Today, March 14, is “White Day,” the day that men are expected to “pay back” the women who gave them chocolates on Valentine’s Day. (In case you didn’t know, in this country, the women give men sweets on Valentine’s, often as part of a work obligation called giri-choco). Whereas Valentine’s Day in Japan has a relationship to the day as it’s celebrated in other parts of the world (albeit reversed), White Day is a purely Japan creation. Apparently, it was created by a marshmallow company in the 60’s, who used the marketing angle of repaying Valentine’s Day gift-giving to sell their new marshmallow confection.
Not nearly as widely known — in fact, probably not known at all! — March 14 also happens to be International Marriage Day in Japan. On this day, in 1873, the Meiji government first recognized the validity of marriages between Japanese and foreigners. Certainly the first marriages between Japanese and foreigners had occurred long before that, but it seems that after a few high-profile marriages, such as that of Umetaro Kaji, whose father Katsu Kaishu had been an important figure in both the Tokugawa and Meiji goverments, to Clara Whitney, the goverment saw fit to officially give its stamp of approval.
Today, March 14th, also happens to be Naoko and I’s 1-year wedding anniversary. Now, I can assure you that our decision to get married on this day 1 year ago had nothing to do with historical facts nor the pseudo special occassion of White Day. Rather, our selection of that date was rather plebian. We had arrived in Japan the day before, and in order to expedite that visa application process, we thought it prudent to get married as soon as possible. And so, like yesterday’s post about reaching the 1-year-living-in-Japan milestone, again today yet another hard-to-believe milestone is marked in the life of Kurt Easterwood.
(I should just briefly clarify. That last sentence makes it sound like it’s hard to believe I survived a year of marriage, which can’t be further from the truth. Rather, I never in my wildest imagination thought I would ever get married in the first place, so if today I sit here in some astonishment, it is at this fact, and not the actual marriage, which continues to be the best decision of my life I ever made.)
Hey, that’s romantic. Happy anniversary! And soon the baby will arrive to deliver its present to you. 🙂
/KenLoo
Congratulations on your first anniversary from Shiori and myself. We got married on Tanabata (7/7) – but like yourselves it didn’t have much to do with legend!
Peter & Shiori
Never new that about International Marriage Day. Any one any idea on who the first lucky couple were?
Happy Anniversary!!!
congratulations.
before you’ll next be forgetting how long you’ve been married — “was it four years ago or five?”
maki and i were also married on an auspicious day — may 5, aka boy’s day. mostly cause it was a convenient day to head down to city hall. but we also figured if we ever lived in japan, we’d both have our anniversary off from work.
Happy anniversary!
Congratulations.
It’s hard to believe that you’ve been in Japan only a year and married only a year because write like an old hand at both. I’m sure, like me, that many people visit your site to get the scoop on everything from manhole covers, to abandoned pachinko parlors, to bargain hunting, to the ukiyo-e of pregnancy. (Just a few of my favorites).
And, of course, we love to hear about you and Naoko, the inlaws (especially their school photos), and the baby-to-be. She’s going to provide a whole lot of new blog material!
All those questions you had about living in Japan, living with your inlaws, learning Japanese…we love hearing the answers.
Dear Kurt,
Omedeto! It is so sweet to read about your anniversary, especially when you never imagined it before. I am looking forward to hearing about the baby too. How exciting!
WOuaw, I can’t keep up with all these celebrations!! So Omedeto! Such a happy week for you two! Thanks for sharing the joy.
Paul-Sync
Congratulations on your first wedding anniversary and your first year in Japan! I’m glad to see that you are handling so many changes in your life so well (marriage, moving to Japan, and a new baby) and that you are happy. I’m really looking foreword to hearing about your baby once she/he arrives.
I find that time flies really fast, especially when you go through so many changes as you have. I’ve been married to my wife Tomomi for four years now, and I can’t believe I’ve been back in Japan for 4 months already. Before you know it you will have been here for 10 years with a bunch of kids running around!