Triumphant return!  Every wedding place has some fancy autos for photo shots.  Basically I'm convinced that weddings in Japan especially are made for the photos and not for the ceremony.  Of course the place that can provide the best photo shots gets the customers.

The get away

Here they are leaving the wedding.  No this is not 100 years ago!

It is 2008!  But tomorrow you will see how they return.

liquid light

Here was another interesting thing.  He poured a liquid into a spriral glass dohicky and then it light up into this shiny blue decoration.

Don't throw the bouquet!

I was informed this is the latest in bouquets for a wedding.  Instead of the toss the single girls all select a flower bud from the bride's bouquet and pull and then the one girl is lucky and gets the one attached to a cord.  This gives her the right to get the bouquet and also the supposition to be the next to marry.

in stead of rice throwing

When I was young in Idaho we used to throw rice at the newly wed couple as they left the church.  

Japanese will never throw rice as that is for food and should not be wasted.

Last year in Hawaii the guests were given flower pedals to toss in the air as they walked out. 

 At this wedding guests were given those little pop boxes that you pull a string and pop out comes streamers of colored paper.

Church wedding

Notice how the Japanese are now requesting Christian weddings? Doesn't have be in a church.  It just has to look like a church.  The preacher doesn't have to be an ordained major denomination pastor, he just has to look right.  I think most are quite good Christians and give good Christian values in their messages.  This pastor according to DH spoke in both English and Japanese.  I don't know why he bothered with English as no one except DH could understand it and he can understand Japanese.  Probably the biggest attraction of the Christian wedding is the chance to have photos in a gorgeous dress and beautiful formal setting. The traditional Japanese wedding kimono takes hours of preparation and layers of makeup that I understand are quite uncomfortable.  Also all guests can attend the chapel wedding, where the traditional Japanese wedding ceremony is very limited in space.  

wedding wait

This I think is a nice custom.  To provide the family with a waiting room and snacks while waiting for the ceremony to begin.  First time I experienced this was at our son's wedding in Tokyo SDA Central church.  We had to be there from 7 or 8 in the morning until after the ceremony and clean up.  It was so organized with everything ticking on schedule.  The family waiting room was so nice as a place to just relax.  We had to be there for hair styling and ceremony practice, but not only was it good for us to be able to escape to the family room, but it also got us out from under the workers feet.  Just before the ceremony, both families are organized and introduced to the other side.  This can save the embarassment of not knowing who is a relative.  Other guests are not invited to this room as they are not expected to show up until almost starting time when they can be ushered into the chapel.  

Wedding

Saturday DH and FIL went to DH cousin's oldest sons wedding.  In the next few days I'll share with you what he told me and how Japanese weddings are different than American.  But who is to say American weddings are all the same?  Actually I think both countries have a lot of leeway in chosing what they want and how they want to celebrate.  But some things in Japan never seem to change and that is that female relatives not of the immediate family are not invited unless the male can not go.  The tall man on the right is DH cousin.  Both mothers are wearing the traditional black formal kimono.  The bride is wearing her final change of gorgeous gowns and this is the receiving line for the guests to congradulate them on leaving.

Hakuba ski area

Leaving Hakuba area.  On the right is Iwatake and on the left is Happone and Hakuba 47.

Here we are playing Train to Mexico.  I was not winning at this time.  Anyone wanting the rules google Domino games and you can find out how to play.  But add our new rules for more fun.  First we make it a law that you can not play on your own double.  This messes up the next players own train more as every double means another mess up for the following person.  The real rules let you play on your own double and that means most doubles go on your own train so the game takes less thinking.  Then I like the changeable seating each time as it keeps one person from always being stuck behind a "dirty" player (like my brother) who always plays to mess people up rather than to win himself.  Also it gives the lowest score person a chance to pick the leading double and thus he won't have to be one of the first to draw the extra domino to start his private train.  However a record is kept and the same double can not be started again in the same game, so the choice becomes less with each start.   The first seating is determined by a random draw and seating is from high to low points on the drawed domino.

