Author: Justin

Marriage in Japan for Foreign Couples

This is a public service announcement to all gaijin couples thinking of getting married in Japan. If you indeed choose to make this wonderful commitment in the Land of the Rising Sun, be forewarned that you will be asked to write your name on the wedding registration paper more times and in more ways than you can possibly imagine. This is mainly due to corrections made necessary by the confusion caused when two non-Japanese want to perform some official action normally only performed with at least one Japanese counterpart.
Man, we ruffled the system up so badly they wouldn’t even let us get married the day we went in, they insisted on performing a day-long inspection of the documents first. Even after allowing us to get married on the second day, they called us back in because they had made another mistake. Then later that night, they called again announce yet another one – the lady in charge ended up coming by our house on our wedding night to get the papers in order.
All’s well that ends well, right? And we weren’t about to let the small things ruin it for us. It seemed it was all behind us, and all was good. Then today we found out they issued us the wrong wedding certificate (different from what we requested). Here we go again…

Knot, tied.

A couple hours ago, I sat here a happy man. I sit here again now even happier!
We are married! There is much rejoicing in the streets of Sumoto!
Next, the Wedding. Tentatively planned for next February. We’re thinking of a beach wedding in Thailand, and I, for once, am willing to deal with the yuppie resorts I usually detest… Somehow “wedding” and “private beach” just sound nice together.
And now, we are off to a nice dinner together. Just like we have a thousand times before, but tonight is special. Thanks for all your blessings.

An announcement

Hey all,
I have ten days off work and am spending most of them soaking up rays on the beach. We went to the Awa Odori in Tokushima last night and I took over a gigabyte of photos with my new D50 – I hope to be posting a series of these over the next few days. It was truly an awesome experience, the largest festival I have ever seen in Japan.
I have a bigger announcement, though. Nam and I finally got all the paperwork in order, and will be getting married at the city office within the next few days! I’ll post updates to let you all know, meanwhile, I hope you are all having fun during my summer vacation!

All your base is belong to… Gaijin?

Whoa. Check out the latest comment on my Black Bus post from last year:
You are not understand nothing yet… gaijin
The commenter, Ryoma, is either a big fan or a cock-hoggin’ goose-stepper – I just can’t figure out if his comment is high praise or the lowest of insults.
You are not understand nothing… I have to admit, this has a special ring to it. The double negative implies that I know something… On the other hand, perhaps nothing is a reference to mu, the state of nothingness one achieves through meditation – or perhaps in Spain, where Ryoma is posting from, through several bong hits. Now that is just hurtful, man.
At least he has hope in me, as implied by the trailing “yet.” Maybe he sees my potential for not understanding nothing. Now that might be something to hope for!
Anybody else have any insight into this?
Ryoma, damn you! Why must you confound me so? RYOOOOOOOOOMAAAAAAAA!