If you haven't heard, Yuuri and I are married now!
We went to the city hall on the 6th December 2009 but they didn't really understand the procedure for a foreign marriage. When we did get it sorted they got Yuuri's name wrong, despite having her ID card details. They also had difficulty understanding where I was from UK/Great Britain or England. Finally though we got it sorted and here is my Japanese marriage certificate.
I need to submit that to the British embassy now to register my marriage in England.
Yuuri has changed her name to Mitchell now too.
Although Mitchell is pronounced Me-che-ru in Japan which I hate but I guess it's better than nothing. Now we just wait for the ceremony in May.
Alright I don't know if I can marry yet I get my results tomorrow, but I went to a wedding yesterday.
Actually this wedding is at the same place as I will marry Yuuri so in essence this was a kind of reconnaissance wedding.
Check out the authenticity, alright so it's a bit 'Disney Land' but it's all about the show. I don't really care if the church was built in the 1600s by the pope or erected in the 1980s by Imagine(c). And I'll tell you what, the heating system works well in this modern building and you wont find that in your damp Gothic churches.
This is the old 'chucking the petals' routine, I like that picture cause the petals are caught mid-flight and check out the guy with the pink phone, no it's not his girlfriends its his and that's Japan.
A nice shot of the couple though, Kenji and Megumi Kato.
They met at my welcome party when I came to Aeon, I remember sitting next to them and talking with Kenji. He was to become one of my students and Megumi is the Kids head teacher. They are two very lovely people and two of my favourite people at Aeon.
After some photos we all bustle up to the party room where we enjoy lots of food and booze. This is where we also pay the lean 17,000Y/ $191 / £115 but this is the way of all weddings in Japan, indeed I hear in Tokyo the prices are much much higher.
Here is a nice group of the current Aeon workforce with the lady on the left in the white jacket working at the Morioka branch and the rest of us stuck in the Arctic tundra Aomori.
Japanese weddings always seem to include at least one costume change which gives the whole thing a little personality. I like it and I really like this outfit!
Ah and who could forget, the flaming sword, a key part to any wedding where ever you are in the world. On this day of love Kenji unites the Japanese old love of samurai warriors with the modern Japanese love of smoking in public. Very beautifully done though.
No pictures of Yuuri I hear you cry? Well no she was working but she came to the second party in her brand new dress I bought for her. I chose a very western style which I think she needed time to get used to but here she is in her fluffy bear slippers...
Last weekend (2nd November 09) I went to Tokyo with Yuuri to visit Disney Sea. Disney in Japan is a lot like Disney in America. A lot of hype and a lot of waiting around.
I'm a bit cynical when it comes to Disney. I hate how all the advertisements show Disney as this magical place and usually depict a young family freely enjoying the park, and it looks like a dream. However they don't show the hoards of people clambering to get a look at plastic mountain or the never ending wait for a 2 minute ride.
Having said that Yuuri really enjoys Disney and it is a good day out. The rides are pretty good and I really liked the Tower of Terror. Yuuri always gets very scared when she goes on rides, her palms become sweaty and she becomes noticeably more nervous. She loves it though!
We were in the park for about 10hrs and we were so tired afterwards. Our hotel was nice but our key didn't work so our room got upgraded.
The main reason we came to Tokyo was to visit the British embassy to get our marriage ready for approval. When Americans do this I heard they must take blood tests but at the British embassy I only had to fill in a form and pay some money, Yuuri didn't have to be there. The form cost £63/Y9,700 and I have to wait until the 24th November 09 for approval.
My information goes on a public notice board for anyone to object against. We had a look at some of the current ones and we were among the youngest but there were some couples younger than us. Most seemed to be British men to Japanese women though.
A lot of people tell me western men often prefer Japanese women and that Japanese women like western men. I'm not so sure that's completely true as a man and knowing other men I'd say men like Italian women, French women, South American women, Asian women in fact I'd say men just like women and if something sounds unattainable and exotic then all the more appeal.
As for Japanese women preferring western men well I think that's just from exposure. If your only exposure to westerners is Hugh Grant, George Clooney, Brad Pitt etc then you're going to find them more appealing. I don't know any Japanese girls who fancy Gordon Brown.
Halong is about 3hrs drive from Hanoi but when we got there we were greeted with lovely looking vessel. We had a couple of New Zealanders on board and the rest were Europeans. I haven't spoken to many Europeans in a long time so that was refreshing in itself. There were only 5 of us too so it was peaceful.
We got our food served, which consisted on mainly seafood but I was used to this. We had plenty to eat and it was all very nicely presented. The boat had lots of areas to take pictures and sit and relax as well as stay out the sun which was very hot out there.
