After a boisterous dinner, a few of us went to meet the train he was due on. We waited, and waited and waited and waited. And *finally* up turned Zoy. Without his luggage!!! All he had to wear was his t-shirt and jeans. And it would be considered uncouth to turn up to any wedding dressed like that and what the Japanese would think about this doesn't bear thinking about.
So while the rest of us were prettying ourselves up on Saturday morning, Zoy and Judy dashed out shopping. There was a slight panic about this because the shops don't open until 10:00.
The rest of us made our way in an unhurried, unflustered way to the wedding venue. Zoy and Judy hurtled back to their hotel and got changed.
We were siting in an air conditioned anti-chamber, drinking tea. Zoy, Judy, Theo and Ross were scootling as fast as the subway system would take them, Ross getting more and more stressed as the signing in time of 11:30 came and then went. He thought that that was when the wedding actually started. But no. It started at 12 and they were there in plenty of time for that!
Freyja picked up a stray bloke on a subway platform. Turned out he was a mate of Austin's and was on his way to the same wedding. It did seem a bit random when he came up and asked her if we were all going to a wedding. I know we were dressed in our best frocks, but we weren't carrying an "off to a wedding" sign!
So at 12:00 we were all sat in the chapel and in came Austin. He strolled down the aisle and collected white roses from the guests. These were then made into a bouquet at the front. Kaori and her dad came in. Austin handed her the bouquet and Kaori put one rose into his top pocket. Then the ceremony took place, all in Japanese. There was a very great deal of clapping! And a Japanese hymn. Now either my Japanese had improved miraculously during the course of the ceremony - or those two women were singing in English!
Stella and Tony dropped in from Mount Martha to attend the ceremony and then went away again. The wonders of modern technology, of iPads, dongles and Skype's web conferencing facility!
Austin and Kaori came out and were showered with petals by the families and guests.
Then we went in for an amazing reception with wonderful food, nice wine, speeches, hilarity. Ross made the opening toast. Austin's Japanese teacher made a speech. Christian made a speech. Kaori's dad played his guitar. Zoy sang a song. Ross had made friends with a gaggle of girlies. He said they were hanging all over him - until Zoy began to sing!!!
There was a candle relay, where Austin lit a candle at each table from his candle and then that person lit the candle of the person next to them until everyone had a lit candle except for Kaori. Then he lit her candle and we all made a wish for their future happiness and then we all blew our candles out together. It was lovely.
Then we came back to our hotels on a coach and had time for a bit of a sit down before going out for the evening entertainment, at a pizza place. Old fossils don't usually go to the after party but Austin insisted that his ancient furry ners should be present. And so we were.
Then the young people rocked on to karaoke and the fossils went home to bed.
It was a lovely, lovely day. It was also, to say that we mostly didn't have to do very much, strangely tiring
The after party photos are here
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