On March 18, 2004, Aki and I got married at the Koto-ku ward office in Tokyo, during an extended lunch hour. I always found it interesting that the "Marriage Application" forms are located next to the "Divorce Application" forms. Might as well pick one of those up while you're there, just in case, save yourself another trip later. The ward official calmly looked over the documentation while we sat down, did some filing, and then came back to tell us that we were now married under Japanese law. Cool, that was easy, I thought. Then we went back to work.
My manager wondered where I had been for over two hours. I told her, "Sorry, I got married." I also explained that it wouldn't happen again. Well, not as far as I was aware.
On our first anniversary, if we had wanted to relive the romantic nature of the experience, we could have stood outside City Hall in the rain, I suppose. Instead, we ate at the Tower of London Wagamama (see smarmy guy above) and then went on to see the play The Anniversary.