(no longer) LOST IN JAPAN

Wedding on Sunday

Good lord. This wedding will be the death of me. Uesugi sensei, my friend and cooking teacher, is getting married on Sunday. She asked me to make a speech. I was honoured... and panicked. What do I say? I've never been to a Japanese wedding (heck the last Western wedding I was at, I was 8 years old)... what is the etiquette? The only thing I know is that generally you pay 30,000-50,000 yen just to attend... and that isn't exactly a happy thought.

Anyway, Thank God for the Moritanis. My constant source of information for Japanese tradition. I wrote my speech in English and then asked Kimiyo if she could translate. She did and I will be eternally greatful. However, now I have to read it. Easy? Guess again... I practiced it on Tuesday with Miwako but I sounded like a 5 year old reading Shakespeare. Yesterday I spent 2 hours practicing and I can only read about half of it. I had planned on learning it by heart but forget that. Not going to happen. If I can read it without holding the paper in front of my face, I'll be a happy woman. I can now sympathise with my students (sort of) because learning something by heart in a foreign language that makes no sense isn't easy... Granted I could probably learn 5 sentences if I was given 3 weeks to learn them... so on second thought, maybe I don't sympathise so much...

The other issue that has been plaguing me: WHAT DO I WEAR?!?!?! The Moritanis suggested I wear a kimono but I have no idea how to put one on... so that may be a problem... probably. So that leaves me with the dress option. I have 2 nice dresses that I brought with me but they are a little big for me now (usually a good thing but not good now). I could go out and buy another but then I have to go and buy another... besides... nothing in Japan will fit me because I... um... have curves... So I am stuck. Very very stuck. But I will worry about that later. For now, I will take advantage of the empty teacher's room to practice my speech out loud.

posted by Samantha @ 8:39 PM