So I went to a Japanese wedding today. This is the second time for me for the wedding itself while it was the first time to go to the reception. Christian wedding, so it was very Western. Why is that? Why does Christian equal Western? Ehh, but that's a whole different topic. Regardless, even though it was very Western there were differences... quirks if you will from the way that I'm used to, the American way.

Number 1, the wedding itself is short. I timed it. The wedding went for 40 minutes. Now, I don't know how long a standard American wedding goes, but this wedding was all in Japanese, I didn't understand everything, and it still felt short. Why?

Well, that goes into number 2 which is, the couple don't exchange vows. The pastor did the whole "Do you?" "I do" thing (I'm so romantic) to them both, but then when the rings came out, they just slipped them on each other.

Number 3, when the bride made her entrance, nobody stood up. Instinctively, I almost stood up... good thing I wasn't completely oblivious to my surroundings, which is a nice change.

Number 4, even though the ceremony is short, the reception is long. So, the wedding starts at 2PM. It ends at 2:40PM. It takes about 45 minutes to get everybody to the reception hall and seated. It's about 3:30PM. 3:30PM! The reception. You know the place where people get together, talk, and eat. Who eats at 3:30PM? We did.

And number 5, the reception is full of speeches. That's right speeches. Not toasts. Speeches. Actually come to think about it, the reception wasn't very long. It was pretty standard actually. We left at about 7PM. About 4 hours. But it felt longer. Speeches can do that. And from what I hear, the speeches at this particular reception were shorter and fewer in number.

Number 6, people don't buy wedding gifts. Instead, people give them money. But in an indirect way. No, they don't slip em a bill through a handshake like a bribe. Instead, the people who go to the reception pay way too much for the reception dinner on the day of. Yeah, it's kind of strange. Everybody knows that the money goes to the couple. But it's labeled and given as payment for the reception dinner. Example. I paid 7000 yen for tonight's reception dinner. That's about $60. Now, the food was good. But it wasn't that good.

Interesting thing that came up in conversation. Apparently, here in Japan, people think I'm older than I really am. How did this come up in conversation? Well, at the beginning of the day, I prepared myself for the two question/comments I was sure to get at the wedding. "How old are you?" and "So when are you getting married?" And sure enough I got them both. Yeah, I won't touch that second question in this blog... or ever.

So, anyway, I get asked "How old are you?" I tell them the truth. Yeah, that's right, them. It was a group question. I say, "23." And they respond back with "Oh, I thought you were 2 or 3 years older than that" "Yeah, me too" "Uh huh." The weird thing is that this isn't the first time I've heard this in Japan. Why is it weird? Because when I'm in the States, I often get mistaken for a 16 year old. In strict movie theaters, I get carded for R rated movies. The last time I came home, I helped my mom out at El Cerrito High, and some people there thought I was a student there. I wanted to shake em real hard and say "I graduated 6 years ago."

So, again bringing it back from the tangent... after the group said "I thought you were 2 or 3 years older than that" I was unexplainably happy. They were visibly perplexed. "Why are you happy that you look older?" And I couldn't answer. So, I responded back with a really slick "I dunno." Yeah, that's right. I was real cool. Haha.

Oh, quick Happy Birthday shout out to my brother Kei. Hope you got the package by now.