The day:Tuesday, October 7th, 2003Some of the pictures:
The time: 10:00am
The place: Ube jinja (temple), Tottori, Japan
1) Bride and Groom are prepped and waiting. This was taken at the beauty salon where Kyoko's hair and makeup was done, and where we were both dressed in our Kimono.
2) Bride is loaded into special wedding taxi.
3) Taken by suprise. Our second stop of the morning was a photo studio.
4) Pre-ceremony: Being posed for more pictures.
5) The photographer adjusts the groom.
6) Bride and groom try not to look nervous. The moment is soon apporaching for them!!
7) Wedding processional. The groom leads alone, followed by the bride and her mother. The family and other guests are already in the temple. The trailing woman is from the beauty salon who made sure from moment to moment Kyoko's makeup was just-right.
8) The ceremony began with the beating of an Oodaiko (large Japanese drum), followed by a banishing of evil and some words of blessing from the head priest. Next, the Bride and groom take place in the san-san-kudo, a ritual involving sake poured and drank in threes.
9) Even in Japanese weddings, the bride and groom exchange rings.
10) Next, everybody gets to drink sake.
11) The reading of vows. Kyoko's family and friends were awed to discover post-fact that I read the Japanese characters and not romanji (a kind of cheater Japanese with the phonetics spelled in English.)
12) To thank the shrine guardian and to show their acceptance of the union of their children, mother of Groom and mother of Bride bow towards the shrine. For those who don't know, my mother traveled to Japan to take part in the ceremony.
13) Post ceremony: Bride and groom are beaming with joy. Note the Oodaiko to the left...
14) The groom looks good in Kimono. All the Japanese people who've seen this picture say this about me. Also, many of Kyoko's (jealous) friends say things like "ii naa" (a sign of envy) and "kakkoii danna" (maening handsome husband).
15) The bride is Beautiful! Note the change in the headdress. The one before is called a "horn hider". It is used to hide the bride's horns as a sign of aquiescence to the groom. I don't really know why the horn hider is changed after the ceremony, though I have my suspicious...
16) After some more pictures there is the wardrobe change. Then everyone drives to another location for the wedding lunch
17) At the wedding lunch, various guests visit the brige and groom to chat and top off the drinks.
That's it for now. There are a lot more pictures, not all of the wedding but also of the various days before and after. This was my longest trip to Japan - 11 days.