We hopped in Mami’s little pink car and took a drive out to Gujo city with our friend, Mr. H, for some traditional new year mochi making. Mochi can be described as ”steamed rice pounded into a glutinous cake and used as a staple ingredient in a variety of dishes, including desserts”. This seasonal activity is a Japanese custom I hadn’t experienced until today, so I was quick with my camera to snap some pictures of, and take part in the rice-cake-making ceremony, mochitsuki.
Below is a short video of our mochi-making, which you can also see here on YouTube. Actually, there are some really amazing videos of people making rice cakes on YouTube (especially here and here) which I urge you to watch.
We officially registered our marriage on the 22nd, now Rikuto’s birthday, but had the ceremony on a warm, slightly overcast yet otherwise perfect Sunday in the Japanese summertime. With my family unable to make the long trip from England to visit, there was no pressure to have a large, elaborate, western-style wedding which has become so common in modern Japan. Instead we opted for a comparatively smaller event in a delightful French restaurant, organised by friends and attended by about forty people close to our hearts.
Our priest wasn’t a real priest at all, but rather than paying an English teacher to masquerade as a one, we asked a good friend to perform the ceremony for us. He was so nervous, but he did a wonderful job, conducting the service in both Japanese and English, so my parents could understand when they watched the video.
My best friend in Japan had contacted my parents and asked them to send a speech for him to read at the wedding. This was a wonderful gesture and the speech was so personal, my parents may as well have been there in the room with us. He then went on to give his own endearing speech which had both Mami and I in tears, and one of my wife’s closest friends gave an equally touching, and fun-filled speech in the form of a doctor’s prescription, outlining carefully how the patient, Mami, should be treated!
The party had all the elements of a professional wedding: music, speeches, cake cutting, great food, a beautiful speech from Mami to her mother – which had everyone balling their eyes out with tears of happiness, photoshoots, a bouquet for one lucky bridesmaid, and even – unlike a typical wedding for sure – a guest appearance from Michael Jackson himself!
Later in the evening, we let our hair down, put on the hawaiian shirts, and partied on the rooftop of a hotel until we were all so drunk we couldn’t stand up any longer. It was, without any doubt or regret, the best wedding day either of us could have imagined, and the memories will keep us smiling for long to come.
