Good news!  Yuki was walking around Tokyo doing what she calls work and she happened to come across a used wedding dress.  It fit, she liked it, and it was only 75 dollars!  We have to pay a 150 dollar fee for bringing our own dress to the wedding but that still saves us a whole bunch of money (and Yuki will have a dress to wear in Canada).  So what does Yuki do with the savings you ask????  Invite more people!  I can't win.  Oh well, the wedding should be a lot more fun cuz Yuki invited our friends from Tokyo.  

I had my final fitting for my tuxedo.  Finally found a decent, plain, smart looking tux.  I am still told by the lady that runs the tux shop (and I am sure collect commissions on the rentals) that no one wears those here but I don't care.  When I tried it on I knew I would be able to relax and not have to worry about my friends making fun of me for the rest of my life for wearing a tux with a leather collar and matching leather pants (and paying 1300 dollars to do so).  The plain old tux that I chose still costs 300 dollars to rent but that seems like a bargain in comparison to the other available options.

Yuki decided that we are to have stuffed bears at our check in desk (that's the place where the guests come to the reception and hand over their cash - apparently Bryan will be helping Kumi out with greeting guests - better brush up on your Japanese Bryan!!).  The pair of bears costs about 250 bucks to buy pre made (this wedding racket is composed of nothing but a bunch of crooked companies ripping people off - you can buy similar stuffed animals at the dollar store).  Yuki decided to opt for the do it yourself version and after paying 50 bucks for the kit and spending 2 days working on them till early hours of the morning, she finally finished them.  As you can see, they are pretty cute.  Not 250 dollars cute or even 50 dollars cut but Yuki really likes them so I guess that makes it worthwhile.

This is a picture of all the cash that people have handed over already to celebrate our wedding.  Some is from relatives and some is from neighbors.  They hand it over in special envelopes (you have to be careful with your envelopes over here - you don't wanna hand over wedding money in a funeral envelope!) and Yuki's mom has them on display at the special display area of the tatami room (a traditional part of every Japanese home).