A Japanese Wedding Ceremony

During our visit to Meiji Jingu, a Japanese wedding party formed a train and walked into the Naien (interior courtyard). Very special. In the ceremony, a Shinto priest purifies the couple, drinks of sake are taken, and the groom then reads the words of commitment. At the end of the ceremony, symbolic offerings are given to the kami (local gods). The couple here are dressed in traditional kimono.

After the ceremony, the couple welcomes all the guests, and a reception party is held. Usually the party is visited by about 20 to 200 guests among whom are relatives, friends, and co-workers of the bride and groom.

These affairs are extremely expensive. The bride's kimono might cost $3,000 to $5,000 to rent for one day. I can't imagine what it might cost to hold a wedding ceremony at Meiji-Jingu. This couple must be very well connected.

The Long Flight to Tokyo

Amelia here is looking at her camera in the passageway between terminals at O'Hare, which she loved. You can follow her blog at Our routing took us from Burlington to DC to Chicago to Tokyo on United. We took off at 5:30 in the morning. Grandma & Grandpa drove us to he airport. They stayed with us the week before we took off so that we could get everything done; a blessing! From departure from our house in Burlington to the apartment we are renting in Tokyo's Shima-Meguro district was a total of 25 hours door-to-door. It was a long slog, but the kids were really great. It was pretty surreal on the twilight drive from Narita on the airport limousine bus into downtown Tokyo, which we hadn't seen as a family for ten years. We took the bus from Narita to the ANA Hotel in Roppongi, and caught a cab to our apartment. Charlie, the owner of the apartment guy we're renting from, had his Philipino maid meet us & get us settled. We took some melatonin at 8:30 pm Tokyo time, and crashed hard to try to get onto Tokyo time; as Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of the US EST, it's important to have strategies for making the adjustment.