Here is the dry table.  After eating/drinking we sat around this table and played Train to Mexico.  Some needed to be taught and we had too many to play a quick game.  10 of us playing and DH was score keeper and 2 others were coaches.  We made a new rule that after each round DH would call out the new seating chart with the total lowest (winner) score being on one end and then going down to the highest (looser) score.  The lowest score person got to decide the starting double (we use dominos to play Train to Mexico and must use a double to start the game).  The final winner was ME.   This game has always been a favorite of the Bommie (Diving Shop) trips.

Here is the drinking table.  Being there were 13 of us totally, we decided that the ones wanting to drink alcohol shoud sit at a different table.  

The icecycles were just beautiful.  We love this little minshiku with its lovely little lady and her family who run it.  I first visited this place 34 years ago with my students before I met my DH.  My student who took me there was told by her, "NO FOREIGNERS!"  But he convinced her that I was different.  Yes, we became good friends and she even made special veggie food for me.  Then after marriage, my husband, my parents and I all went skiing and stayed there on our honeymoon!  Now we try to get up about once a year.  My sons say it is worth going there if only for the food.  My only complaint is that I have to use the man's toilet as I refuse to use the Japanese squat style and that is all that is in the ladies section.  I warn all men that I am using the sit down toilet in their section, but will wait until no slippers are visible outside the door.  In Japan you change the daily house slipper for special toilet slippers.

Here is the group outside getting ready to ski with me for the first time inside watching!  The weather had been ideal for 2 days.  By ideal I mean cloudy with a few flakes of snow with no wind.  I don't like sunshine while skiing as it makes the snow conditions either sticky or icy.  However this third day was windy and quite blizzardy.  The top was too foggy to ski so we stayed on this chair at the bottom.

Here is the casualty of the trip.  On the first day of skiing DH was trying to clean off the bottom of my boot before I stepped into the bindings.  Off fell the rubber pad from the heal part of my boot  But the boot fit fine in the ski and I skied like that all three days, until the last day when we stopped for lunch and I stepped out of my bindings, my boot fell apart!  I didn't want to rent a boot for the last few hours of skiing so I sat in the lodge.  Another of our members quite about an hour later and since she had same size foot I put on her boots and used her skis and pools since DH had taken mine to the car already.  I wanted to try her short carving skis.  My longer semi carving skis I just loved as well as my lovely warm Solomon Ski boots.  Well coming down the hill with her carving skis was quite a shock to me as they kept chattering and I had a terrible time keeping control.  When I got to the bottom I asked my diving teacher (best skier with us) why the great difference.  He laughed and said my style of skiing is the old fashioned way of parallel skiing with both skis tight together and slipping the tails around and that doesn't work with the new carving skis that are made for edge turning without slipping.  That made sense to me and also made me realize I will stick with my old fashioned parallel.  I'm glad my boot went home in pieces instead of me!  I went to the ski shop to see if the Solomon company offers any lifetime warranty and he laughed and said only 5 years and my boots were obviously closer to 20!

Iwatake Ski Ground

January 2-5 found DH and I up in Hakuba ski are.  Great ski conditions and we found out that new regulations let those over 50 ski for a big discount.  When we become 70 it will be free!  But when I looked around at the skiers taking a break in the lodge at lunch time it was quite shocking to discover only one other person who looked older than myself!  Where are the senior skiers?  Probably off sitting in some hotspring?

Switched over from Yahoo. Welcome to my new blog

Hi,  Switched over from Yahoo.  Now to check if this will work!  I was so angry at Yahoo for rejecting my photos when they were not too small!  Now I'll add a photo and see if Blogger works!  This was our school Christmas tree!  Little beanie kids sitting on branches with silver tinsel and icecycles with little red lights blinking.   Students seem to complain if the tree is the same two years in a row!  So in summer I always look for new to them stuff at yard sales and Good Will stores in USA.  Well this seems to be okay now.