Kekkon and Shogi
This weekend I went to attend the mariage (kekkon) ceremony of two friends. I consider them both friends, just because we have all hung out and had fun on a few occasions. Their wedding ceremony was western style, with only the groom’s and bride’s mothers standing out as Japanese by wearing kimonos. The bride wore a beautiful white dress no different from western style weddings, and the groom wore an incredible silver and white tux which made him look princely at the least.
The wedding and reception was held in an all-in-one chapel service that had been built specifically to host weddings. Without giving a complete detailed writeup today (i plan on sharing more detail on wednesday and friday), I would liken this event as a wedding meets DisneyLand. There was a full service staff of at least 20 that directed everyone, queued the music, tapped on doors for other staff behind to open them at just the right time, prompted people to clap, and generally made sure that the whole flow of events was upbeat and without pause.
The ceremony itself (one of 3 main events we attended) was led in Japanese by a man dressed as part of the Christian clergy. A trio of female voices accompanied an organist in filling the room with a few hymns including Amazing Grace, while a cameraman ducked and dashed around the room taking dozens of snapshots of the couple. Vows were made, rings exchanged, and finally a marriage contract was signed in front of the onlooking guests.
The event was quite enjoyable, and I’ll share more about the other parts later.
Shogi (Japanese chess) is another topic altogether. I’ve had little time to test out my shogi board (other than learn the pieces and set them up), but I did manage to watch a whole slew of great videos explaining how the game is played. I know some of my friends in the States really enjoy chess, so I’m going to post a link to the video that introduces the pieces.
Thanks to the commentor on my last shogi post for pointing these out. Now I just have to find a little time, and someone to play against 
