Ryo & Kahori

Alright, I know I have been slacking on the blogage lately, and I don't even have an excuse aside from the fact that I am avoiding everything electronic whenever I can. However, everyone needs to hear about this super cool Japanese wedding that I got to go to last Saturday :) Above are my friends Ryo and Kahori. Karhori's parents are my neighbors and they are seriously THE nicest people ever. I can't really explain it, but let me just say that they have made our stay here in Japan wonderful and my experience of living out in town awesome!

First, the day started with me taking a taxi to the wedding site with Yuuna (kahori's sister). We all waited in this room for everyone to arrive. They served hot water with salt and Sakura blossoms. It was oddly tasty and very cool looking. Although I must say if you drink it when it is no longer roasting hot the salt will kinda get to ya :)

Ryo and Kahori also waited with us in the room. I thought that was odd, but that is cause in America we do things quite differently... their Japanese wedding outfits were super cool!

Here is post ceremony. The ceremony was IN that shrine behind the family there. I will likely never have the opportunity to set foot in a shrine again. It was really cool. Sadly, no cameras were allowed, but I was soaking it up in hopes to never forget a thing. I felt like I was in a discovery channel show on Japanese weddings. It was very traditional. Someone playing the flute (I think) and a drum pounding (which I could see the reflection of in a glass and it just looked cool). This man singing something like you would hear in... I don't know what... an old cathedral or something. Then a lady doing some dance with some bells that looked kinda like Thai Chi. Sake for them. Sake for us. Clapping, bowing... it was COOL. And check out Mr. Cameraman below. I think that was a medium format (the rest of the time though he was using a Canon 5D).
Oh this guy... he was my favorite. He held this awesome umbrella over Ryo and Kahori as they walked and it looked SO stinkin' cool. If only I was able to get a pic of that. I was too far in the back though, and here he obviously did not hold it open :(

Kahori, surrounded by family and friends. She looked beautiful!
These girls made me laugh. They were so giggly and funny. All in her face dancing around chatting and making a big fuss over her. It was hilarious!

Me with them of course :) I feel like I look like Julie in these pictures... scary!
Cake cutting was the #1 thing they did. Kinda backwards for us Americans, but that's cool. I like different.
No smashing in the face. And after they fed each other the parents came and fed them. Ryo somehow always was fed a ridiculously huge bite though :)
The food... oh the food! It was AMAZING. 5 course meal. Best Ever. This was course #1. #2 was soup which I did not photograph, but was absolutely amazing!
Course #3 was fish and rice and I did not photograph that either but it looked and tasted equally amazing as the #4 course of steak!
#5... dessert. So great! I LOVE Kiwi. All of it was really really tasty.
They went around and lit the candles at all the tables and got a picture with all of us. The candles were super cool and sparkly for the first 30 seconds or so that they were lit.
See!?!
The light in this room was AMAZING! We had a view of the ocean and the whole wall was straight windows. A photographer's dream!
Love the light. LOVE it!
This is Christina. She grew up with them from about age 5-15. Her dad was Navy and at 15 she moved to Hawaii and so her gift to them was to perform this hula dance. She was also AMAZING. I have never seen a hula dance performed before, but it was really awesome. Very sweet and actually emotional. I looked over at Kahori and she was dabbing her eyes. It was really beautiful.
I don't know why, but I am pretty sure this is my favorite shot. They are just there. I think they thought I was just checking my settings (probably cause that is what I told them :) and definitely weren't ready for the shot and I LOVE it!
Me again... looking like Julie
The family! They all looked fantastic! Love the kimonos!
Shin (the father) is an awesome artist. He makes the coolest stuff out of wood and this is my absolute favorite sign I have ever seen (and I have been to a lot of weddings!).
He made this little display too. Very cute! Overall, it was a really awesome experience and I am so happy that I was able to be a part of it. Not only that I was able to go, but that they invited me! I felt quite special as it was not an enormous wedding. It was weird cause I didn't know what people were saying, but the girls I sat with did speak English so that was nice. Though, I hope I did not offend the groom's mom when she came to pour me beer and I had NO idea what she was saying and probably did not respond as I was "supposed to". I didn't know that the parents were coming around to pour beer. Had Shin and Hiromi come to my table first I may have caught on, but at the moment, I didn't even realize that it was Ryo's mom! I was looking for help from my Japanese English speakers, but they were in a conversation... All was fine though. The best word to describe the whole wedding... ELEGANT. Everything was perfectly elegant. A great experience indeed!