In her latest ex-pat diary, Becky tells us how the winter in Japan is affecting her and her recent invitation to a traditional Japanese wedding.





Winter has definitely arrived in Japan over the past couple of weeks. I went out to my car over the weekend and the amount of snow that had fallen over night reached up to the middle of my car wheels!

I have to admit that when the snow first started to fall, I was like a child. I was out on the playing field with my elementary school students, building snowmen and having snowball fights! But now, I've had enough! I'm definitely ready for spring to arrive, and so are most of my friends!

The other day it was snowing that hard that you could only see a few feet in front of you, and the wind was that strong that it was snowing horizontally. Therefore the principal decided to send all the students home. This wasn't easily achieved as all the students had to be escorted home by teachers. Some of the students live around 30 minutes walk away, and with the weather it took some of them
nearly 2 hours to get home!

Over the weekend I was fortunate enough to be invited to a Japanese wedding. This was the first wedding that I had been invited to in Japan, and it was amazing! I was invited to the part of the ceremony that took place at the grooms house. When I arrived most people there were dressed in traditional clothing, the women in black kimono and the men in mon-tsuki hakama (the man's kimono). There were two "bridesmaids" that were dressing in red kimonos (the traditional colour of celebration); they were so cute that everyone just had to take photos of them! I think they loved the attention.

The wedding started with the bride arriving in a limousine. She wore a
kimono with 7 layers, the top layer being red. It was that heavy and tight that she had to be helped all the time, especially when standing up or sitting down. Before she could enter the house she had to drink a mixture of water from her home and water from the grooms home, and then smash the dish in the doorway of the grooms house.

Afterwards there were speeches made by the grandfathers and fathers of the bride and groom welcoming each other into the family. The bride then went and got changed into a white kimono. The whole family then went to the family shrine (which is in the house), to
pray. In all this lasted about an hour. Afterwards everyone went to a
wedding hall to continue the wedding ceremony and afterwards the reception.

Normally a Japanese bride will change her kimono 3 or 4 times! Each kimono being beautifully decorated and in the celebration colours of red, white or black. A Japanese wedding is that expensive that people give money as wedding presents to help pay for it. After the ceremony every guest will receive a present from the couple. If the guest thinks that the gift they received is more valuable than the amount they gave, they will give more money. Then, if the newly married couple thinks they didn't give enough, they will give another present, and this can continue for a very long time, until each side is happy!

Becky Gardner

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Becky's previous diaries 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5