Here we could climb the cliff and go inside the cave.
After we got back to the boat we set sail through the bay once again.
It was so quiet and peaceful you could just relax and enjoy it. We arrived at a floating village and got into some Kayaks and headed to a beach where we could swim and enjoy the warm water. I got talking to some Koreans and played games in the water with them.
We set sail in the kayaks and rowed into the middle of one of the mountains. The water was still and the mountains were huge and quiet. You could hear the water lapping and a few birds chattering.
We got back to the boat just as the sun was setting for some food and drinks.
The next day we sailed back to the port for our three hour drive back to Hanoi.
I landed in Haneda from Aomori, from Haneda I got the bus to Narita airport, from there I flew to Seoul in Korea and finally got to my destination Hanoi in Vietnam.
It wasn't over though.
I was warned about the taxi drivers in Vietnam so I was being careful. I found a taxi and all was going well until his engine broke on the motorway and we had to get out and wait for another taxi. After about 10mins a second driver came and I continued my journey.
In Vietnam they use the dong currency but it is only available inside Vietnam, otherwise they accept American dollars as a universal currency. I only had dollars since I had just got off the plane but this didn't make the taxi driver happy and he insisted I go to his friends place to convert my money. I placed down a ten dollar note and said that's all I'll pay but he wanted more. I was tired and getting agitated so I walked out and sat back in the car an waited for the driver.
After a few minutes he came back and eventually was persuaded to take my ten dollars. We had driven a long way by now and he was still going on about wanting more money so I just got out and walked furiously to the hotel.
The hotel was very nice for just $10 a night. It was hoovered, it had an air-conditioner and hot water. It was a little bit noisy due to the excessive traffic in hanoi but I usually sleep like a log anyway so it was no bother to me.
On my first day it rained in torrents but it was surprisingly warm outside so I decided to venture out and see the lake. Soon as I stepped out I was in a world of non stop traffic, smog and people pestering me to buy various t-shirts and fruits.
Crossing the road in Hanoi is a skill in its own. The roads are a sea of scooters and motorbikes which look more my schools of fish, parting when you step into the middle. Hanoi has no road rules and the best way to cross is to just keep an eye on the traffic and walk straight to your destination.
I found a video on You Tube that demonstrates this.
I was in the Old Quarter and it's a warren of shops and cafes, some very nice western style ones and some very basic ones where you would sit on a Fisher Price plastic chair. Naturally the prices would go up and a beer could cost anywhere from 50p to £2.
Many places had wifi so I could keep in touch with my friends and family back in England and Japan. My iphone was very handy in Hanoi I used it for currency conversion, compass and maps. Without it I couldn't have navigated myself through the streets of Hanoi.
The people in Vietnam weren't as polite and humble as the Japanese. They seemed very aggressive and direct in their speech. Often they would shout single words at you and repeat it over and over like "pay pay" or "motorcycle" to offer you a lift. Their face seemed stony and unemotional, on the plane they seemed to show a disregard to other passengers and any rules on the flight.
I do feel they are very kind people and the hotel staff helped me a lot and even people in the street helped me. They are very poor, the poorest people I have seen and maybe its hard to see rules when life is so hard.
The next day I went to Halong bay but I'll go onto that in my next post. When I returned from Halong I went for some drinks in Hanoi.
Due to the communist ideology in Vietnam there is a drinking curfew and at 12am either you stay in the bar or you go home cause everywhere closes. I left at midnight and caught a taxi to get home. During my taxi ride he tells me he can get me 'girls', which is very common for taxi drivers to say, I told him I wasn't interested and I thought that was the end of it.
As we approached my street he stopped and I paid him 500,000 dong expecting 400,000 dong change. He doesn't see it this way and decides to take me to see these 'girls' after I persuade him I'm not interested again he pops open the glove compartment and shows me his marijuana and opium asking me to buy them.
We keep driving round arguing, he moves onto selling me opium when all I want is my 400,000dong which is only about £15 $20 Y2000 but it was mine. We stopped at some traffic lights on the main road and saw my chance and held the handbrake and pulled the keys from the ignition.
It took another 15mins before he would swap his keys for the cash but he did. I got out and threw his keys through the window. I was glad to get back to my hotel even though I had a long walk.
In the morning I walked round the parks and the museums rather than the city. You could see memorabilia from the war. They also have lots of political monuments including Lenin's statue and the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh.
I am a British guy but I moved to Aomori in 2008 to work with Aeon.
I finished Aeon in 2010 and moved to Taiwan.
From 2011 I am working James English School in Tendo, Yamagata
