My Big, Fake, Japanese Wedding

Hello everyone, happy happy news! I got "married" on Saturday!!!

Look how many people came to our wedding!

Not really. Obviously. I am as single as the tires on a unicycle. (Let me take a minute to go cry in the corner by myself. OK, over it.) The idea of me getting sporadically married to guy no one has ever heard of (I, myself, met him that morning,) without telling any friends or family is pretty... impossible.

"But Kait, why are you wearing a wedding dress?" you may be asking. Well friend, let me tell you! Because I look good in it!  ...one hopes. Haha. The truth is, my friend here in Japan performs wedding ceremonies. He does them in Japanese or English, and I'm sure he can do them in Dutch, as he's from the Netherlands.

Weddings in Japan are strangely similar and yet strangely different than weddings in the States. As Japan is a largely non-Christian country, there are few churches to get married in. People get married in shrines, hotels, or at special wedding venues that do it all for you. (Or a combination of 2 of those.) Brides here don't buy wedding dresses. They rent them from the bridal shops or wedding venues for extremely high prices. (It costs similar to buying a really nice dress in America, but only renting it.) Often, the bride will wear 2 or 3 different outfits, such a traditional wedding kimono, a traditional white wedding dress, and then some crazy wedding dress/prom dress love child on crack.)

Images:  Abazias.com, Atelier Luce, weheartit.com from weddingphotography.com

That's pretty much it. More traditional brides may only have one of the first 2 dresses/kimono, where the more "fancy" (for lack of a better word) can go all out and have 3 to 5 different outfits. That's a lot of costume changes! Usually they'll do the kimono for a traditional shrine wedding, then change into other dresses for the reception. Receptions in this case are their own types of ceremonies, as often only relatives go to the wedding at the shrine. If they have a "traditional Western style" wedding at a Wedding venue or hotel, they'll usually wear a traditional white wedding gown for the ceremony, and then change into kimono and/or the crazy wedding dresses for the reception.

Receptions are carefully organized and planned events where the guests get drunk as the bride and groom change costume a billion times, have speeches made, and do special symbolic things like lighting candles together or pouring glowing liquid into a fountain together, etc. Not the western style of toasts, and then dance floor. There is no dance floor (unless specially requested.)

From my friend San-chan's wedding. Their love is aglow!

Anyway, there is a ton more to say about Japanese weddings, so if you're interested, take a look around the internet. I'll just go back to MY special "wedding"day. So yes, weddings are a big thing here. There are many different venues trying to get the bride to come to them and let them provide everything, for big bucks. To help bring in prospective clients, venues sometimes have demonstrations to show clients what the wedding ceremony looks like, without actually invading someone's special day.

My friend Jack asked me to help him out with such a thing. The day was coming and they had no "bride." Of course, thrilled to take any chance where I get to dress up in costumes, I jumped at the chance to be pretend bride for the day. I met my "groom" in the car on the way to Izumo, where Belle Bruge, the wedding venue, was. We got there, greeted the staff, and said our "yoroshiku"s, then went to see where the ceremony would take place.

The grooms?

We practiced the ceremony a few times so I would know what to do, and then I went to get hair and make up done, and get dressed. Because Jack told me I would have hair and make up, I didn't put any on. But, she was extremely light with the make up, just eyebrow pencil, eyeshadow, a little blush, and lip gloss. The dark circles under my eye were not happy.

More make up please!

Then I got in my dress. She spread it out, looked at it and decided it wasn't poofy enough, and went to get more poof.

Not nearly poofy enough.

Poof on demand!

I was concerned about it fitting, because nothing in Japan ever fits me, but I squeezed in all right. The bra padding was a little small, but once the dress was laced up, it seemed fine. I then had to remove all my earrings, so I could wear the clip on ones, and a necklace, tiara, veil, and gloves.

please climb into this giant cupcake of taffeta

Pre-"wedding" selfie

The "groom" got dressed as well, and had a hard time buttoning the shirt around his neck, but managed in the end. Then we waited while the "guests" arrived. 4 couples and 1 pair of girls (couple? bride and friend/sister/mother? I don't know) came to watch the wedding and see if it was how they wanted to get married.

We walked down the aisle to applause, there were prayers, fake resizable cheap rings were exchanged, we got to pretend to kiss, pretend to sign a marriage contract, say "I do" in Japanese (Hai, chikaimasu,) listen to "You Raise Me Up" being sung while feathers fell from the ceiling onto us, bow to the audience, and walk out. It was, indeed, a wedding ceremony. The best part was when Jack said something majestic in Japanese and then raised his hands, and the curtains behind him opened to show windows with a fake pool with fire burning in the center of it. I almost burst out laughing, but contained myself. You really had to be there.

