Japan continued - After the Wedding


After the wedding, there was a reception for family members and work bosses at a "European-style" venue, which looked a bit like an Italian villa.


There was a lovely dessert buffet in place of a wedding cake. It looked very nice, and they kept it hidden on the patio until then. Luckily the weather was nice the day of the wedding.


At the end of the reception, each of the parents made a speech about their child, and Paul and Keiko each read a letter they had written to their parents. It was very emotional.

There was also a party for the younger friends who didn't come to the wedding. After a dinner, we went out to a bar where we did karaoke into the night. I don't have any photos though.


On Sunday we took a long series of trains back to Tokyo. We arrived in the afternoon and met Chris, Victoria's friend who lives in London. We took him to Shibuya to the famous intersection there.


We also went and did karaoke, which he loved. I think after we left Japan, he went several more times.


He and I did a good Meatloaf rendition during karaoke. We couldn't stay with him all night though, because we had to take a train for an hour to Narita, which is the town next to the airport.


Our flight was Monday morning, so we took a free shuttle to the airport and flew back to Manchester. After a long train ride with jet lag, we made it home and had a sleep.

Japan continued - Wedding pictures


During the ceremony, everyone had to drink ceremonial sake. First Paul and Keiko did it, then the rest of us.


Here are the bride and groom posing after the ceremony. Behind them you can see the shrine (Izumo Taisha) where the ceremony was held. The shrine is very famous throughout Japan. Every October all of the Shinto gods are supposed to go there to visit it for a month.


After the ceremony was over, we gathered outside and had both families pose together. I love this picture because the photographer's assistant was running around like crazy adjusting everything, and she is caught mid-stride running out of the picture.


Here's a nice picture of Miles, Paul, Keiko, and Chihiro (Keiko's cousin).


Keiko and Paul under giant ropes that you are supposed to try to stick coins into by throwing them upwards.

Both of the fathers


Victoria and Me in front of the shrine



















Victoria and Keiko





























Chihiro's kimono

Japan continued - Izumo part of the trip

On Thursday, Paul and Keiko were busy with last minute wedding preparations, so Miles, Victoria, and I took a train to Matsue to see the castle there. Dad came along also, but went to see samurai houses instead, so we didn't see him much except on the trains there and back. Unfortunately, it was raining on and off much of the time. Once we arrived at the castle, we were cold and hungry, so we tried to find some food, but there were no restaurants nearby. We did manage to find a cosy little ramen restaurant with amazing presentation of the noodles.


After a delicious meal, we headed into the castle complex. It is one of Japan's original wooden castles, so it was lucky to have avoided most of the fires and bombings that destroyed many of the other original castles.


The view from the top was nice, but I liked the view down into the courtyard especially.


Once we got back to Paul and Keiko's place, we found out they had bought us the cutest muffin ever. You'd hardly think a muffin could be cute, but this one definitely was.


It also had an interesting bag which I took a picture of.


Friday was the day of the wedding. We were picked up by a taxi and taken to the waiting room for the shrine. Here's Victoria, Mom, and Dad.


And here's Miles, Keith, and Anna.

Paul and Keiko arrived in traditional Japanese attire. Keiko's kimono was very pretty.

Japan trip continued - Kyoto

Our first night in Kyoto, we relaxed and did a little karaoke.


On Monday we took a trip to Nara from Kyoto, because Victoria had never been. They have hundreds of deer that are protected as a national treasure which roam around and get fed.


In Nara there is a giant bronze Buddha statue, which we went inside this temple to visit.


Inside the temple there is a hole in one of the support columns. Supposedly if you can squeeze through the hole you will have a place reserved for you in paradise. Both of us managed to squeeze through, though I had some difficulty.

Unfortunately we both ate some bad food and Victoria was very sick, so we ended up going back to Kyoto after Nara.


Tuesday we went to the Golden Temple, Kinkaku-ji in the morning.


Here's me in front of the Golden Temple.


Wednesday, before heading to Izumo to Paul's house, we made a trip to Fushimi Inari Taisha, a shrine next to a mountain with tons of orange torii gates on it.

While we were walking through the gates, a million schoolkids ran by excitedly.


On the train ride to Paul's place, we passed by a really neat mountain/volcano. Everyone met us at the train station that evening and we crammed into Paul and Keiko's tiny flat along with Miles, Paul's friend from Davidson.

April 2006 Japan trip continued...

On the Thursday we spent much of the day on trains going to Toyama. When we arrived, we were met at the station by Amir's girlfriend Vita. She is Russian and was very nice, but she didn't really speak English. We had to remember all our Japanese.

We spent several days in Toyama, seeing old friends like Amir, and viewing the cherry blossoms. We were very lucky in our timing, because the cherry blossoms were in full bloom in Toyama when we were there.







We got to meet everyone from the Toyama Cosmopolitan Association who we knew before. Here they are in a picture. Miyuki organised a lunch for us, and she took us to see the cherry blossoms at night at the botanical gardens.

On Friday we went to Wago, Victoria's old junior high, and I went to Horikawa by myself, because Victoria was exhausted. Our time in Toyama was a whirlwind of meeting friends and seeing the city. On Sunday morning we had to move on to Kyoto.

I'm back at work after a week in Norwich. We had a nice and relaxing time, though the weather could've been better.

Now the weather has turned mysteriously sunny and warmer, after being rainy and cool for the past few weeks. It's welcome, but a bit late.

At work, things have really gotten busy. I am hiring a new student assistant at work, and we have just shortlisted 5 candidates. The interview is Friday. We are also in the middle of upgrading our student portal. The new look should be live now. It is exciting, but means lots of work for me.