The proposal
September 22, 2005
Mainly because I want to remember all the gooey details when I become and old fart sitting around in the old folks’ home, I’m going to talk about how I proposed to the lady. It was a trying process even though we had discussed about getting married as early as last March! Essentially, we had the whole wedding planned out for a long time now and we were waiting for our fifth year anniversary to get it rolling.
The plan
I always wanted to go back to the UBC Rose Garden to propose because that was where we went on our first date. But because the UBC Rose Garden is rather far away, I tried looking for alternatives. I found a rose garden around Yodoyabashi called the Nakanoshima Rose Garden. It sits in front of the city hall and boasts 4000 roses of a few dozen varieties and from pictures it looked like a nice place. I was going to walk over there with her and poach a rose and propose.
Luckily I scouted ahead a week early to make sure I knew how to get there and where were nice spots. There were a few problems. For one thing, the entire area was closed off for construction. Another thing, the place was butt ugly. It sits in front of a putrid river behind ugly brick buildings with many people in suits walking around. There were 0 roses of 0 varieties. I was so glad I checked it out first.
I told the lady of what happened and she assured me that she didn’t need something so elaborate (or embarrassing, I’m guessing). So we settled on a more sensible plan.
The Real Plan
We took Friday off and had a nice relaxing morning. In the afternoon we checked into our deluxe twin room at the Hankyu International Hotel. It was on the 27th floor and had a huge bathtub with a really nice view of the city. We relaxed for the day and did some shopping and eating.
In the evening we drew waters for a bath and set out candles and bath salts and all that bath stuff I’ve never learned about. We had the fortune of watching a thunderstorm rolling past our window! Watching lightning strikes from the 27th floor is probably one of the most relaxing and comforting things ever! Finally we relaxed in this really nice bath and had champagne. I felt like Donald Trump or something… sipping champagne and smoking a cigarette in a candle-lit, scented bath.
At 12:00 midnight I got the ring out and proposed on our fifth year anniversary. The rest is history.
Because I bring my camera everywhere I go, here’s a picture of the thunderstorm coming in.
September 23rd, 2005 at 16:00
You say you bring your camera everywhere but I don’t see any pics of the construction zone, the 0 roses, the bath salts, the ring, nor Donald Trump! What a rip off!
Congrats on the proposal in any case. Sounds romantic and scary at the same time (the lightning, not the proposal.)
September 23rd, 2005 at 20:42
You will my friend, you will. Can’t spoil the whole story right away, otherwise I’d have nothing on my page to show.
September 26th, 2005 at 17:54
Probably not such a good idea to be posting any of those bath photos either
Congrats!
June 13th, 2006 at 17:12
Congrats’ on the marriage. Ahh, memories…
I’m a Happa (Japanese/White)American from Honolulu Hi. via San Francisco. During my two and half years of living and working in Tokyo I was blessed with the joy of also being able to wed’ my lady.(interestingly enough she happens to be a Chinese National who had lived in Japan for ten years) We had our ceremony at the the Metropolitan hotel in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. Saddly our honeymoon wasnt in Hawaii but it was up in Kinugawa,(thats next to Niko in case…)so we had a wonderful time at the onsens and such.
Take care…love the site
June 13th, 2006 at 17:46
Hey Paul, nice to meet you. I’ve heard wonderful things about Nikko. I’ve yet to visit but onsens are one of the best things about life in Japan!