Can you see the pool and fire?

After that, the dress and too small shoes came off, thank goodness! And my hair was brushed out and we were done. After many thanks and "otsukaresama deshita"s (thank you for all your hard work,) we left and were on our way back home. And that was my pretend Japanese wedding. Lots of fun, would totally do it again.

The "newly-weds" thank you for everything!

Rock'n' Winter, Doritos Style

As anyone who has read any of my blog entries before knows, Japan has crazy versions of well-known Western foods. (They also have crazy versions of food not sold in Western countries, but that is for another time.) If you have never read my blog before, you may already know of these crazy flavors that sometimes exist, because, you know, the internet. If you had no idea that Japan did this, prepare to have your eyes opened!

The Japanese branch of Frito-Lay loves to do crazy things, such as Pepsi flavored corn puffs. I'm sure more special, magical flavors of snacks exist than I can even pretend to guess at. However, sometimes I come across such glorious things in my little piece of the Japanese countryside, and then I get to share them with you! How lucky is that!

One of Frito-Lay's biggest sellers here is Doritos. Now, while Doritos may be easy to find in any store in America, they can be hit or miss here in Japan, (at least where I live,) and are usually only sold in 2 flavors, Tacos, and Nacho Cheese.

Would you like your corn chips with fake cheese flavoring, or spicy fake cheese flavoring?

Now, that is not to say those are the only flavors in existence, far from it. Those are just the flavors that seem readily available year round. I used to see "corn flavored" Doritos, also know as a normal corn chip with no powder flavoring, but I haven't been able to find those lately. Which is really too bad, as they were my favorite flavor, (or lack there of. I find I don't like nasty artificial powders getting involved with my salsa or guacamole.) In addition to these main flavors, there are limited time and regional flavors available if you know where to look. Or, in my case, someone else finds them for you.

Just in time for the winter holidays, Frito-Lay released a special limited time flavor of Doritos. They are cute! They are shaped like little pine trees! They are green!

Behold! It's a Christmas miracle!

Best of all, they are Corn Cream Stew flavored. Introducing, for a very limited time only in Japan, Doritos Rock'n' White Corn Cream Stew tortilla chips. How's that for a name. What's that? You didn't know you wanted your slightly Mexican inspired snack food to taste like a heavy winter meal? How could you not?! The flavoring powder is even white, so it will look like snow on the trees!

Can you see the "snow"?

Now, I'm not sure what corn cream stew, or any stew for that matter, has to do with tortilla chips or any winter holiday really. Perhaps the Japanese people truly appreciate a good, artificial stew flavor. (See previous post about stew flavored ice pops.) That being said, the shape alone is pretty adorable. My friend bought these for his Christmas party, so we all got to try them.

Taste wise, it's amazing how much these taste like corn cream stew. If you were blind folded, you may possibly think it's actually stew, except for the texture. It's not creamy like a stew. It's crunchy like a chip. (There's an idea, let's go confuse all the blind people of the world. No really, let's not. That's mean.) It's a salty flavor, but it's not over kill, just slightly salt happy. Once the powder is gone, it immediately reverts back to tasting like a normal corn chip. I thought the after taste was rather "meh." It's not horrible, but tangy in an unpleasant manner. That being said, they seem to have the same magic as other strange flavored snack foods, that once you finish eating it, you immediately want another one, even though you didn't particularly love it as you ate it.

Of the other party goers, 3 other people tried the chips in my presence. Joe and Matt both liked them. They thought the flavor was accurate, just like corn cream stew. Matt enjoyed them for the shape, and thought they were good for novelty value, but probably wouldn't purchase them again. Joe would buy them again if he had the chance. Ken hated them. He thought they were bland and "not good." Personally, I agree with Matt the most. They were interesting, they weren't disgusting, but I wouldn't go out of my way to eat them again.

They seem to want to set you on fire. Beware of the Doritos!

GariGari-kun Returns! (with Milk!)

So, I was just going along, doing some grocery shopping, and I decided to check out the ice cream section, because, you know, ICE CREAM. Little did I know a magical surprise awaited me there. A new special flavor of Garigari-kun Rich!

Milk! Nice piercing, Garigari-kun!

Why yes, yes indeed. It's a milk flavored ice pop. I figured this would either be disgusting like the others, or just taste like frozen milk.

By the time I bought it, drove to my friend's house, and opened it, the melting process had begun.

Looks so delicious and not solid!

Not to be discouraged, I dumped it in a plastic tray and bravely carried on. I tried to pick up the stick...

Stick only please! Thank you!

