My Trip to Japan – Part BONUS of 3

This post about one day in Japan turned out to be too long to mash my remaining four days into it, so I’ll post the real My Trip to Japan – Part 3 of 3 in a day or two. Enjoy!

September 26. Saturday. What follows is part of the day’s plan: the Japanese wedding reception(s).

I visited the barber to get a shave with an old-school razor. At one point, I fell asleep. I think at that point, he put makeup on me (I think it was to make me look less shiny). Afterward, I went to have the outfitters put on my hakama, a pretty manly looking, traditional Japanese set of garments. Then, I met with Yang, who was in her kimono, and a bunch of her family members plus my mom and dad, and we got our pictures taken at a studio by some uber-professional and detail-oriented photographers. Studio pictures, done (?).

Time for a grand entrance into the reception hall. Shazaam! 70 people, spotlight’s on us walking into the room.

Over the next hour, Yang’s brother and a group of dragon dancers performed a routine for wedding receptions. And then, it was time for me to give a speech. I pretty much started crying after saying “Thank you for coming out and showing us your support….” I’m not good at public speaking in general, but in emotional settings, I’m even worse. I was able to push out a few other words after about 30 seconds of being totally choked up, and then it was Yang’s turn. She handled it better than I did. I did, however, get a sizeable portion of attendees, both men and women, crying. Glad I could be so touching without saying more than 15 words. ;)

After listening to a couple people give speeches, taking pictures with everybody who attended, and cutting cake (see picture to the left), we left to change our attire; I changed into a black tuxedo and Yang changed into a white wedding dress. Then, we took more studio pictures and made another entrance into the reception hall, but this time, we lit candles at each table before we sat down at our main table up front. After another hour of pictures, it was over… Well, the “first reception” was over.

We had about an hour and a half before the second reception started, so everyone gathered to take more pictures in the hotel. After about 30 minutes, Yang went to change into her third outfit—a pink dress—and we took more pictures in the hotel and attended the second party. It was during gathering that I was able to eat. First bites of food equaled a win, but it was around 5pm, which is sort of a loss. During this second party, we took more pictures with friends and had everyone play bingo for some really cool prizes. And then it was over. We said “Thank you” and chatted with folks as they left.

After seeing everyone off, Yang and I met with some other folks in the hotel lobby. A couple handfuls of Yang’s friends were missing, so I thought maybe they had trains to catch. Not the case. They had gone to a nearby izakaya (Japanese-style bar) and were holding a room for us. Awesome! So, went to our hotel room and changed into our Chinese garments and took a taxi to the izakaya. Oddly enough, I was the only one who knew where the izakaya was, mostly because I frequently explore Yokohama on foot when I go to Japan.

We got there and, sure enough, there were about 10 people just hanging out, drinking and eating. I ordered a nama beer (draft beer) and sat next to one of the guys who gave a speech at our second reception. He spoke English, which was really cool, especially since he wasn’t shy about talking—alcohol always helps with that. :)  About five minutes later, I grabbed a menu and looked for food to order. And then I saw it… basashi (raw horse meat). Immediately, I remembered Kenji’s YouTube video of him eating basashi, so I decided to follow that up with my own video, y’know, just in case I had an opposite reaction.

 

To be honest, it hardly had any flavor, but paired with the soy sauce, ginger, and green onions, the flavor just blended really well with the smooth texture of the basashi. I would order it again: It’s cheap (about $4 for 4 slices) and goes good with beer. :)

After ordering up some yakitori and talking in a mixture of Japanese and English to just about everyone, I was ready to call it a night.

I’ve uploaded a few pictures on Facebook of Yang and I in our different wedding reception outfits. They are in the folder named China & Japan + Wedding Receptions - September 2009.

For more pictures of my trip to China and Japan, visit my China & Japan – September 2009 photo set on Flickr. If we’re friends on Facebook, you can view a few more pictures on my Facebook profile.