This month marks a rather exciting time for my wife and me, as it was a year ago, on November 5th, that we were married! The first anniversary serves as an important milestone for us, as it marks a full year of not having to plan a wedding. Not planning a wedding is a great way to spend a year, and we are looking forward to many more years of the same! As this year is traditionally known as the paper anniversary, I had originally planned on making some origami for my wife and calling it day. I was promptly made aware that this would not be acceptable. In the end, we decided on a trip to Okinawa.
When planning the trip, we had a bit of trouble deciding whether to stay at a resort and relax or to go sightseeing on a bus tour. Specifically, the problem was that I preferred the former and she the latter. Finally, as is important in any relationship, we were able to come to a comprise and do exactly what she wanted. Even after a year of being married, I’m still not quite sure how that works! It was a good decision, though, and we really had a wonderful time. But if you know anything about Japanese tours, you know that they’re famous for packing an inordinate amount of activities into an absurdly small amount of time. To give you a sense of just how true this is, here is an actual (translated) quote from our tour guide:
Ladies and gentleman, we have arrived at the Peace Memorial Park. On the hill to the left there is a Peace Museum. Over to your right you can see the garden area with over 300 memorial stones. Straight ahead, past the large memorial statue, is the Peace Plaza, where you can see the flame of peace as well as a wonderful view of the Okinawan coastline. We’ll meet back at the bus in 20 minutes. Please take your time.
My favorite part, of course, is the “Please take your time” at the end, which must have been included simply for politeness, as it certainly didn’t serve any practical purpose. And to top it all off, we were still subject to the world-famous Japanese culture of promptness. I’m still not exactly sure how the system works, but the rule seems to be that the best time to arrive at any appointment is five minutes ago. So we were constantly apologizing for arriving five minutes early as opposed to the preferred ten. At any rate, it was in this manner that we were able to see nearly all the noteworthy sites in Okinawa in the space of just three days.
I know it sounds pretty hectic, but we did actually have some time to relax, as we finished touring each day by at least 5:30. I believe this was something that the group really appreciated, considering most of the members were over fifty. This included one especially interesting gentleman who, after learning that I was American, proceeded to salute me each time we met. Needless to say, I wasn’t quite sure what to do with that. After all was said and done, it was really an amazing trip and the perfect way to celebrate a wonderful first year of marriage. It’s really too bad, though; I would have made some very nice origami.
Please take your time… by which we mean you have 10 minutes. Wow. Perhaps they assume you’ll just snap pictures of everything so you can look at them closer later? I wonder if the gentleman assumes that all Americans join the military. Or that he needed to show you some respect, because all Americans are packing heat. Is that a stereotype there?
I think that was kind of the assumption! I don’t think there is much of a stereotype that all Americans join the military. There is a fairly widespread belief that everyone in America owns a gun. Really though, I think he was just trying to make a friendly joke. In Japan, they call it an oyaji gyagu, or old man’s joke=)