Tenth marriage anniversary

In the previous post I wrote that in this post I will write about Tohoku Rokkonsai Festival that hubby and I attended in Akita City on 30th May. But today I decided to first write about our tenth marriage anniversary celebrations and get back to the post about Tohoku Rokkonsai Festival next time.

13th October was our 10th marriage anniversary day. The anniversary day brought back happy memories of the day when we decided to get married about eleven years ago. However, it also reminded us of the requirement of many legal documents from India and various legal formalities to be completed for an 'international marriage' like ours in Japan. By the time we finished the registration of our marriage at the city hall in Tsukuba City (where I lived at the time) and also at the Embassy of India in Tokyo, hubby and I were really tired of all the legalities. Our reaction after getting married was not of happiness but rather a sense of relief. We were physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted after dealing with all the procedures and legal documents for almost eight months. And therefore we had absolutely no mood or feeling to have a wedding ceremony or even a marriage party with friends or relatives. So this year being our tenth marriage anniversary, we decided to have a small get-together with our Indian friends of Akita prefecture. In fact in the month of October, we had two dinner parties to celebrate our anniversary. One of the dinner parties was given by our friends to us and the other one was hosted by us.

On 4th October, hubby and I took some professional portraits of us at a photo studio in Akita City to mark the special occasion of our tenth marriage anniversary. We wore traditional Japanese formal Kimono that we rented from the photo studio itself. The staff helped us in wearing the Kimono, and also helped with my makeup and hair styling. Hubby looked really very smart and handsome in Montsuki Haori Hakama Kimono. I wore a Tomesode Kimono and the makeup made me look so remarkable and flawless. We really enjoyed posing for the photographs. Both of us are a bit camera conscious and the professional photographer probably had a hard time to make us smile and relax during the photo session. The photographer, being a professional, did his job well. We are really happy that we took the professional portraits this year on our marriage anniversary. The photographs have come out really great and are wonderful for the sake of memories. Below are the photos that hubby took of the portrait photographs bound in hardcover.

Our portrait photographs in Kimono

On 11th October, Indians of Akita prefecture had a dinner party at the Multipurpose Hall of the International House of Akita University located in Akita City. International House provides accommodation to foreign researchers and students, and is located near the university. Since most of the Indians are researchers or students at the university, it was easier to arrange the party there. Hubby and I reached the International House at about 4 pm. All the Indian friends were already present at the Multipurpose Hall. The hall is a common facility having sofa sets, television, and a mini kitchen. We all cooked dinner of Indian food that day. It was fun to chat with everyone and cook food. Also it was really fortunate that one of my researcher friends from my Ph.D days (2.5 decades ago at Pune University in India) was visiting Akita University for about a month. So we chatted a lot that day, and it was nice to talk about the bygone days. Just before having dinner, all the members presented hubby and me with a surprise anniversary cake to celebrate our tenth marriage anniversary. They had ordered a personalized anniversary cake from a local bakery. The decorated cake looked so beautiful. Hubby and I blew the brightly lit candles out, cut the cake, and fed each other a piece of the cake. The cake cutting ceremony was so much fun. I fed hubby a very big piece of the cake and his expression was priceless. In addition, we both bit into a fondant cutout decoration of the cake with our names inscribed on it. This pose was really too funny and everyone had a great laugh. Afterwards hubby and I made sure that everyone also had a piece of the cake. We clicked several photos of the cake cutting ceremony for the sake of memories. Soon afterwards we had dinner. It was so nice to have Indian food cooked by ourselves. We had chicken Biryani, gravy chicken curry, dry chicken curry, Sambar, and pickles. Everything tasted just perfect. Hubby and I had a wonderful evening with the Indian friends of Akita prefecture.

Hubby and I very surprised to see the marriage anniversary cake

Personalized tenth marriage anniversary cake

The decorated cake looked so beautiful

Hubby and I blew out the lit candles

The cake after blowing out the candles

Hubby and I posing while cutting the cake

Hubby feeding me a piece of the cake

I am feeding hubby a big piece of the cake

Too much cake in hubby’s mouth

Melted chocolate from the piece of the cake on hubby’s face

Hubby and I biting into a fondant cutout decoration of the cake with our names inscribed on it

We were really very happy

Posing with a few Indian friends during the get-together

Posing with a few more friends

Everyone busy cooking

I am chatting with my friend from Ph.D days

Dinner ready

We are having dinner

The dinner was delicious

13th October was our marriage anniversary day, which fell on a weekday this year. In the evening while returning home from his office, hubby bought various kinds of sweets from a convenience store located near our home. We had the sweets after dinner. We had a quite anniversary night.

