Of Married Life & IKEA

Greetings and salutations!

I’ve been married for almost three weeks now and have been back in Japan for just over a month – a lot of adjustments being made but, all in all, life continues to go well here in Osaka.

Our wedding ceremony turned out fantastically and I want to thank everyone who put so much effort in to help make it happen as well as friends and family who traveled from around the world to join Takako and I on our nerve-wracking yet joyous day!

You can find the first groups of wedding pictures on Facebook. If you’re not a member of Facebook, and don’t wish to be, please send me an email and I can send you a link to the public album. I have provided a couple samples below:

From what I’ve been hearing, everyone enjoyed the rather unorthodox (mixture of Jewish and Christian traditions) ceremony a great deal. Popular highlights include the arm-wrestling, the Jewish dancing, and the food. In regard to the honeymoon, time was somewhat limited so our mini-honeymoon involved some nice hotel stays in Osaka and Nagoya, and the highlight of our stay at the Yoroduza ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) in the Nagano area (northern Japan).

 

Being a married person gets you into a few different clubs, for example, I’ve already performed some minor maintenance jobs in the apartment. We have also been to IKEA (pronounce with a soft I in Japan – ickyah). If that’s not an official marriage rite of passage, then I don’t know what is.

Since the wedding, a lot of people have asked me what married life is like and, to be honest, I have a hard time answering that question. In some ways it seems that life has changed completely, while in others not at all. I don’t think it’s really about how your practical life changes as much as it is about how your perspective on things change. I’m really trying to take each day as it comes but learning about being open and really sharing your life with someone – and all the challenges and rewards that can only come from doing so. It’s a fascinating journey that will continue to educate me for years to come I am sure.

With Hope,
Joseph