In the fall of 2017, my wife and I were in Japan. We came across a place on Google Maps that had a very high rating, but we didn’t understand why, as everything was written in Japanese. Nevertheless, we bought an expensive entrance ticket. Then we found ourselves at the base of a beautiful castle atop a mountain, which many young people were climbing. We followed the crowd, but when we saw most of them turn in another direction, we got distracted and ended up somewhere else.
We found ourselves in the middle of a ceremony where we were each given a piece of wood and shown a stone about 25 meters away. It was made clear that we had to hit the stone with our eyes closed using the wooden stick. I closed my eyes and did my best, but I missed. My wife was equally unsuccessful, and we left feeling a little disappointed.
After a while, we finally found a Japanese person who understood English and explained the meaning of the ceremony. As it turned out, according to the legend, whoever touches that stone gets married within one year. We couldn’t help but laugh at our misadventure and the trouble we got ourselves into without understanding the language.
In the end, we didn’t hit the stone, and we didn’t get married within a year. However, the experience taught us a valuable lesson. It is important to understand local customs and traditions when traveling to a foreign country.
And about Japanese weddings
There are basically two types of wedding ceremonies in Japan: western-style and Japanese traditional styles. The wedding ceremony and being legally married are two separate things in Japan. In order to be legally married, you need to register with the city or municipal office. And you can have a wedding ceremony before or after registering as a married couple. Today, most Japanese couples have a wedding ceremony in a western way. But still, Japan has a unique way to celebrate marriage. Here we introduce the wedding ceremonies in Japan including an explanation of the traditional way of the wedding with beautiful kimonos!