The day before the big day

大事な一日の記憶が薄れる前に。

We booked a machiya house for M.FR's family and us during their stay in Kyoto. We stayed one night and realized that we were not going to get much sleep in this arrangement, as his sister has three small children who were jet lagged. M.FR and I decided to just to stay one night in a hotel to get a good night sleep before the wedding. It is at the hight of the high season in Kyoto where apparently hotels are booked at 90% all year around, so M.FR booked whatever he could find in a same neighbourhood.

So my day before the wedding was like this- first went home by subway from the rented house to get what I did not pack and brought gifts for our wedding guests and drop them at the restaurant. Then, my parents and I went to pick up M.FR's family and had the first family meet up and lunch in Japanese-French restaurant. Then, M. FR barely finished his dessert to take some of his family and friends to a temple tour. TR started getting hungry. I was wearing a nice white dress for the occasion, which was not breastfeeding friendly, so for the first time I went to sit in a toilet to feed him...  In the meantime, I accompanied his sister and niece to a kimono rental place for the wedding. We managed to find a kimono for the niece and his sister, and went to shop for a special kimono socks (called Tabi) for them. We brought them home in late afternoon, and M.FR was also on his way back from the temple (and took a wrong train!) After that we went to buy something to eat for his father and aunt for dinner in the neighbourhood. We packed again and took a cab to the booked hotel. It turned out to be a de lux version of a backpackers hotel. It was hardly a pre-wedding night type hotel, and we were laughing how funny and it's so us. We didn't care, and we just wanted to have a quiet room to sleep. We hastily bathed TR and put him to sleep in a decent time. While M.FR watched the baby, I went to a store to buy shaving cream for him and dinner for us. I called my mother while I was waiting for Chinese take out to make sure we were well coordinated for the day after.  I called and booked three separate taxi travels for us, his sister& niece (to the kimono place), and the rest of the family. We could not even finish a can of beer with our Chinese food while reviewing the program at the ceremony and practicing our vow. We prepared our bag in our tiny tiny hotel room trying not to wake up the baby. M.FR shaved and I wore a facial mask. I was also googling the protocol for giving a money envelope to the hair dressers (this is in addition to their charge) and counting bills and stuffing envelopes for all the payments to be made for the following day.  We still managed to go to bed at 11. I knew I still didn't translate the lunch menu for the reception (I did it at 6 next morning..)              

My head is spinning just to remember and write about this!!