... and it came right through. So I ate it using the stick as a tiny thin spoon. My friend also tried it.

Despite the melted consistency, this was actually rather delicious. It was a mixture of vanilla soft serve and milk. The local mountain here, 大山 (Mt. Daisen), is famous for it's milk flavored soft cream, and this tasted just like that. Sweet milk. I would definitely eat this one again, hopefully in a more solid frozen form. If you want something with a lot of flavor, this is really not gonna do it for you. But if you want a subtle, sweet flavor, or really love milk or vanilla ice cream, you would probably enjoy this.

Good job Garigari-kun!

GariGari-kun's Food Flavors (of doom)

GariGari-kun is a brand of popsicles here in Japan. Or ice pop I guess I should say, as Popsicle is a brand name.You can walk into any conbini or super market and purchase yourself one of these for anywhere from 60 yen to 150 yen, depending on where you go. (Conbini products having a higher mark up and all.)

"Gari gari" is Japanese for crunchy. Add the "kun" honorific (reserved for boys), and the ice pop's name is "Crunchy-boy."

Hi there! I'm Crunchy-boy!

Anyhoo, as we all know, the people of Japan love kakigori. (Shaved ice or snow cones for those who don't speak Japanese.) Every summer, restaurants and food stalls at festivals do a roaring syrup covered ice bits trade. The idea behind Garigari-kun was to have a way to eat kakigori in one hand, not in the traditional cup with a straw.

The idea is a harder "ice candy" outside layer keeps the shape and protects the inside, which is the soft kakigori filling. Research on Google suggests that originally this idea, while wonderful in theory, didn't work so well in real life. However, they seemed to have got it right eventually, as Garigari-kun is the number 1 selling ice pop brand in Japan. Their standard flavor is ラムネ (ramune), or soda flavored. They also make many different flavors, as well as limited time seasonal releases, such as watermelon, peach, grape, etc.

But on to the real point of this post, Garigari-kun's "rich" limited flavors.
Somewhere along the line, someone at the company thought, "Hey! Let's make food flavors! Why not?"

Back in 2012, they had a corn soup flavored one. I did not try it, but on all accounts, it seemed to be disgusting. The company, not to be discouraged, especially because so many people bought it on it's weird factor despite the taste, every once in a while come out with a new flavor.

Deciding to be brave, and see what all this was about, I purchased the 2 flavors available to me at the time, "Cream Stew" and "Napolitan Pasta." Not about to do this alone, I recruited my friend Kako, her husband, and her 2 sons to help me.

Yum!

On the left is the Napolitan flavor. It's a tomato flavor ice shell around the soft pasta sauce tasting center. It also has tomato jellies in the center. On the right is the Stew flavor. It's white stew shell around a softer stew flavored center, with real potato chunks in it. Oh yes, potato chunks.

Do we really want to eat these?

First of all, we all agreed they were both disgusting! I think we ended up throwing half of them out because no one wanted to eat them.

I don't like it. Take it back!

That said, let's go over what they actually tasted like, other than nasty.
The stew flavor tasted like salty milk. Kako and her family thought it was better than the neopolitan flavor, (not good mind you, just, not as bad) but I couldn't agree. I ate one bite and thought I was going to be sick. The texture was horrible, though that could because it sat in my freezer for a month or 2 until I got everyone to try them. The potato chunks were cold and mushy and just plain disgusting. The whole thing was a mushy starchy disaster in my mouth.

Don't they seem impressed?

The neopolitan pasta flavor tasted like ketchup. It was frozen watered down ketchup. It was also rather salty, but the tomato jellies weren't bad. Once you got used to the flavor, it was a little easier to eat (for me, not for the rest,) and it had a strangely sweet after taste. I think I managed to eat half of it before I gave it up as a bad job.

In short, it was interesting to eat ONCE. Never again.

Never again!

Driving in Japan, keeping on keeping on

Long, long ago, or you know, 2 years ago, I went through the highly ridiculous and slightly tedious task of receiving a Japanese Driver's License. Through many trials I prevailed, until I could indeed drive legally here in Japan.

However, this very month, a new challenge arose. My license was about to expire.

The shock! The horror! The danger! The giant eyes!

Basically, when you "transfer" your foreign country's driver's license over to a Japanese one, the new Japanese license is good for 2 years, give or take, as it expires 1 month after your birthday. You are allowed to renew your license starting 1 month before your birthday, and ending 1 month after.

