October 22nd, 2006

October 22nd, 2006...as of two days ago a date of NO significance. As of yesterday, a day of great significance. I am happy to announce the engagement of me (Vivian) and Hirotsugu to you all. A few people probably saw this coming or heard it in the hints I threw here and there. Others probably heard it from leaks or whispers already.

Yesterday Hiro and I visited FIVE prospective wedding locations: four wedding houses and one hotel. From 10am to 8pm we were booked solid. I arranged all the wedding consultations over the phone - again, great Japanese practice. A test of sorts, you might say. Each place had a very different "selling point" - I will proceed with that subject. Might I note before I proceed that all the below are simply my opinion and should be taken as such. (i.e...don't sue me if you are somehow affiliated to one of these places)

Desa Jiru Potoret (time, 10am) est. September 2005 in Tsukuba, near La La Garden
Kind of a tacky location, right smack dab next to a RAMEN noodle shop. I joked and told Hiro we should have the "nijikai" (after party) there. ^_^ A lover of ramen, he thought it was a brilliant idea, not to mention VERY economical. Tee hee.

The wedding place didn't even have my appointment in their books so either someone botched it up or my Japanese royally stinks! The man waiting on us took his dear time preparing everything. The place appeared to be hastily built because they wanted to lure in new customers from Tokyo...the new convenience made possible by the rapid train that goes from Tsukuba to Tokyo in a mere 45 minutes. (compared to 1.15 before)

Although only four months new, you could already see that some things were getting stained and shabby...considering we had October in mind, it was not at all reassuring. The theme of the place was "resort in Bali" and the major selling point was the glass roof, making it look more like a greenhouse than anything else. Hmm...great idea but fails on many other levels. The guy was incredibly slow, making us late for our next 11am appointment! With a quick goodbye, we were on our way. ONWARDS...

-SERVED: Hiro had coffee; I had tea

DearStage Forest Terrace (from 11am) est. May 2005 in Tsukuba, Hanamuro area
The next place was expecting us, the man eagerly waiting for our arrival at the fancy gates. (in order not to be any later, I apologized to Hiro and informed him that we would be forgoing lunch for the day) He escorted us to the consultation room at which point he made a quick introduction and encouraged us to watch a 3-minute DVD while he prepared our beverages.

Unlike the last man, he used the information we supplied to his advantage. He knew that American weddings are less overdone than the Japanese counterpart and toned everything down and emphasized only the basics. (no balloon release, mystic smoke, and other special effects) He seemed to consult us with caution, carefully wording his words to his sales advantage. A keen man indeed. Professional but not pushy, enthusiastic but not annoying.

After a tour of the elegant (think chandeliers and marble floors) facilities, he escorted us to the lower wing where we were served cafe mocha and a brownie/fruit compote dessert. By the time they served us food, I was starving...so I think, in effect, it was the chocolately brownie plate that really won me over here. After the food, he asked us when we would like to book. Before we responded, he was quick to note that 15 couples were due to visit that day and that only three dates remained. If we wanted, we could pre-book without obligation. Ha ha, and I thought that brownie was a sweet deal. (Didn't I mention he was a keen man? What a clever sales technique, and presented right after we've indulged in sinful choco-dessert, vulnerable to making rash decisions)

We made the tentative plan for October 22nd and again, we were on our way. The man escorted us out and presented us a gift for coming in. He then kept standing, bowing and waving until we were very much clear out of sight. Amazing! I am sure the MOMENT we WERE out of sight, he sprinted in to attend on the next prospectives.
-SERVED: Hiro had oolong tea; I had black tea with a wedge of lemon...later cafe mocha and brownie dessert plate

A. Queens (1pm, again a bit late) established October 2005 in Tsukuba, Matsushiro area
This place was PACKED with couples planning on tying the knot. All were in for a consultation as well. We were a bit late in coming for our appointment and they were incredibly busy, so they kept us busy with creme brulee and various photobooks of past weddings held there. The creme brulee was extremely tasty, however, the texture had some kind of gradiation...something I believe was a bit of a mistake on their part. Oops.

They had a wedding about to take place soon and staff members were busy scurrying about. I was surprised that the place was still an open house even when a wedding had been planned. If I were that couple about to get married, I would have felt kind of miffed about that point.

The woman came in and gushed on and on about the affordability factor of their facility. The main selling point: we're cheap. That would have been alright but honestly speaking, the place looked cheap and a bit tacky. The acoustics of the reception room was dreadful and the reasonable menu made me suspicious. Nothing elegant and gourmet tasting could be THAT cheap, I thought to myself.

The lady seemed busy and could not even give us a price estimate...needless to say, we were soon on our way...onwards. The surprising thing - she ran back in to get us a 'thank you for visiting' present, after which she too stood (simultaneously bowing) and waited for us to drive away...however, I was able to get a glimpse of her racing back into the building.
- SERVED: green tea and creme brulee (both of us)

Hotel Okura (3:30pm) established ages ago, it's well-known
We went to our second to last destination. At this point even I was exhausted, irritated and ready to drop dead. I took a glance at Hiro and he looked pretty well the same as I felt. Poor guy, getting dragged along to all these places. I figured get it all done at once - quick 'rip off the bandage as fast as possible' pain. Pragmatic and efficient. Going to wedding hall week after week...now that would have been the death of me for sure. I am girly but even I have my limits. Short on time, we met up with my wedding expert friend and proceeded to take a 15-minute tour on speed. We were given various pamphlets and free gifts. We got a huge box of sumi (charcoal) and cypress wood products, very trendy health products of the moment.
SERVED: orange sherbet (Vivian); coffee (Hiro)

Angebrisa (5pm) established 2003 in Tsukuba, on Minami-odori near Tsutaya
We were surprisingly not late for this appointment. We were lead into the client consultation area, which was filled with upholstered seats laden with spots and other evidence of overuse and insufficient cleaning. Once a wedding hall gets older, visible evidence of wear and tear start appearing. The first in the upholstery, next the backs of chairs where people often grasp at before taking a seat...then the corners of chair legs, dirty tiles and crevices, cracks in the walls or stuffy bathrooms.

The place was not bad but we were not impressed by how 'artificial' it came across as. Naturally ALL wedding houses are artificial to some extent but this one was especially so! I felt like I was buying into a Cinderella dream or being sold the 'typical image of a Western wedding.' The pretty woman seemed nice and hospitable on the exterior but underneath I could feel her pushy sales ambitions. (call it the female intuition) We watched a DVD featuring various past weddings but instead of taking it seriously, Hiro and I joked and smirked all along the way. I felt bad because it was a bit rude to poke fun at it...but seriously, some pictures were outright hilarious. (like the shot of the bride laughing at her friend sad and bawling a river)

We were treated to a complimentary dinner (see the next post) of French food. The food was amazing but again, we were not impressed by the rest of the place...therefore before we departed we simply told her we would think about it. The disappointment on her face was not well-masked. Though she too escorted us out and waved goodbye until we were out of sight.
SERVED: black tea, a complimentary 5-course French-Japanese meal

Conclusion
The decision was unexpectedly easy to make! Could you guess which place we picked? That's right, we went with DearStage. I semi-finalized it with a call to the place today and we'll make our first deposit on Saturday. The wedding will be quite small (50 members)...meaning just my family members and his. I wanted a bigger one but we cannot possibily afford it!