Japan Day 3 - Kirei Desu Ne
Well, poke me in the eye with a chopstick and call me Long John Silver. I think that most of day 4 will actually be spent blogging about day 3. Yesterday was a long, long day. So, get yourself a sleeping bag and a mug of cocoa - this could be a looooong read. It was the day of Mark and Sayaka's celebration meal. Forty of Sayaka's relatives and friends were invited, with the dinner being held in the posh function suite of the Metropole Hotel in Nagano. Mark and Sayaka wore traditional Japanese dress - Furisode (Sayaka) and Montsuki (Mark). Sayaka looked very pretty (kirei desu ne = "you're beautiful").
Unfortunately, Mark has told me that I'm not allowed to post any photos of them on my blog, so you will have to look forward to seeing photographs of the outfits at a later date. It was rather an anxious day all round, with appointments to be met for Mark and Sayaka (hair and outfits), speeches to be memorised (Mark had two speeches to do, which were made difficult by the fact that they used old Japanese phrases) and with the evening dinner itself. I had the job of official photographer, which proved to be tricky (but fun) because I wasn't used to the format of the occasion. Before the evening began, Mark and I started off having lunch at a little restaurant called Ichibun (not to be mistaken with a rash on your bottom - "itchy bum"). The guy had built his little restaurant on the side of his house; a quaint little place. Photographs 1, 2 and 3 show Mark and me eating our lunch - Mark had Ramen and I had a dish made of chicken, egg and rice. Notice my use of chopsticks - I'm getting better at this. It was a light lunch - thank goodness for that. When it comes to evening meals, the Japanese manage to eat several times their own body weight... well, that's the way it seemed last night anyway. With lunch out of the way, and having picked up my new suit, it was time to make our way to the hotel to prepare for the evening. The evening was in two parts. Firstly, the official dinner. Secondly, a small party with a group of close friends at Mario's restaurant; about 10 minutes walk from the hotel. Official Dinner Sayaka and Mark welcomed all forty guests into the room - I was with them taking group photographs and attempted to use some of my Japanese phrases. I quickly learned the policy of 'if in doubt, just nod enthusiastically' as some of the guests spoke to me. They were all really friendly and were genuinely pleased to meet me. Then began two hours of eating food, presentations, eating more food, more presentations, more food… It really was an amazing evening. We had about 8 courses of food in the end - from sushi to soup to cottage pie. Esdras, who was on my table, was kind enough to point out to me, each time a dish arrived, that it wasn't yet the main course. I thought he was joking… until the main course finally did arrive after the 6 previous dishes had been consumed. The MC of the evening introduced presentations about Mark and Sayaka and kept things ticking along. There were speeches, singing, games (Mark was blindfolded at one point and had to guess which hand was Sayaka's from a group of women holding out their hands). Mark did incredibly well with his speech - he had a lot to learn and was understandably nervous speaking traditional Japanese to so many of Sayaka's relatives. Meanwhile, I was running around like a blue-arsed-fly trying to take photographs from every conceivable angle - not knowing what was coming next. Right, on to photos:Photographs 4 and 5 are of Nonchan looking "kirei" (beautiful) whilst elegantly stuffing her face with food.
Photograph 6 is of me eating food with my chopsticks, photograph 7 is of me taking photos of the food (Mark asked me to do it, honest!). Photograph 8 is the sushi dish.
Photograph 9 is of the waiter dishing out cottage pie (course number 6). It is traditional, at this type of occasion, for members of the family to come up and pour you a drink. So, lots of member's of Sayaka's family poured me drinks. This resulted in a build-up of drinks around me. Photograph 10 shows this - two drinks of Sake, one of champagne, one white wine, one red wine, one water and one tea. Photograph 11 is of the dessert. I was absolutely stuffed at this point, but still managed to eat some of the delicious strawberry and yoghurt and the little apple flan. Photograph 12 is of Esdras, Nonchan and me at the end of the evening. Unofficial Party After the official dinner, we had a quick change of clothes and headed out to Mario's restaurant. There we ate (more food!? Surely not!), drank, had laughs and played silly games. It was great fun. Photograph 13 is of Mark and Sayaka playing a game - Sayaka was blindfolded and had to guess which 'derriere' was Mark's. Photographs 14 and 15 are of Mark, me and Sayaka making fools of ourselves. Photograph 16 is of the whole group of us.