JP photo-shooting: 1st draft ready!

It's such a long process...

• Apr 8: photo-shooting in Nara, Japan - around 400 photos taken
• Apr 28, 30: photo selection - we chose the best 100
• May 20: softcopy of all "raw" kimono photos received
• Jun 8: 1st draft ready - a layout putting 100 pictures into 35 pages

It's been sooo long that we almost forgot images other than those in Kimono...so happy to view the wedding dress & evening dress photos, as if they were new...very fresh and excited us!!!

So, it's homework time. We need to look into detail every page and feedback if we want any adjustment. Hopefully that can be done smoothly and our target date to collect final products in July can be held.

hehe, an enjoyable task...looking at the photos = replaying the day in Nara, all the fun fun and sweet moments we had, our hard work of how to make perfect photos & the always "look forward" sentiment...^0^

Hope xx and other "about to get married" friends will enjoy their photo shooting experience, too! Yeah yeah!

Visit to the Immigration Bureau - The first step for Carol's achieving of Japanese residence.

Today marks another significant milestone.

In the previous post, we have explained that we have taken quite an effort in putting the documents together to submit them to the Immigration Bureau of Japan for application for Carol's Certificate of Eligibility (在留資格認定証明書). This certificate is required for Carol to get her spouse visa and to stay long term in Japan.

So Jin went out today to the Immigration office. Since the office only opens during weekdays office hours, we all have to take leaves from office to go there. Hence, Jin cannot make any mistakes which makes any possibility to have him make an extra return trip. That is the reason why we had been soooooooooo meticulous in researching the necessary documents and filing them perfectly so that there are no doubts what so ever.

So here Jin is, in a pouring rain, at the Immigration Bureau of Japan, Yokohama District Office, holding the pack of hundred-page-document tightly and trying not to make any of the documents wet.

Immigration Bureau Yokohama District Office
(on a clear day, randomly picked from the web)

The selection of the day to visit the office was good. There was only 10 people waiting before him!!!!! (Not to mention that I had to go to another office - 横浜中区役所 - in order to fetch other necessary documents in order to complete the hundred-page-document pack) So, here Jin is, nervously waiting in line with all sorts of foreigners (外人 as they are called in Japanese) ....

• Chinese middle aged lady (おばさん) talking on phone with her friends, apologizing that she couldn't attend yesterday's function. She's now at the Immigration Bureau for...???
• Korean businessman with a wet helmet (for bike), but not wet at all, with a plastic bag (i.e. from department store like Sogo) with documents, not wet (how was he able to keep his body and bag dry?!!!), asking to renew his Certificate of Eligibility.
• A Japanese lady carrying a pile of forms to submit for Certificate of Eligibility (for many people, i.e. for labors from Middle East or South America...).
• Hispanic family (elderly father and middle aged son) asking for some certificate.
• Single middle aged Chinese man waiting by the counter, staring at the lady at the counter, wanting to handle his registration form.
• A Japanese businessman carrying 5-6 sheets of printed paper of pictures of him and his wife, assuming he is also registering for Certificate of Eligibility for his wife, but I just cannot believe how many few sheets of paper he has.
• Chinese family (group of about 5-7) aggressively coming from the lift lobby directly to the counter, talking loudly among themselves, not taking the queue slip (the sheet of paper that contains the number which will be called when its his turn), but chatting chatting chatting, and after a while returning to the elevator hall (why were they coming here in the first place?)

Very interesting. This is indeed, a mini immigration hall in the country.

So it's Jin's turn after a looooooong wait of investigating the snapshots of the various foreigners (i.e. above). Jin went to the counter, queue slip in my hand, a big pack of documents in another. The lady seems to be used to the amount of documents, and she asked if this was for the Certificate of Eligibility for Jin's wife. When Jin answered "yes", she quickly looked through what was in the batch, and explained to Jin that she will check the documents for any missing ones.

So here is Jin once again, waiting for another 3-5min eagerly, yet nervously waiting to hear the good news that the batch includes all necessary documents.....

When Jin was called, he quickly moved back to the counter. The lady smiled at him and explained that there are no missing documents, and passed him the slip of acceptance, which includes the identification number which can be referred at a later time.

So, the accomplishment of the day.....


The countdown starts from here. We both pray for the reply to come at the earliest time possible （－人－）

JP banquet confirmed - 2009.03.29

...............friends asked: "How about Japan?"

