Today was Jason and Reiko’s big day! We all got up early and had breakfast with Jason’s parents and brother at Denny’s. After breakfast we all went back to our apartments and got ready, and met up around 11am to take the subway down to Nagoya station to be picked up by a shuttle bus at 12:30. We finally found the shuttle bus and it was off to where Reiko and Jason were having their wedding!
There was some waiting when we got there, then Vince got her hair done and finally it was time! There was a short ceremony in the church first. Reiko looked beautiful in her wedding gown 
After the ceremony there was a flower shower as Reiko and Jason walked down the steps to the garden, where we took a lot of pictures and had apetizers. Jason also collected a flower from every person there, walked up the steps to Reiko where he asked her to be his wife again He had a very touching speech to her there. After that it was time to go inside to start the reception!
And what a reception… It was truly amazing and the best wedding I’ve been to. Speeches, toasts, great food (8 course meal!). I’m too exhausted to write down all the details though.. Gomen nasai. I’ll fill out the details some other day!
I took a lot of pictures, but they’re still on my camera.. I’ll sit down and upload some when I get back home though. Gary got drunk, and was saying some memorable stuff, like “I was gonna hug Jason, that’s how peaceful I feel” and as a car passed by he said “I know that car but he doesn’t know me!” and the best one “I feel romantic” which he repeated quite a few times :D. So it was quite a fun walk from where Arthur and Vince are staying back to where Gary and I are staying, haha.
What a trip so far! I’m having a blast here! Great food, great country, great people I travel with..
I started my trip from Oslo around 1:15pm on Monday, got to Helsinki and had about an hr and a half layover there before it was off to Nagoya! Flight was around 9 hours and 20 minutes which I killed by listening to my ipod and playing FF XII Revenant Wings on my DS
I arrived at 9am and Jason was right outside immigration and customs waiting, just like he said he would We took the subway down to Nagoya where we met up with Arthur, Vince and Gary, and then went to get the keys to my apartment Took a while doing that cause they had a lot to tell me, but oh well. I also got a card so I could get internet in my apartment, and then Jason and I headed to my apartment to set it up and so I could drop off my luggage. Card didn’t fit into my laptop, so we had to go back and get the USB card instead.. We get there and Jason realizes he forgot the installation cd and the booklet on my desk, so back to my apartment we go and back down to Nagoya haha. Got the usb card, then met up with Arthur, Gary and Vince again
We went to a place called “Big Camera” which is a huge electronics store… I bought a new camera! It’s a Nikon S700 with 12.1 MP I’m loving it so far! I even got a 2 gig memory card with it…
I think after that we just walked around and had a late lunch at Denny’s… Went back to the apartments and met up again around 7pm to go the supermarket and buy food. We cooked it and ate at Vince and Arthur’s and then I went to sleep. Don’t think I’ve slept so good in a while, I was exhausted after being up for like 34 hours or something..
Today (Wednesday April 30th) we’d decided to go to Nagoya Castle and Osu, where there is a temple. We all met up around 10am, took the subway to Nagoya Castle, which was a beautiful place We walked around there for a good 3 or 4 hours I think before going to Osu! Had lunch at a local restaurant in Osu after seeing the temple and taking pictures, then we decided to go shopping! Vince and I bought kimonos We got them at some store with discounted prices, there’s no way I could afford buying one of those really pricey ones… Got all we needed to go with it too (obi, socks, undershirt etc). We walked around a bunch after, Gary bought toys, I bought a shirt for Mark.. Been a long day but I’ve loved every minute of it. Had lunch at a restaurant, I ate tempura, fat noodles (specialty here in Nagoya, I can’t remember what they’re called), and rice and miso soup, and for dinner we ate at a place where you buy the food ticket from a vending machine, and then hand it in to the cooks.. I had those fat noodles again I think.
The wedding is tomorrow I’ll probably edit this later after comparing notes with Gary and Arthur, hehe.