen. It certainly looks that way on google earth. I only had time to take a few pictures before having to run back.

Ground floor of the abandoned convention center. Gigantic escalator up to the big site. Abandoned upstairs

The ferris wheel was gigantic. It was either going very slow or wasn't running that day. At the rate it was going a ride might take 30-60min.

These guys were filming a commercial(?) when I walked by.

The wedding!

Back at the hotel room I was late getting fully dressed and I had difficulty fixing my tie. Akira had told me to go down to the waiting room 10min early and I figured I could ask him or someone to help me with it there. When I arrived however the place was already full of people. Shamara and A were nowhere to be seen. I had to stash my tie with my camera and dictionary in a corner and stand around watching people talk. When A and S eventually arrived, they all hurried us to a picture room with chairs and bleachers along one wall for people to pose. We all took a group shot then went en mass back to the waiting room. There was more mingling and picture taking. Shamara mentioned they sent a girl with a bouquet of flowers to their room to escort them down. Akira spent most of the morning getting dressed into a fancy suit with white gloves he had to carry - but not put on.

I was told under no conditions could I photograph Mieko's feet.

Only a short time after returning to the waiting room we were led to a large dining room with five tables surrounded by chairs for the guests and a draped, beflowered, and separate table for A and S. The ceremony was short with S and A signing a document and then exchanging rings. The MC (cool groove johnson) did everything in Japanese and one of M's friends translated into english. After the ceremony there were speeches by various relatives and friends. One of Akira's uncles sang a traditional Japanese song that I thought was pretty cool.

The wedding was very strange. Apart from being the first wedding I can ever remember attending it was very Japanese. The plan for my role in the proceedings changed several times; first I was going to say something short in Japanese, then I would make a speech in english to be translated by another guest, and finally it was decided I would just stand at the table and say thank you. This was changed again at the last minute to just standing for recognition by the room.

At one point during the dinner I noticed there was gretchen hair on my tux. Also, while S and A were mingling, M asked for lots of grandchildren.

The dinner was a very fancy seven course meal with all sorts of expensive and strange foods. It was also very good (especially the champaign sorbet) although the fanciness is not really to my taste and I expect the price tag would have made me wish I was sitting on the toilet again. Afterwards there was karaoke performed individually by several cousins, and a final group session with a bunch of singers.

During the dinner M leaned over and asked me how old I thought a woman (Hiroe, the first to do karaoke) was. I am terrible at these questions so I answered '20'. She laughed and said, 'She is 36 or 37. She is single. How old are you?' after answering she said 'There you go!'

Sometime near the end of the meal the waitress (whose english was better than M's but still pretty broken) asked if I would agree to 'stand in a row' at the front of the room. When the time came, I stood in a row with M, H, A and S and a mike was given to M to make a short speech. Then they brought the mike to me and while the MC explained something to the room (I discovered later he was telling them how the brides family was unable to make it and the bride's brother was going to make a speech in english and have it translated by another guest) one of the porters adjusted the mike to my height. Looking over I could see S was in raptures that I was being put on the spot, A seemed annoyed, and M was trying to interrupt and explain to the MC what we had agreed on earlier. When I declined to speak there was some general embarrassment but I worried mainly that I had let down M. I apologized when we got back to the table and she seemed ok with it.

Shamara refused to eat any of the rich food and soon had a collection of plates arranged on her table. The food presented was both Japanese and European. It included several types of fish and lobster, foix gras, a steak, and a huge array of assorted glasses and silverware. They poured white wine for the fish and red for the steak and the table overflowed with various utensils, cups, and plates.

After the dinner, they had the families line up outside the dining room in front of some temporary walls draped with white fabric and flowers. We thanked each guest as they left bowing and shaking hands.

Akira says: My cousin Kazuo on my right, his sister Hiroe to his right, Kazuo's wife Yoshimi in kimono, my ??? (my grandma's brother's granddaughter ... I think) Akemi on right Akira says: My oldest buddies. Koji Kaneko to my left, Takahiro Takahashi to Shamara's right. We went to elementary school together (the one you saw), were on the gymnastics club together at junior high (w drove in front of it), been on road trips, bike trips, camping trips together. Left to right: Hiroe, Shamara, Akira, Kazuki, Kazuo, Kenji, Yuichiro and his son My cousin Yuka's first born (5 months old) Hina. The first character of her name "hi" is the same as my name "Akira"

Wedding done, more sightseeing

After shaking hands and seeing the guests off S and A were once again escorted to their rooms by a hotel worker carrying their flowers. I retired to my room and took off my crappy tux. While relaxing and relating the day's events in my notebook I was interrupted by a knock on my door. Shamara and A had changed and were ready to walk around and explore the area. We took many, many more pictures of the the area.

During the wedding dinner A and S both spent a lot of time wandering among the guests socializing and didn't have much time to eat. Later that night we returned to the Japanese restaurant on the 21st floor and M ordered a gigantic meal with separate dishes for S. It was very good but I was still too full from the wedding meal to appreciate it properly.