The next day we had to wake up bright and early to get to the shrine by 8am or whatever for the wedding ceremony! I wish I'd gotten a photo of my hair from the back... didn't think of it at all!
Makeup shot
It was at the Meiji Jingu Shrine, very prestigious so dress code was strict. Virtually no skin showing, closed-toe shoes, etc.
ALSO no photos 😹😹😹😹😹😹 So... sorry!! ESPECIALLY no photos inside the shrine, which apparently like 0.0001% of people get to see 🙀🙀🙀🙀🙀so we are considered very lucky!!!
The ceremony was short and very gorgeous! We first met up for the rehearsal in a room (very descriptive, I know) and also went to meet up with dear kayz0rbeam, the bride, who was having photos taken!
This was the fake sake for the rehearsal. Beautiful, but pretty much salt water
Then we lined up and walked to the shrine. They are strict during the walk as well! I was on the bride's side, and we are not allowed to look around, smile, pose, make any hand gestures, etc. When we got to the shrine, we are seated and the ceremony begins. The priest announces the groom and bride to the gods and the shrine maidens and the uh... other guy who is dressed like the priest but is considerably younger do stuff.
Then the bride and groom state their statements (it was all in Japanese 🙃 ) and drink sake. Then we all drink sake. We also got a little yokan to take back as a treat and then it's the strict walk back to the other building. Then time for photos and relax!
Funny little side story: the expiration date on the side seemed to be expired no matter which number was the year. I asked of of kayz0rbeam's friends, who lived in Japan, if Japan used a different year system. He was confused as they generally don't. After some thinking, turns out it was expiring in the 8th year of the current emperor's rule, and it was currently the 7th year. Very traditional!
I had some time to kill before meeting with some Twitch friends for Monster Hunter Bar (Monhan Sakaba) in Akihabara and had a nice walk. There were very few trees turning colors, but I did catch one!
At Akihabara I first went into one of the goods/merch buildings and browsed many of the shops inside. I picked up a present for a friend as well, who had mailed me the Monster Hunter Bar points cards to collect more points. It's been through like three people so it's a team effort!
Dash juice container! Unfortunately the quality was lightweight and cheap feeling, so I didn't get it
Gross
Then I made my way over to the restaurant. As I'd never met the streamer I was meeting in person, YamiRaiMen, but had seen him on camera, I was relatively certain I could spot him? And his two friends I didn't know at all.
There are multiple theme cafes in this building!
Outside was a vending machine with cans that had different stickers on! I ended up running into Yami and friends here and one of them got a can. Yami tried also, and he got the secret! It's a Fatalis sticker.
Then we headed up. As the elevator doors were closing, a Japanese man hopped in last second. I hesitated for a moment before asking, "Non-san?" He turned around and it was my other Twitch streamer friend, Non (nzknbr)! His camera is only shown at the end of his streams and from a different angle overhead, so I wasn't sure if I'd recognized him correctly! I'm glad I did~ I said "Sparkuru desu~~" and he was happy to see me too!
Inside, there were loads of photo op spots!
Some of the tables were quite close to the photo ops, so I tried not to get in the way of the diners.
Wedding outfit!
My favorite weapon!
Paisely!
After taking snaps, I handed out some gifts to everybody, and Non-san gave me a goodie bag from Capcom store! I'm so happy for that as I ended up not having time to visit the shop myself.
Monster Hunter Wilds side bag, Stickers from Non-san's streaming studio, Animal Crossing tumbler, Capcom bag. The Cardcaptor Sakura GBA game he gave me when we went to his studio!
We also received random pins when seating, so I let everybody pick one to open. I ended up with Rompompolopo or however you spell it (the inflating mosquito bug thing in the Oil Basin). Yami got my favorite monster, Mizutsune!!
One of his friends I think felt a little bad that I had gotten gifts for them all and he hadn't, so he secretly bought me a Mizutsune sticker while we were taking photos and gifted it to me! So kind. I'll be putting it into my junk journal when the journal arrives!
I had pre-ordered the meat skewer platter when booking the seats, so we ordered some drinks first.
Non-san got the FFXIV collab drink, which came with a postcard! He gave me the postcard to keep 😻
Then the meat platter showed up! I could only eat a couple onion rings and a couple potatoes as I don't eat meat, and there were only two eggs so Yami and one of his friends had those~ They said the meat was pretty good!
I ordered a Yian Kut-Ku pizza mostly because it's photographable haha! Look how cute it is!! The eyes are silly~ The head is made of egg salad and tasted nice with the pizza.
Violet for scale
In the background you can see Non-san wearing my merch shirt!
We then split ways, and Non-san and I did a bit of shopping. I got a gacha Wilds icon magnet, and got Gore Magala. I was hoping for Mizutsune, but there are 22 total monsters you can get so the chance was small!
Then we went to Non-san's streaming studio to have a look around and meet his business partner. He showed me many things that he's collected over the years! Duke, ObliquerStrategies, and Switchboard.op then also came to Akihabara and originally Duke said they'd meet up at Non's because he know the place and had been there before, but they got distracted at an arcade while I sat and sweated not knowing if I was overstaying my welcome 🙀😿🙀😿🙀 So when he finally told me where they were, I invited Non-san to the arcade, HEY.
We played some games and I tried a Gundam game for the first time! I didn't know how anything worked or even how to move as there are two handholds. I thought one is camera and one is movement as on a controller, but actually it's more like your two thrusters. Except I didnt' know how to jump either.... I still beat Duke 😼😼 Likely due to my confusion making me unpredictable. I also didn't know how the attacks worked, but hey, I still did it!
I also played Bomberman against Non-san, and he won twice 😹 It was a good time!
Afterwards, we parted ways with Non-san and the four of us went to meet up with Potato.Lau for dinner at an izakaya he regularly visits. I think he's been living there for six years now? Something like that!
Dishes for the table charge - I did try the snail thing!
Sour! Mine is peach
TAKOWASABI! It's unmixed here. Mix it and add more wasabi as you please.
Potato.lau said this place got their fish fresh each day or each week; something like that! It all tasted so good!!!
I LOVE SQUID
I didn't take any photos of any of the meat dishes as I don't eat meat so it's just seafood time!!!
I normally don't eat tuna much, but the tuna sashimi so delicious~
We also got this little DIY roll where you put a scoop of the tuna mash in the nori provided in the cup, add some wasabi, spring onion, pickled radish as you please, then roll it up, dip in soy sauce, and NOM. Very yummy!
Grilled little octopus!
Fish of some kind. This was the okayest dish of the night. Still good!
The second order of sashimi was just lean tuna (dark red ones) and fatty tuna. Absolutely delicious as the fatty tuna is in season! It was almost falling apart, so good! And the lean tuna was pure flavor. I miss it already!!
FISH HEAD!!! Gotta love it
Very filling!!! A bit pricey as well, I think it was around $8k per person? But for the quality and quantity of food and drink we got, it was a nice treat!
What is your favorite fish? Or cut of fish? I think I need to try more tuna....
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