Wedding for Nobuo and Miwako

I attended a Shinto wedding ceremony of my good friends from Kashiwazaki, Nobuo and Miwako. I first met Nobuo’s father while hitchhiking on August 11, 2006, a very hot summer day. I was making no progress that day on my way to Tokyo and actually purposely caught a car going the opposite direction so that I could at least be in an expressway service area and drink as much water as I needed. It was definitely one of God’s setups because that day of suffering a couple of hours in the sun resulted in some of the best Japanese friends I have with every increasing possibilities to make new friends! It has also turned into a possible English teaching job in the near future.

Weeks earlier Nobuo asked me to do a speech at the wedding party so I had much time to prepare. Nevertheless, I dreaded having to do it. Talking to large groups of people is something I don’t particularly relish doing but I knew God would give me the grace for it. It would have been hard enough to give a speech in English, but I had to give it in Japanese! The ladies at my table asked me if I was nervous to give the speech, and I replied I was. Nevertheless, I gave it with everything in me and even ad-libbed adding things I didn’t even have written down on the paper I was holding. The audience just loved it! The ladies at the table said that I made everybody happy. I told them that was exactly my intention. Nobuo commented, “A perfect speech!”

Please check out the photos I took at the wedding party.

The wedding was traditional Japanese Shinto style. I felt honored to be invited to attend the ceremony. I was the only non-Japanese person in attendance and I’m only a friend of the family. Such ceremonies traditionally are open only to close relatives of the bride and groom.

Watch the YouTube video and you will hear some of the highly unusual music I heard during the ceremony.