Jinja and Shoga: Life in the Land of the Rising Sun

   I'm not sure if everyone knows this already or not, but Japanese weddings are some of the most expensive in the world....for not only the bride and groom, but also the guests! It's standard practice for each guest to give 30000 yen in cash as a wedding gift (roughly equivalent to $300). If a married couple if attending, then 50000 yen is acceptable, since 60000 isn't allowed due to the fact that you're not supposed to give money in numbers that can be split in half (bad luck for the newlyweds).
 In any case, while the weddings here are magnificent, they can also be rather painful financially if you've got more than one or two a year to attend. Yuki just had one this past Sunday in Hiroshima, a 4 or 5 hour ride on the bullet train from here. Thankfully, the bride and groom were kind enough to cover travel and lodging expenses (this is usual but not always the case). And, the bag of wedding favors he brought back partially explains the extremely high price that each guest pays...about half of that money is returned in the form of pricey favors, usually gourmet food, dinnerware, or a combination of the two.
 In this instance, we got: 1 chocolate almond torte that would've served 8 easily; 6 new and rather pricey pasta bowls; assorted small cookies and mints; a canister of gourmet tea, and an iPod Shuffle. Yuki won the Shuffle, but I'll consider it part of the favors since it was supplied by the bride and groom for whatever games that were played at the party following the wedding dinner. We did not receive a partridge in a pear tree, but I'm eagerly awaiting its arrival in the mail any day now.

                           The torte box, a work of art itself

 
                              Said torte

                             One of the set of 6 pasta bowls