Jason’s Random Thoughts

Okay … so it’s taken just over a month to get lots of the wedding photos collected, with the slowest contributor being the wedding photographer!   Well … I shouldn’t say that.  We did get the wedding photos from them pretty quick, however, we had also requested a digital copy of all the photos.  Figuring this was just a simple matter of copying everything to a DVD and mailing it off, I had decided to wait until the crystal-clear compilation arrived in the mail.  Had I known I’d be waiting five weeks, I would have just uploaded the shots taken by friends and family first
So, on that note, I’d like to say that I’ve managed to upload a few hundred photos of our wedding, and Reiko looks great.  Feel free to stop by and take a look, or download at will.  If there’s a particular photo that you’d like to have the original high-res copy of, just send me an email and I’ll be sure to send it off to ya.

In the next little bit, I think I’ll ask Reiko to write a review of the place we were married.  Arc-en-Ciel in Nagoya-ko is a great place to have a wedding, and the staff were incredibly helpful.  They managed to keep smiling even during the most stressful of times.  Well … it was stressful for us … I’m sure the staff were understanding of the situation and reacted accordingly

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Not only is it official … here’s a picture to prove it!

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The Best Is Yet To Be

On our joyful wedding day,
We begin a brand new life.
Friends and family give their gifts
To joyful husband, blissful wife.

But the greatest gift we’ll ever get,
A gift from heaven above,
Is love forever, ending never,
Everlasting love.

We’ll share life’s joy and pleasure;
We’ll have plenty of that, it’s true.
But love is the real treasure
For Reiko and I anew.

And if life hands us challenges,
As it does to one and all,
Our love will hold you steady
And never let us fall.

Our wedding day is full of joy;
Tomorrow we cannot see.
But one thing’s sure for the two of us:
The best is yet to be.

It’s not quite life-blogging, nor live-blogging, but this post is being published at the very moment that Reiko and I are exchanging vows at Nagoya-ko, in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. If you would have told me five years ago that I’d be marrying someone like my Reiko, in Japan, with some of my friends and family here to witness the event, I would have laughed and asked you what drugs you were on. However, here we are today, Reiko and I are (officially, not just legally) husband and wife.

Now that the wedding preparations are done, and the ceremony and reception are underway, I’ll have the opportunity to share some of the things that has happened over the last two years as Reiko and I planned, saved, re-planned, and rebounded from the various ups and downs that come with planning an international wedding. That said … I’ll save those topics for specific posts at some time in the future.

Thank you to everyone that pitched in with a donation to the wedding. The amount collected was enough to hire a shuttle bus to bring my friends and family from Nagoya Station to the Arc en Ciel wedding house, which means it’s less money taken out of our already strained budget. I’d also like to thank everyone that has helped Reiko and I over the last few months, as none of this would have been possible without so much support.

A special thank you goes to Reiko’s parents, though, who have been the best in-laws a foreigner could have ever asked for in Japan. They’ve allowed me to stay in their home for the nine months leading up to the wedding. They’ve helped me get to work. They’ve helped me with learning the Japanese language. They’ve made me feel like part of the family. And, most of all, they let me marry Reiko, their youngest daughter. There are some people who cannot stand their in-laws, but I’m not one of them. Because of everything Reiko’s family has done to help me acclimate to Japan, I’d be willing to move Heaven and Earth to help them with a problem.

I just hope that I can one day return the favor.

Thank You.

– Jason F. Irwin J²fi

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Time flies when you’re having fun, and it’s certainly been a quick six months.

It was six months ago today that Reiko and I were officially married at the Kakamigahara City Hall and, in that time, we’ve both seen some pretty drastic changes in our lives.

No longer do we need to communicate through the internet, and we sure as heck don’t have to plan the next time we get to see each other.  We get to enjoy dinner together on a nightly basis, and we can even work together to solve problems or laugh at something silly.

For the most part, both of us have been pretty busy with work as well as planning our upcoming wedding ceremony.  But I’ll admit that Reiko has done far more work on the wedding than I have.  I’d like to help out more, but I’m often uncertain of what needs to be done or how something should look when I’m finished.  It’s a lame excuse, I know, and this confusion has resulted in a few discussions about my role in the preparations, but hopefully my future endeavours will work out better
One nice piece of news that I’d like to share is that we think we might have found a decent place to call our first home.  It’s just outside of Kakamigahara in a place called Haba.  Moving would mean that Nick Ramsay and I would no longer be neighbours, but I’m sure we’ll keep in touch
So, on that note, I thought I’d just write a quick little post about this happy day.  I can’t really say much more about the wedding or our potential home (since we haven’t signed any papers for it, yet), but I’ll be sure to write the occasional happy post now and then to keep everyone up to date.

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With only three months to go before Reiko and I formally tie the knot, we’re both showing signs of extreme stress, being overwhelmed with the details and the do’s and don’ts at our reception hall.

Considering how the last few weeks have been, I’d love to pick a Sunday and take Reiko out for a day away from it all.  We’re currently on a very tight budget, but we shouldn’t need to spend any substantial amount of money to have a good time together.

That said, what can a couple do on a Winter Sunday in Japan that doesn’t require a lot of money?

So There’s the Rub

Everything seems to have a cost involved lately.  Even something as simple as a picnic in teh park can set us back upwards of 2500 Yen.  Gas, sandwiches, snacks and anything else we might consider bring … even if we already have all this stuff at home, it’s hardly a ‘free day out’.

I considered doing something as simple as downloading and watching a movie, as that has 0 initial cost (usually) but, aside from being illegal in most countries, it doesn’t really get us away from it all.  No.  Reiko and I should be out of the house and enjoying our time together rather than be reminded of all the things we still need to do and pay for.

So What Is There To Do?

It’s times like this I wish there was an arcade nearby with classic games like Dance, Dance Revolution, Street Fighter and the standard competitive street racing game.  Sure, arcades aren’t free by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s one of the best ways to burn through 2500 Yen if we absolutely must spend money.

Well … it is in my opinion, anyway.

Unfortunately, arcades in Japan don’t carry such old games as DDR or Street Fighter.  Sure, there are other games we could play, and I’m certain we’d still have lots of fun, but we’d still have the problem of spending money frivolously.

I wonder if there are any museums or art galleries around here that Reiko would like to visit.

Either way, I’m at a loss.  What the heck can a man do with his wife that doesn’t require much money and can easily be enjoyed by both people?

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