Midori &
Eric's Christmas Greeting 2000
Tales of the
North/South Pacific
We have a curious
expression for marriage in English: "settling
down". This is something of a misnomer. From all we
can tell, married life may be better described by
the expression "perpetual motion". At least in our
case the metronome seems to have been stuck at
"Presto" all year. And what a year it has
been!
To recap, here's
a quick overview of what we've been up to:
January
|
We greet
the year 2000 while standing out in a
cornfield somewhere in Indiana, together
with my sister and brother in law (who
actually live out in a cornfield,
somewhere in Indiana).
|
February
|
Eric
comes back to Japan (again) and starts
work at Sanwa Bank.
|
March
|
Midori
comes back home to Japan and Eric visits
Midori's parents in Yamaguchi. We get
engaged, etc. Sensing Eric's nervousness,
Midori's father pops the question: "So,
you think you want to marry my
daughter?"
|
April
|
Midori
(re)starts work as a pharmacist at a
drugstore in Tokyo.
|
May
|
We start
making wedding preparations, searching
high and low for the best venue, and
finally choose the Matsumoto valley (of
all places).
|
June
|
We
participate in a bicycle race at
Utsukushigahara, near
Matsumoto.
|
July
|
We get
married at Azumino Family Chapel, and hold
our reception at Tobira onsen, a beautiful
Japanese hot spring.
|
August
|
We
recuperate and start our new life
together.
|
September
|
Midori
starts BSF (Bible Study Fellowship)
classes.
|
October
|
We take
a trip to Kobe and Osaka to visit Midori's
university friends.
|
November
|
Eric
takes the Japanese Securities Exam, and
learns lots of useful new vocabularly in
Japanese, such as "GDP
deflator".
|
December
|
After
much postponement, we honeymoon in Bali,
in which Eric travels below the equator
for the first time, goes diving with the
tropical fishes, and Montezuma gets his
revenge.
|
Japanese book of the year: "The story of pastor
Chii-roba" by Miura Ayako
English book of the year: "Prince Caspian" by C.S.
Lewis
All in all, we've
been having a ball. Midori likens our married life
to a three-legged race: the concept takes a little
bit to get used to, but we get right back up when
we fall down. We'll figure this one out
yet!
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