The Ceremony (14/14)

Here are all the friends who helped us to celebrate the day. Thank you all for coming, and best wishes for the New Year!

The Ceremony (13/14)

A new family!

The Ceremony (12/14)

What can I say? Married!

The Ceremony (11/14)

My ring was a tight fit! After this the musicians played to a traditional dance, and both families drank sake together.

The Ceremony (10/14)

Virgins! Well, they're supposed to be. And I hope they were - considering what we paid!

The Ceremony (9/14)

Usually only the groom reads the "chikai no kotoba" (oath), but we had decided that Satoko would read an English translation after me. The shrine provided us with several versions. The original in kanji (Chinese characters) had furigana (pronunciation characters) alongside because even native Japanese might not know some of the old kanji used.

There was a romaji (roman alphabet) transliteration - but reading Japanese written in romaji is actually harder for me than reading hiragana (phonetic script). So hiragana it was, though I still made a couple of mistakes. Satoko did well with the English version - tweaked from the flawed translation they had given us.

The Ceremony (8/14)

Next we walked out into the heat of the day, and stood in front of the alter. I'm glad it didn't rain, but 30 degrees is hot when wearing a black kimono! The priest (in green) was sweating more than I was though.

Friends invited to the ceremony are seated just offscreen to the left, and to the right on the stage you can see a few of the musicians.

The Ceremony (7/14)

The dangers of drink! After Satoko's last sip of sake, we were considered married - the rest of the ceremony being a mere formality.

The Ceremony (6/14)

The ceremony began with lots of bowing, while a priest invoked blessings. Dad was able to sneak a few forbidden videos - better than some of the official (and expensive) footage shot by the "shrine photographers".

The Ceremony (5/14)

Satoko and I led the procession to the keidai (inner shrine). The umbrella is to protect the bride from the sun, and red is a lucky color.

The Ceremony (4/14)

One last goodbye ... In Japan the girl joins the boy's family! On the right is Satoko's sister, Kyoko.

The Ceremony (3/14)

The room divider rolled back to allow us to introduce the families for the first time! The fish-eye effect here actually conveys how unreal this was!

The Ceremony (2/14)

I joined my parents in the hikaishitsu (antechamber), where a divider - behind us in the photo - separated us from Satoko's family. They had never met before, until ...

The Ceremony (1/14)

Well, I better post these wedding photos before the year is out!

The shrine gave us the negatives, but with multiple cameras (and lenses - apologies for the fish-eye shots) it was a bit of a chore to sort them into chronological order. I had to leave out some great ones in order to make the task of showing each phase of the ceremony manageable.

Anyway, there are still 14 photos, so I'll just add a few snippets of text. We arrived at the shrine around 7:30am. It took about one and a half hours to get Satoko ready, and then we popped out for a quick photo. The white hood is supposed to hide the female horns that disappear after marriage!

Born Free

Ok, I missed a month. I had hoped that wasn't going to happen, but PWSD (Post-Wedding Slackness Disorder) and a generalised winter malaise have kept me busy with other things - like catching up with "Lost".

There are wedding pics available now that I really should post, but I need to sort them first. And since I've already taken a topic break to report on the birth of my nephew Leo (who's doing fine, BTW) I thought I'd report on another little loved one who I've been missing.

Yep, my little orange buddy Eric. Sorry for any dog-lovers reading, but "man's best friend" is over-rated, IMHO. ;-) Sure dogs are more consistently social and interactive. But when you're taking a nap, and a cat decides the best place in the whole house to sleep is right on top of _your _ nap, it feels pretty special.

Anyway, Eric was recently relocated from the house where he grew up to my parents' new place, and despite my worries about the transfer, he seems to be thriving. He's not 'fat' thriving! That's just the camera angle. What I mean is he hasn't run away yet or been put on Prozac.

Amongst all the friends and family I miss back home, Eric's up there near the top of the list. I can't wait to give him a cuddle when I finally visit NZ in 2006 (sometime) for my sister Sophie's wedding. More pics soon ...