Japan Day 10 - Kyoto - Our friend's wedding

One of the main reasons why we went to Kyoto is to attend our friend's wedding :)

As pre-wedding lunch, we went to Man Kame Rou
http://www.mankamerou.com/
A 2 michelin star traditional Japanese restaurant 

My friend and I dressed up in Kimono for it :p
http://www.yumeyakata.com/kimono/index.html
We got there just after 10 and it was SO PACKED already as it was the first Saturday since the opening of sakura.

Here's what we had to do 
- beat the crowd and picked a kimono we like - the outer layer, inner layer (with floral print on the collar) and the belt.
- we then moved onto the room next door to have our hair done.  There were 6 standard kimono hairstyles to choose from


- then we moved onto he changing room - where there were two people dressing us up at the same time.

It costed us 2500yen to hire the kimono (discounted) and an extra 1050 for setting the hair :) not bad huh. There are many other optional extras e.g. hair accessories/ prettier belt etc

 Here's the end product

Kimono is not very comfortable and you couldn't walk fast with it!
To ensure the belt doesn't drop down in the middle of the day. They tied it up AS TIGHT AS possible.
Also, you couldnt lean back while sitting down since it would ruin the pretty bow they made at the back.

We had Japanese setting for the lunch - where we have to kneel down throughout the whole meal and ate from the mini serving table in front of it!!! That was hard! :p couldn't feel our feet after a while.. We ended up going to the loo every 10 min ..hahaha... just so that we can get up and walk around.

Some marinated octopus as the first course

Sashimi 

Pretty basket

tadaaaaa 

a lot of nicely marinated vegetable and seafood.

so pretty and colourful. 

everything perfectly cooked.

frankly.. i couldn't really tell what some of the stuff are... but they are all delicious

being a little picky :p I didnt finish the whole basket off and I got told off by the waitress :( 

tofu fish soup

Jelly - very refreshing :)

The ceremony took place at one of the UNESCO World's heritage site - Shimogamo Shrine 下鴨神社

It was a Shinto style wedding

Before the ceremony, we sat down together with the bride & groom and their family in a little room where the staff explains what's going to happen during the ceremony and had a little rehearsal.

We were served - sakura tea (it's a bit salty with gold leaves! tasted more like a broth rather than tea) and a little red bean mantou (steamed bun)

We had a tour around the shrine.. then went into the ceremony room.  

 It was quite interesting .. It includes the exchange of  many cups of sake and spinning a twig.  

  

Pretty and very expensive kimono

Around the shrine

Strawberry mochi :) 

On the way to our friend's wedding, we saw this restaurant that looks very cute!!! so we thought we could go back afterwards for dinner. 

However, after looking at the menu - which is all burger/ steak! 

we've decided to go to the restaurant next door - serving katsu! 

I had katsu with plum

Keith had DOUBLE PORTION of Katsu with japanese curry.. 

very greedy...