Ah, vacation...sweet vacation

Yeah, I love being on vacation. Life would be best if it were all, or mostly, vacation. Makes me wonder if I ever will leave the teaching profession, unless, of course, it's to retire.

I worked with the kids again yesterday after a week off (which translated into two weeks of no work at all). The kiddies aren't too bad now, and even sometimes enjoyable. Sometimes. I'm probably going to get a new, larger crop in April...not sure if I'll still have any of the students I have now, but probably. The rumor on kids' program front is that elementary schools will bring back Saturday classes (which they've not had for the last five years or so)...which means that after next March, I probably won't have to teach the kids anymore! So sweet. That might mean an extra university class, but I'd rather do that...I've got my fingers crossed.

Continuing with work-related news: I have my schedule for the next academic year. Aside from the given Saturday kids classes, I'm teaching Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Sundays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays off. Gives me a mid-week two-day break, a nice time for short trips when destinations will be less crowded.

Last weekend I went to visit my friend Kurara to take the pre-wedding photos I mentioned in my last post. I got there Friday evening, hung out on Saturday and did a bit of scouting (I got to see where the reception will be, but not the ceremony as there was too much snow that day to get there), and on Sunday we took the pictures. On the day of the wedding, Kurara and Daniel will only wear the wedding clothes they had made special for the day (Indian style clothing), so on this day they got dressed in traditional Japanese kimono.

A note on this: Japanese women can only wear the formal, long-sleeve kimono (furisode) when unmarried, and typically only the a holiday called the Coming of Age Day and weddings. So, wearing it is an important event.

Putting on a kimono, for those who don't know, is a very difficult task. There's a lot that goes into it. A LOT. Kurara's aunt helped her put it on, and the whole thing took about an hour and a half. I don't think you could tie one of those fancy bows with the obi (belt) by yourself... After Kurara was dressed, her aunt helped Daniel put on his kimono and hakama (kind of skirt). At this point, I'd taken about 200 photos.

From there, we went to a friend's house--a mansion by Japanese standards--to take some "traditional" wedding photographs in front of a gold folding screen and posed with two dolls of old people (symbolizing the hope that the newlyweds will reach such an age together). It was a bit of a trick getting the lighting to look ok. Playing with the overhead lights and the shoji doors (made of translucent paper), I finally got some nice light. I took a bunch more photos, including some in front of an ornate doll display set up for hinamatsuri (Girl's Day).

Our next destination was the local Shinto shrine, where we took some candid shots of them walking in, going to the shrine, and walking through a set of torii (red gate-like things). The sadly funny thing about the torii is that as they were donated by a local business, the company's name is plainly written on each post...I didn't notice because I couldn't read it (could've had a prayer on it for all I knew), but Japanese people will read something like "Ueno Construction Company."

The last place we went to was Kurara's church. Her family is Catholic, but as that's not a large faith in Japan, the church is in a small building/house. There is a nice piece of stained glass on the wall above the lectern, however, and that made for a nice background. I took pictures of the couple and the family, then, per her mother's request, they changed into the clothes they'll wear on their wedding day and took some more pictures...these because the ceremony wouldn't be held at the church, as her mother had hoped.

All in all, it was a long day, but fun and I enjoyed it and learned a lot. By the time we all left the church to go home, I'd taken over 500 photos. Kurara and Daniel edited that down to about half, which is still a daunting amount considering the ceremony and reception are still to come.