ヽ(ﾟ∀ﾟ)メ(ﾟ∀ﾟ)メ Yey! JP banquet confirmed as:

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Date: March 29, 2009 (Sunday)

Ceremony starts: 10:30 AM

Banquet starts: 11:30 AM

Venue: Bayside Garden Club

日本国神奈川県横浜市西区みなとみらい 5-1-5

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In fact...this has been confirmed long ago...in April during our photo-shooting trip.

As briefed by Jin in his previous notes, there are a few styles of JP banquet, depending the ceremony type.

After balancing all pros and cons, we decided to go with GUEST HOUSE with western style chapel wedding.

(To be correct, instead of "decide", we were fallen into the super fantasy...and perfection of GUEST HOUSE)

A few snapshots of Bayside Garden Club:

Imagine...

In a sunny new spring morning, you walk with birds' songs and showered by sakura peddles brought by the mild wind...gradually you arrive at the entrance of Bayside Garden Club...

Two very polite "housekeepers" come to open the gate for you and you enter the main building, which is actually in front of a pool. The blue color of the pool matches with the sky, making the main building shiny white..so warm and glory.

More and more guests arrive and some of them are standing along the pool side, chat over drinks.

Oh! It's almost time! guests move to the Chapel and inside this purely white peaceful place, Carol's father handed over her to Jin after march-in, for their eternal vows (Oops, although after 1 year) of confirmation and blessed by the guests...

A short break after emotional fulfillment (from the ceremony), it's time to fulfill our stomach! It's banquet time!

Chef is serving French cuisine today. Guests take their time eating slowly, enjoying some performances...

Oops! wake up!

It's still too early to tell the whole story!

What we had done is to book this perfect scene to prepare for everybody's enjoyment, and you need to experience it in person!

Or if you wish to continue the dream...http://www.kekkon-taiken.jp/ click "enter site". haha..

One happy side note - our wedding banquet place is just next to Anpanman Museum!!!!! Happi~

HK banquet confirmed - 2009.05.17

Yo! Hong Kong banquet confirmed, as :

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: May 17, 2009 (Sunday)

Time: 12 pm to 3 pm

Venue: Grand Marquee, Gold Coast Hotel, Tuen Mun

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This is an easy conclusion against our well-defined criteria, including:

1) "Good days" (吉日) for us: Mar 29 (chosen for JP banquet), Apr 19, May 17, June 20.

Overseas friends' schedules was sought and May 17 is of convenience to the majority.

2) Time: lunch is preferred as i) all "good time" (吉時) picked are in the morning; ii) respect Japanese guests as Japanese style is more for lunch; iii) start early & finish early, avoid making it a tiring day for all; iv) a bright day in spring, with plenty of sunshine. AND!!! v) my super good friend xx is having her wedding on May 17 as well - we can rush to her dinner banquet after ours!

3) Venue: We want to make our banquet a cozy get-together, with natural light to add to the warmth & green + flowers to add energy and new hopes. A pure white marquee inside a garden is the best option!

A quick research of available marquees in HK:

i) Repulse Bay (out - renovation in Q2 2009);

ii) Harbour Plaza Metropolis (Marquee+harbour view= city feel and a gorgeous night view, better for night event);

iii) Aberdeen Marine Club (looks nice but could not manage to make a visit after several attempts..give up)

iv) Gold Coast Hotel: (Marquee in a garden!) in terms of "concept", Gold Coast stands out immediately! We made a visit there on May 1 (as an outing activity during Jin's stay in Apr for registration) and had a wonderful experience:

The whole Gold Coast area is a resort! Pace slow down once your enter the area. Less populated and most of the people there are in relax (tourist)/ casual (residents) mode. Going to Gold Coast itself can make a day trip - bring additional value to our guests especially when we can finish early. The outlook of the hotel is just so-so, but the marquee itself is super - surrounded by the garden and a cruise area. In terms of environment it is almost perfect!

The sales manager we talked to was a nice guy, too. Easy going and helpful. He even advised us to keep shopping around and confirm during wedding expo in order to get more discount....haha...

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Here comes the day - May 31.

I went with XX and her fiance for the Wedding Expo to confirm the package with Gold Coast Hotel. XX also confirmed a few packages for her wedding preparation as well. Tired but very fruitful day.

OK. The defined banquet date also serve as a kick-off for the project. A series of logistics need to be prepared and booked shortly. The first thing I did was confirmed Helen, my make-up stylist of her assistance again for next year's party! yeah yeah!

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p.s. Both Jin and myself love traveling a lot. Today he made a new section at the bottom of this blog - "Cities we have visited together".

Preparing document for Certificate of Eligibility: All systems are GO!!!

