This past Sunday, we had a lot of guests come to worship service because we were holding a church member's "konyaku shiki" or engagement ceremony. Yeah, that was a little cultural quirk. Apparently, in Japan, if you want to get engaged, you hold a ceremony for it. In front of your invitees, you basically, propose... but not on one knee. You just stand there, and "ask" the girl to marry ya. I put the word, "ask" in quotation marks because by the time the ceremony comes around, the guy knows the answer to the question. The konyaku shiki just serves to show friends and family that in the very near future, the couple will get married. Thought this was very Japanese-y.

Anyway, after the ceremony we had a dessert luncheon. And of course, in true Japanese fashion, everybody introduced themselves, and said a little something to the newly engaged couple. The best self-introduction by far was by Miyazaki ojiichan or grandpa Miyazaki. He went like this (translated):

I'm Miyazaki. I'm... eighty... something years old. I forget. I'm done.