Wedding

Two of my friends here, Terumi and Tsuyoshi, just got married recently.

...Well, I say "recently" but I'm honestly not sure. I've only managed to hang out with them 3 or 4 times in the space of the 9 months I've been here: once we had dinner, once Tsuyoshi offered to help me find Iide's tiny gym (composed of 4 exercise bikes and a rock climbing wall), and one of those times Terumi told me that she and Tsuyoshi had gotten married. But maybe the tenses got mixed up and she meant, "We are going to get married."

Either way, it wasn't until tonight that a mutual friend called me and invited me to "a dinner to celebrate the wedding" in a local family-style Italian restaurant. I know the restaurant well since it's one of only two that Iide has to offer: it's a nice, clean place that serves crunchy pizza and spaghetti with prawns on top--not champagne and filet mignon.

So I dressed accordingly: a casual black sweater and black pants, complemented by bright pink fuzzy socks stuffed into oversized (but practical, in this weather) tromping boots. I picked up two friends bundled in coats and we arrived early, only to witness a shocking transformation. Someone had carved niches out of the snow walls along the path to the door and put hundreds of candles in them. Inside, the tables were laid with linens and more candles; the silverware was real silver and propped up on elegant little holders; there were champagne glasses and roses! It was beginning to dawn on me that I had made a very grievous error in judgment, and the impression only doubled in strength when my friends removed their coats to show off their cocktail dresses and casually informed me that admission to the event would cost more than a day at Disneyland.

I had thought I was a casual friend, warranting an invite to small celebratory night out. Yet here I was, at the fancy reception!

In tromping boots.

Luckily we were still early, so I raced home alone and threw clothes all around my room in a film-worthy fit of despair. How, I ask you, did I manage to come to Japan with no less than 4 skirts but no complementing long-sleeve shirts?  And the only full-length dress I had was short-sleeve as well--but this is where my lifelong habit of hoarding gothic accessories FINALLY came in handy. I supplemented the dress with long black stockings, lacy black arm-warmers, and boots (tasteful ones, this time). It was all a bit "Jane Eyre on a night out," but it was the best I could do. I made it back to the party just in time to watch the happy couple in their stately walk to the tune of "Happy Birthday," with the words changed to, "Happy Weh-ding you two, Happy Weh-ding you two...".  Everyone was seated and ready, after the march, to begin the night with a toast. And clearly, the best pick for this honored duty was the local pet--the last to arrive, the non-native speaker. The girl wearing lacy socks on her hands. I heard myself being introduced and then the microphone materialized in my mitts, and all I could do was blush furiously, apologize to everyone for not being able to manage a toast in Japanese, and deliver one in English instead. Luckily both the bride and groom speak it very well, and the guests were no less enthusiastic for having no clue what I was saying.

Dinner was 5 courses and 2 desserts, as well as a special treat the happy couple handed out personally: Ritz crackers with custard and a strawberry on top....yup. One guest performed "Over the Rainbow" with a crown and sparkling wand, and 3 others played clarinets while wearing wrestling masks. There were other, more elegant toasts, and lots of mingling. Everyone was enthusiastic about everything, and it hardly mattered whether I had known the bride and groom a few months or since kindergarten (like everyone else). We were all celebrating the union with all our energy--and not a few glasses of wine--and Terumi and Tsuyoshi's joy was equally ours.