My birthday being in September, I have a renewal period of August to October. Now you may be saying, "Hey, that's 2 months. Plenty of time to renew it! No big deal, right?" And perhaps you would be correct, except for the Japanese love of all things in duplicate paper work, everything thing being EXACTLY perfect, and a penchant to make people re-do things over and over and OVER until it is how they want it. Let's also add in strict rules about what times you can actually go to renew, and the probability that you can't actually understand what anyone is saying to you. In my prefecture's case, to renew a license, one needs to go to the driving center during the registration times of 8:30-9:30am, or 1:00-2:00pm, Sunday through Friday.

As someone who teaches English in schools, and therefore is busy every weekday from 8:30-4:00, renewing creates a bit more of a challenge. However, in August, it's still summer vacation (ish... I've already been to one of my schools 3 times, and will go back more later this week.) The perfect time to do the things you don't have time for normally! My last Tuesday of Freedom was quickly approaching, and decided that this was my chance, no having to figure out how to go during a time when I was supposed to be working. Yes, Sundays are a possibility, but from everything I heard, Sundays are also terrifying, because that is when ALL the people who work weekdays go. If you go on a Sunday, be prepared to get there as soon as possible (hopefully, BEFORE 8:30) and line up with everyone else in hopes they'll get to see you.

That being said, the people at the driving center do have this down to a science. I showed up at 8:30, and they were ready to direct me where to go. As I have changed addresses from when I got my license, I first had to go to Window 5 (that's in my center. Your center may be different.) to get a change of address form. Apparently, I was supposed to have already done this at my local police station when I first moved, by taking them my license and 2 pieces of mail (official type stuff like bills or paychecks) and having them change it. I, however, did not do that, due to ignorance or laziness or who knows what. I didn't do it. This did cause a small problem for me in that all drivers receive a postcard in the mail telling them:

A) Your license is about to expire!

B) This is where you go to renew!

C) These are the times you can go to renew!

D) Probably other important information!

E) Don't speak Japanese? Bring this postcard with you, and they'll know exactly why you're there, no broken Japanese explanations necessary.

Instead, I troubled the people at my office to get me all the information I needed, and then my friend Kako to go with me and help translate. I'm such a stinker.

So, anyway, I had to go to window 5, where they took my DL and copied it, and checked my mail I brought that it was indeed a different address. Or something, I have no idea what they were looking for. Then, I got a piece of paper where I had to write my name and my new address. They took that back and took my piece of mail back to check that yes, the address I wrote and the address on my mail were indeed the same. They then proceeded to copy my DL again. They stamped some things, gave me my DL, mail, and 1 of the copies of my DL and the new address written on it, and told us to go start at the beginning.

So, we went back to the entrance, handed the DL and the papers over, they nodded that everything was in order, and sent us to window 1. At window one, they once again copied my DL (so much paper!) and had me pay the 4000yen renewal fee, and gave me some paperwork to fill out. The paperwork was 2 papers, one were I wrote my name, birthday, DL number, and chose a PIN for the IC chip they put in the new DLs. (Not sure what the use of that will be.) The other paper was questions about illnesses and if they hinder your driving. I actually have no idea what they asked because Kako read them and told me I didn't have any of those problems and just to check no for everything. Sign. Date. Done.

We then moved on the the eye check station. I handed over my paperwork and license, and he asked if I could see without my glasses (the answer being very much no.) He then informed me that he couldn't tell if the 6 I wrote on the question form was a 6 or a 4.... Which to me is idiotic. It was today's date. Of course it's a 6. However, he pulled out a new paper and I got to re-write all the answers, the date, and re-sign it, while he voided my other paper and put it to the side. I wrote my 6's very carefully. Then I got to look into a machine and point which way the C was facing, very easy, and he signed off on my nonsense and sent me to the next section, where I got to take my new picture. That was it. All that took maybe 20-25 minutes.

Then came the fun part. As part of renewing your license, you are required to sit through a lecture of road laws and safe driving. Depending on how long you've had your license and how many traffic violations you've had, it can be 30 minutes to 3 hours. For renewing the first time, a wonderful 2 hour lecture was in order. Like the registration times, they have them only 2 times a day, at 9:45 and 2:15 at my center. If you are too late in registering and miss it, they will tell you to come back later or the next day. If too many people register in front of you and fill up the lecture, they will tell you to come back later or another day. You will not get your license until you participate in the lecture.

The lecture's books, about driving safety.

What you get to stare at for the next 2 hours.

