A Japanese Wedding

(from my Kagoshima homestay earlier this year)
I have been staying with a japanese countryside family for two weeks
and it is almost time to leave. I have been invited to attend a traditional japanese wedding, just six hours before my flight.

We meet at a hotel where the party will later be held.
Only the family of the bride and groom will attend the ceremony at the shrine, friends and guests will arrive later. The families of the couple assemble in separate rooms with tatami mats. As people drop in, they greet the allready arrived by kneeling on the floor and bowing deeply, the head almost touching the floor for several seconds.
Some of the women most closely related to the family are dressed in kurotomesode, the most formal of all kimono. The designs are different yet they look strikingly similar. Black with family crests printed on the arms, back and shoulders. Golden belt and flower patterns surrounding the feet and legs in orange and red. The men are wearing black suits with white shirt and white tie. The fathers of the married to-be are wearing classic tuxedoes.
We get on the rented bus that will take us to the shrine, some 20 people.
The groom steps on the bus and is greeted with congratulations. He is wearing a black traditional mens kimono. Finally the bride arrives, all dressed in a shining white kimono, quite different from the normal style. Her head is hidden in a big white hood with some internal framing to keep its volume. She is constantly followed by a kimono-dressed woman that tends to her wedding kimono, helping her to sit down and patching up the make-up. There is also one or two other women who hold umbrellas, open dors for her etc.

At the temple the equivalent of a baptism has just finished. We take off our shoes and step up to the square platform, the two families on either side and the couple seated in the middle. The ceremony last for about 30 minutes and contains the usual chanting of priests, plates of food presented to the couple and then offered to the gods, the sharing of some drops of sake and finally the rings, a tradition imported from the christian counterpart.
As we leave the shrine, several groups of people are waiting in line for their ceremonies, carrying infant babies dressed in - kimono.
I cant help thinking of the shrine as a ceremonial McDonalds, one short ceremony after the other. Get in, do your job and get out.

Back at the hotel we get a group picture taken and enter the main hall.
It is huge. People are seated around big round tables spread across the floor. On one side there is a stage, on the other a podium with a big flower-filled table with two chairs for the couple. The tables closest to the couple are for important guests like company bosses, the families are seated at the far end. The couple enters, the bride now dressed in a luxurious red kimono.
The party starts with a video prestentation of the couple, how they met, their education, what they are doing and what they see in each other. Then the honored guests, the bosses of the companies that the couple is working for, make their good luck speach and then we start eating.

The amount of food is staggering. Beer and sake is continuously provided. The table is set with at least four plates. Eggplant, tempura, lobster-terrine, a small sweet and something unidentifiable. As we eat the staff keep on bringing in new courses. Sashimi so beautifully arranged even a nobel-prize dinner would look dull, served on a plate filled with ice. Another plate with the best sushi I've ever tasted, a small piece of excellent beef, pink udon in soup, another bowl of soup, steamed egg and fruit. Soon, the bride and groom make a gracious exit to change clothes. They enter again wearing a four-button suit and beautiful white wedding dress. During the dinner, people grab a bottle of beer and their glass from the table and walk over to toast together with the host families, relatives or friends. Different entertainers from the invited guests and families take the stage, singing or speaking. At one point a group of friends of the groom walk in wearing next to nothing, display their beer-drinking abilities and invite the groom to the stage, he gets undressed and then smacked with a kind of folded paper bat for his past sins. He is also smacked by his wife, and they then exit to dress up in new outfits yet again.
The light is lowered and curtains withdrawn to reveal the couple in elegant black suit and voluminous pink dress. They are holding a candle together and pass through the room lighting candles at each table. Then they make a tearfilled speach to their parents and parents-in-law. About how much they love them and that they apologize for mistakes that they've made in their lives.
The parents respond to grant their child forgiveness and ultimately, to wish the couple good luck in the future as they leave their families to start a new one.
They all exit the room together and line up outside to say goodbye to all the guests.
Before the last guests have left the room, a host of waitresses and servants come streaming in to take care of all the dishes.
Within the hour, another wedding party will begin.