Pre-Marital Blitz
We got married Monday evening about 5pm at the Fussa-shi city hall.Naturally, the snarky pranksters of fate placed several drop-dead beauties behind the counter to divert me, but I soldiered on.
I had been eshewing thoughts of the imminent nuptials all weekend. As you know, I was initially quite concerned about this, but seeing her and being with her once again cured me of that lapse. I was able to feel certainty behind what I was doing, ...as long as I didn't think about it too much.
Sunday we spent the day horsing around the house, eating, talking, enjoying each other's company. We left at 3:30 to make the hour long drive out to her father's house for dinner with her father and his wife. Joining us were her beautiful sister, her husband, and their cute 1 year old daughter. They threw every kind of food at me that they could. I seriously haven't eaten that much in many years.
Her father likes to drink. He's very open about it and enjoys it, ...so there was an "endless glass of beer" policy all night. For the Japanese, it's a big deal to pour a drink for a friend or relative. I guess it's considered polite and generous. Needless to say, my glass was never empty until we ran out of beer later on.
Here is a short run down of what we had:
sukiaki (contains beef, raw egg, several different variety of mushroom, tons of veggies, glassy noodles made from yams)
raw whitefish
raw tuna
Tako (Octopus) marianted in lime
pickled eggplant
white radish
beef jerky
some fish whose name I don't remember
young yellowtail
The dinner lasted about 6 hours. Although I fought hard against it, I feel asleep on the way home.
On Monday we went to the US Embassy to pick up a form that allows me (a US citizen) to marry in Japan. Afterwards we went to Shinjuku for lunch, eating on the 8th floor in a small restaurant over looking the giant Studio Alta video screen. We did some book shopping, strolled through the brothel district where one of the hottest women I've ever seen was checking me out like I was the last guy on earth.
We took the train back to Haijima and drove to the Fussa-shi city hall.
Apparently no transaction can take place in Japan without 27 minutes of questioning conversation. The process for signing the marriage papers took about a half hour all together. This gave me a lot of time to think, and think I did.
I was nervous. She was talking with the helpful man behind the counter, the hot girls in the office are giggling at me, and I'm just now realizing that THIS IS IT.
I won't be shopping in Santa Monica next year, accidentally bump into Lucy Lui, charm her off her feet and fall madly in love. The chances were against that anyway, but you know what I mean.
I'm signing a lifetime contract here. No more playing around. All those hot girls in the bars and on the streets, ...they might as well not exist to me anymore. And that's going to take some getting used to. For the last, ...oooooh 33 years I've grown quite accustomed to flirting, looking for girls, and generally appreciating the exciting sights, sounds, and smells of the female world.
Now that world will consist of one person and one person only.
The man behind the counter stamped our paper, recorded the data, and handed over our certificate.
Just like that, I'm hitched.
How I would feel about this became quite clear to me within 10 minutes.
more tomorrow ...
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