Despite my complete lack of knowledge of the Japanese language, I was still required to sit though it. From what I could understand, they basically talked about the number of accidents in the area, things to watch out for when driving, laws that may have recently changed, no drinking and driving, etc. The instructor used power point on the TV. When there were pictures, I could figure out what he was talking about, even though I couldn't really understand him. The slides with just text and numbers were beyond me. There were also many slides that were copies of a poster or pamphlet, squished to fit on the slide. The media arts major inside of me was in severe pain. There was also a 45 minute movie about hitting pedestrians and cyclists with your car and how to be careful. It included 6 examples, in which at least 4 the pedestrian or cyclist was definitely at fault as they sped through stop signs, didn't look for oncoming traffic at all, wore dark clothing as they jaywalked at night, hung out in drivers' blind spots, and basically disregarded all traffic laws. This is actually pretty accurate of the pedestrians you typically find in Japan.

When the lovely lecture I didn't understand was over, we were escorted back to window 5 or 6, where they took our old license, punched a hole in it, and gave us our new ones. And that was it, mission accomplished.

All in all, much easier than getting the license was, but I'm happy I won't have to do it again for at least 3 years. I've also heard you can go to the central police station instead of the driving center to do this, but you have to bring a photo for the license with you (please make sure it's the right size and layout) and it can take up to 2 months to receive your new license in the mail. It's better to go to a driving center if possible.

The Oldest Lighthouse in Sanin

Happy New Year!  明けましておめでとうございます！(Happy New Year in Japanese, of course)

I traveled roughly 15,000 km to the United States to see my family and friends for Christmas. It was a lovely time, but now I'm back in Japan, and ready to be a better, or at least more reliable, blogger. Call it a new year's resolution. We'll see how that goes...

Right now, my friend Yao is visiting me all the way from Shanghai, China. He works for a Japanese company and had training in Tokyo at the beginning of this week, and decided to swing out to the inaka part of the country to see what he could see. The answer being an excessive amount of rice fields.

For today's adventure, I drove him out to Mihonoseki to see the Mihonoseki Light House. Mihonoseki is a tiny historic fishing town known for Miho Shrine and for having the oldest lighthouse in the Sanin area, which is comprised of Shimane, Tottori, and northern Yamaguchi prefectures.

Yao showing us the beautiful Mihonoseki Lighthouse.

Apparently, this lighthouse is considered one of the top 100 lighthouses in the world. I had no idea there was such a list, what a lighthouse must do to get on said list, or who decides such things, or why. Just know that this one is top 100 baby.  You can walk around the lighthouse and see some nice scenic views of the Sea of Japan, then drive back down the hill and go to Miho shrine. I think doing both those things took about an hour, maybe a little more, which is not much in comparison to the 45 minutes it takes to drive there, then the 45 minute drive back to Matsue. But, it was nice, something to do. Plus, if you like fresh seafood, you can get it in Mihonoseki for cheap.

Mihonoseki Lighthouse, and attached cafe and souviner shop.

The Sea of Japan. South Korea is far far far in the distance.

The view from behind the lighthouse. The Oki Islands are about 3 km away and can be seen on clear sunny days using high powered binoculars according to the sign, but we only saw water.

A little shrine hidden behind the lighthouse.

It's a lighthouse! Of French design, so I've read.

Where the lighthouse is, on the tip of the peninsula out into Miho Bay. The 2 blobs floating above are the Oki Islands.

There was a sundial! It's 2:00pm.

A little tiny trail that goes around the side of the lighthouse back the parking lot. You can look out over the Sea of Japan or Miho bay when there's breaks in the trees.

This sign explains how the trail maintains it's マジクイマジ (magic image) with plants that have big thick leaves that stay green even though the cold sea breezes come through.

I must say, it was very green, especially for January.

The sign in Mihonoseki for the shrine and the lighthouse. Check out that fishing boat!

A bamboo, paper, and dead fish pole. There were a couple of these here and there. They're to bring the good fortune of good weather, plenty of fish, and safe boating to the fishermen.

Nearby where I parked, there was this cute orange bridge.

It goes to a tiny man made island with a little shrine on it.

The big entrance torii of Miho shrine. The road on each side up to the torii (gate) is lined with stores selling fresh seafood.

Stop and wash your hands before entering.

Miho Shrine is dedicated to two deities and so it has two different styles of architecture. That's pretty rare. It's also the head shrine of all shrines built for the Ebisu deity. So, it's a boss shrine.

The gate into the main courtyard.

Giant straw rope over the gate.

A miko (shrine maiden) carrying a tray of something or other. A family with an older boy and a priest followed her into the main building. I'm guessing they're getting the boy blessed so he'll pass his university entrance exams. It's that time of year, and he looked to be the right age.

Fresh caught squid, hung out to dry and to catch the eye.

So creepy. I think Yao wanted to buy some, but I said "No way that's going in my car!"

It was a good little excursion. Now Yao is taking a nap on my floor, and my legs are toasty warm under my kotatsu as I write this. However, my bum is definitely going numb. Curse you low Japanese tables!