Various kinds of sweets hubby bought on our anniversary day

Hubby had too much dinner and so could not eat the sweets, which led to this priceless expression

Next, hubby and I hosted our tenth marriage anniversary party on 24th October. We organized a dinner party for our Indian friends of Akita prefecture at an Indian restaurant named Lakshmi located in Akita City. The restaurant is small but very clean and serves authentic Indian food cooked by a Nepalese chef and his assistants. We had pre-booked and pre-ordered party menu, and the choices were also pre-ordered. The dinner consisted of several courses with something of every taste available in our pre-ordered menu. We all loved the Indian food very much and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. After the dinner, hubby and I presented Halloween themed candy packets to everyone as thank-you gifts. Also, our friends presented us with two photo frames for which we are very thankful to them. It was a wonderful night.

Hubby and I having dinner with our Indian friends of Akita prefecture at Lakshmi Restaurant

Friend enjoying dinner

We all having dinner

One of the courses of the dinner

Hubby and I very satisfied with the food served

Hubby presenting Halloween themed candy packets to everyone

Our friends presented us with two photo frames

Hubby and I had a very good time in the month of October. Just now I realized that ten years of married life have passed so quickly. Forever seems like a long time but I wouldn’t mind spending it by hubby’s side.

International marriage and legal documents

On 13th of October, hubby and me went to a photo studio in Akita city to have professional portraits of us taken together in ethnic Indian wear. It was our third marriage anniversary and we realized that we did not have any formal photo of us together for keepsake. I could not make this blog post in October as I wanted to upload the portrait photos, which we got just a few days back.

The anniversary day brought back happy memories of the day when we decided to get married about four years ago. However, it also reminded us of the requirement of many legal documents from India and various legal formalities to be completed for an 'international marriage' (kokusai kekkon in Japanese) like ours in Japan. I remember that we started the procedure of collecting the required documents in June 2005 but could register our marriage only in October. I had to make a trip from Japan to India for procuring, attestation, and authentication of many of the documents. In India, I had to go to the city (municipal) hall of my hometown, Home Department of Maharashtra state located in Mumbai, Registrar office of birth and death in New delhi, and Ministry of External Affairs of India located in New Delhi. I have lived in Japan for almost a decade and therefore the procedure of procuring and authenticating the documents served as a shocking, painful, and shameful reminder of the bureaucracy and blatant corruption existing in almost all levels of the government offices in India. Or may be it was just my bad luck that I had to deal with corrupt officials in all the offices that I went. Thankfully, my parents accompanied me to most of these offices and helped me to deal with the officials. After returning to Japan with all the precious(!) documents, hubby and me made a few trips to the Embassy of India in Tokyo to get several more documents, and ultimately we could register our marriage in the city hall of Tsukuba on the 13th of October, 2005. By the time we finished the registration of our marriage, hubby and me were really tired of all the legalities. Our reaction after getting married was not of happiness but rather a sense of relief. When we came out of the city hall premises, hubby exclaimed "Oh! finally we are married." But that was not the case. Next, we had to register our marriage in the Embassy of India in Tokyo. For this purpose, we required a few documents from the city hall of Tsukuba and their authentication from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan in Tokyo, and it took us less than half a day to get the documents. Procuring the documents in Japan was that simple! However, there were several more procedures to be completed in the Embassy of India that officially required about 1.5 months. Here I would like to thank the staff of Indian Embassy who went out of their way and helped us in dealing with various procedures. Finally, we could complete the marriage registration process in the Indian Embassy by the end of December 2005. We were physically, metally, and emotionally exhausted after dealing with all the procedures and legal documents for almost seven months! And therefore we had absolutely no mood or feeling to have a wedding ceremony or even a marriage party with friends or relatives. Also, we had spent a lot of money just in procuring various documents from India. Now after three years, the shock and weariness of dealing with the government officials in India is gradually wearing off and we can even make fun or laugh at several incidences that occurred during the trips to those offices in India. We realized that registration of 'international marriage' is not that easy!
So this year on 13th of October, it was the first time that hubby and me took some professional portraits of us in a photo studio. We wore traditional Indian clothes. Hubby looked very smart and handsome in Sherwani suit. I wore a Salwar-Kameez suit. We enjoyed posing for the photographs. Both of us are a bit camera conscious and the professional photographer probably had a hard time to make us smile and relax during the photo session. The photographer, being a professional, did his job well. We are really happy that we took the professional portraits this year on our marriage anniversary. Below are the photos that hubby took of the portrait photographs bound in hardcover.