Hiromi’s Blog

Where should I start?? Well… Harper and I got married !! on the paper and applied my visa so that we can live together. We want to have a wedding/party at some point. I had so much fun with him and his dad, Steve, and my parents love both of them. Harper suggested on the phone that we should marry right after my Chicago trip, but this time he proposed to me in person in a beautiful park near the hotel where Steve stayed. He surprised me with a diamond ring which he told me he couldn’t get.
It was not easy for me to find a jewelry shop which can fix my ring in a few days, but my friend Kumi told me this nice place and Harper and I had nice chat with a lady who took care of us. Now I can wear this beautiful precious ring all the time. I saw Harper off at the airport today and got sad, but this time I was ok and didn’t cry…. In fact, I am so happy and I don’t know how to describe it!!
We did so many things, mostly visa things and marriage at the beginning. I had to work on the weekend, but Harper and Steve had a wonderful adventure without me and after my work we had a great time at a pub near my house. On Monday we had to go to the U.S. embassy to get an affidavit of competency to marry which we needed to get married at a local city hall. Steve came along with us, and it wasn’t difficult, but we were so glad that he came with us because we were sort of nervous.

My friends, Kumi, Dai, Miki and we had a wonderful dinner at a Ninja restaurant in Akasaka. It was like a maze and everything was so hidden, and I almost couldn’t get out from the bathroom… My friends are so nice and they all loved Harper and Steve. We talked about music a lot since they work for a music magazine in Tokyo. Thank you so much, my friends!! Steve and Harper are great and they can hang out with anyone!! We had a great time with older ladies at the pub too!!

Tuesday was a long day, but fun. we submitted our marriage application at a local city hall. They had never filed a marriage certificate for a non-Japanese spouse (Harper), so they were super cautious and I was a little bit? frustrated. Harper tamed me (hahahah) and we found out that my parents’ names are not listed on the original family registry. It was not a big deal, and they can still use the address, but now they are thinking about making their own registry. I still don’t know what’s up, but I’ve got an address for me and Harper near my dad’s birth place.

Reed’s family and Nakazawa family had lunch together and we all went to my parents’ farms and rice paddies. Steve and Harper enjoyed a country scenery and my parents were happy to get to know them. After saying good bye to my parents, we went back to Kofu and hang out with my friend, Yurie at my favorite cafe owned by a wonderful woman, Shiho and had a local noodle dish and took an express train back to tokyo. Wow…busy..

However, the Wed was the biggest day for Harper and me. We had a nice lunch with Steve and Steve went to the airport to go back to the States, and we headed to the U.S. emabssy for the interview. I was nervous for sure, and so was Harper, but we had no problem at all and everything went so well… we had a light meal at an organic cafe and went back to my place and took a long nap. yeah..like several hours. We were exhausted.
After this interview, we just hang out and took it easy. We slept in on thursday and watched a movie called “Hustle & Flow” and we checked out some stores in Omotesando and had a nice Italian dinner, and yesterday/ the last day before Harper left, we went shopping at the tokyo station and a nice Sashimi dinner/ Harper’s favorite! in Azabujuban. We were catching up the time we missed each other. It was like a nice weekend.
I had 7 days off and got married, and I am soooooooooooooooooo happy!! Thank you so much, Harper, Harper’s family, my family, his friends, and my friends. We are so happy because of all of you!!