Congrats to Hajime and Shie! ^_^

After a relatively uneventful October, the month of November had it's share of moments. First, a friend from Ayashichuo Christ Church, Pastor Hisashi and Junko's son Hajime, had gotten engaged. I met his fiancé last year during their family party.  She was very cute and sweet.  The Sasakis invited us to their engagement ceremony (a tradition done in Japan) at a local church in Izumi, and we agreed to go.

Aaron and I rented the van and drove to the church.  Luckily, it was held in a church that was much closer to us than Ayashi, so we didn't have to drive so long. Unfortunately, we weren't really sure where the building was and arrived about 10 minutes late. When we entered he building, we heard a loud voice echoing from a microphone.  Unfortunately, the no people were to be seen.  We wandered cluelessly for about a minute, fumbling around wondering where the sanctuary was at. Finally we figured it out and sat in the back.  

Of course, the service was all in Japanese.  It was also very silent and all the songs sung were hymns.  Very old fashioned.  I didn't have an idea what was going on, so I decided to take some pictures of the couple. Fortunately, the service was really short.  Immediately afterwards, we went up to the couple to say hi, congratulations, and hand them a present we got for them (it was a big picture frame!).  We went up to them and It was like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie standing before a wall of paparazzi.  Crazy.  Somehow, Aaron and I got caught in the fray and ended up smiling for a bunch of pictures we were sure we weren't supposed to be in, but couldn't escape from. After a few awkward minutes, we finally left the couple and started chatting with some of the other church members who we hadn't seen in a while.  It was especially nice to see Yoshi, who had been my translator when I attended Ayashi.  

After some time snacking on some fruits and tourist the church, we finally said goodbye to everyone and left.  It was nice to see everyone and made me miss all the familiar and friendly faces.  The wedding isn't until next summer, so maybe we'll be seeing them again sometime.