In the past post, I have reported that Carol has been added into my 戸籍. While the legal office had done its procedure to register us as family, we have been preparing the paperwork which we will submit to apply for the Certifiicate of Eligibility (在留資格認定証明書）. There are quite some items, which we slowly but surely prepared in a joint project:

Required formats
1. 在留資格認定証明書交付申請書 (Application form for Certificate of Eligibility) 3pages
2. 身元保証書 (Letter of Guarantee) 1page
3. 質問書 (Questionnaire) 8pages
4. Additional information for the questionnaire (An essay which we provide detailed information from the time we met until we decided to get marry) 4pages
5. B5 size envelope with return address (of Jin) written and 430JPY stamp attached
6. 課税証明書 (Taxation Certificate) 1page
7. 納税証明書 (Tax payment Certificate) 1page
8. 結婚証明書 (Marriage Certificate) - Original (to show), Copy (to submit), 2page translation, a total of 4 pages
9. 在籍証明書 (Certificate of Employment) - Original (to show), Copy (to submit), 2page translation, a total of 4 pages

Additional information
10. Namecard of Carol and Jin (to prove that we are of the same company) 2pcs
11. 上申書 (Letter of Petition) - A letter from a Jin's father and mother to address expedition of registration procedure (handwritten on a specific form and then stamp chopped) a total of 2pages
12. Copy of Carol's passport 1page
13. Call history of international calls which Jin and Carol had called to each other 61pages
14. Album of 40 pictures each with handmade captions attached to it.



Still need to fetch from legal office:
15. 戸籍謄本 (Family Register) 1page
16. 住民票 (Certificate of Residence) 1page

Whoa!!! It is a total of 92 pages of information!!!!! There's lots of information that the country of Japan requires me to submit in order to approve Carol's eligibility to stay in Japan with me.

Once this is submitted, the long long wait time will start. The date I'm planning to submit is just around the corner!!! あと少しだ!!!

It's 1 month old - Jin & Carol's marriage!

Dear Friends,

Today marks the first month celebration of our marriage!! *\(^o^)(^o^)/*

After our registration on Apr 27, we made visits to Macau, Shanghai & Suzhou. After a brief bye-bye, I headed Paris and then Belgium and met Jin again at HK airport for another week in HK...now that we are both back to our "normal mode" working hard in Tokyo and Hong Kong respectively. phew... The lucky thing was - we were able to stay together for almost half the month! yey yey!

It was a very colorful and busy busy month for us...yet, there is a call inside us keep reminding us to send this thank-you note to all of you!

Friends, we did not expect our day to be so marvellous until we had your presence. Your warm words of blessings, your true smile, big laughs, strengthful hand-shakes....your caring and support meant a lot to us. We could not thank you more but we promise to treat you a proper celebration next year either in Japan or Hong Kong.

In the meantime, let us share as much joy as we have with you:

• Photo album of the registration day: Our memories with you to last and treasure -
  http://picasaweb.google.com/jctakamura/OurWeddingPart1HKRegistration
• Preview version of our pre-wedding photos: (http://picasaweb.google.com/jctakamura/ZRuDzH)
  We took our pre-wedding pictures in Nara, Japan on April 8, 2008. (Exactly 2 months after Jin proposed!) Besides standard wedding dress and colorful evening dress, we also prepared "Kimono"/ "和服" (in Chinese) - it's the one and only "振袖" I wore in my life!! (Note: 振袖 is the type of kimono only for unmarried female, with long long sleeves.)
• Our wedding blog (http://jincarol.blogspot.com/):
  Many of you have asked the same question: "how's life after married?" "how do you feel being a husband/wife?" We are trying to address these questions via our blog - keep you eyes on it! You will also find detailed steps how we put together the wedding registration and other wedding arrangement - hope it will be helpful to the next brides/grooms!

ENJOY & STAY TUNED!

Warmest regards,
Carol & Jin

We are family!!!

Ever since I had gone back to Japan *sob*sob*, I had been calling the government office ever day to check whether they have registered our marriage registration in my 戸籍. Please refer to the previous post if you are not aware of what this is.

It was on the 14th of May that I received an extremely gooooooooooooooooooooodo news!!!!! Carol is now in my 戸籍, which means that we are ready to submit the registration form for the Certificate of Eligibility (在留資格認定証明書, the permit for Carol to request for her spouse visa).

I just am sooooo happy as these steps move along one by one!!! However, I am going to Hong Kong from Sunday for a business trip, so it'll have to be next week, or the final week of May which I can submit the forms..... I just cannot wait to get the process started and going!!!!!

きゃろちゃん、あと少しだからね。もう少し、我慢してね。いつまでも離れ離れで寂しい思いをさせてごめんね。