Joey gets married today

The last few days were a blur. Kyoto was a bigger city than I thought and I was glad to sign up last minute for a tour of the major shrines and castles. I went to Nijo Castle, the Imperial Palace, and the Golden Pavilion. Nijo Castle was my favorite. I also met a solo female traveler, an Estonian New Yorker and I was glad for the encouragement for the next leg of my journey where I truly will be going solo.

Came back through Atami and stopped for a famous hot springs bath before heading back to Tokyo to join up with the Millards. Last night, I hung out with the ladies where we had a pseudo bachelorette night for Ai. We went to Christian Academy, and helped Ai set up the last of her decorations in the auditorium and cafeteria. Then we had a big meal of sushi and went to a shopping center to surprise her with a gift of lingerie. It was fun laughing with Ai and helping her take some of the wedding stress off. Then we went to an Italian cafe for dessert and a time of encouragement. We asked her questions for reflection and played games and prayed for her. Ana, Joey's sister, started crying as she prayed because she was so thankful that Ai was joining their family. They were friends first in Oregon where they both went to school before Joey entered the picture. It was really sweet and beautiful to witness the open hearts of love, the friendship and joy of families growing and relationships growing stronger.

I'm seeing old friends that I haven't seend in a while from Wheaton. I've also been pulled to sing a cover of Rosie Thomas song "You and me" for their reception. Yikes! Got to practice today.

One point of concern--i was never able to get my bali roundtrip ticket for singapore and I leave tomorrow. I'm going to try and buy it today but I may just need to buy it at the counter. Anybody ever done that before?

I'm off to prepare for the wedding...listening to Ai and Joey talk about their feelings on getting married--I realized, it's just this impossible decision that you make to do something you feel like you have no idea about. It's a wild decision that you make and somehow, unbeknownst to yourself, you just keep sticking with it each day until one day you are finally married. It's been encouraging for me to hear how much they are unsure too and don't feel ready and have wanted to pull out and still can't believe it's happening. The difference between them and me is that they were eventually able to just accept the chaos, the uncertainty, and the messiness of it all.

Aight, I'm out. Let's hope bali flights work out. and Congratulations to Ai and Joey!

(by the way, my English on this blog wil certainly get worse and worse. Be prepared--this happens when I visit Asia)