Family Book...Forum Style

[LionsFanInJapan]

And then was it Japan's greatest ever invention after that LFIJ......, Karaoke?!! That's a great language barrier cure.

I attended a wedding about 5 or 6 years ago....., a buddy married a Senegalese woman......, she was a student and she had many student friends so there were many nationalities at this wedding. Limited conversation etc......, until they cracked open the Karaoke!! What a night that turned out to be. I ended up getting absolutely rat-arsed and doing "paradise by dashboard light" by Meatloaf with this girl from Ghana. Great memories.

Ha! Karaoke is great, but I don't think it would suit my parents. My Mom would be looking for the hymn section.

Wow LFIJ very cool. So how did you meet your wife, and how long have you guys been married?

Thanks Kay. She is a Social Studies teacher. She got transferred into the junior high I worked out when I was on the JET Program. All teachers in Japan public schools are moved around every 3-7 years. They can request to stay at the same school or be transferred, but it's all up to the boards of education.

Anyways, we kept it a secret from *almost* all of the teachers and all the students for over two years. About a month before the wedding, that school was merged with the larger junior high. On the last day, I showed up and we told all of the kids. One of the teachers videotaped their reactions, and we played it at the wedding. It was hilarious. We'll have been married six years in April.

[Coop]

Marko - get yer scottish ass to a forum game in the near future!

[Coop]

a recent pic of coopas troopas

[kayrone]

Hi Coop family!

What a cool story, LFIJ. So how long have you been in Japan? Did you intend to stay or did it just work out that way from meeting your wife? (Not trying to be nosy, just want to live the expat life vicariously)

[LionsFanInJapan]

Cool pic, Coop. Where was that taken?


10 years this summer, Kay. Original plan was to move back to the states and go to graduate school. It wasn't until about six months before I would have had to go back that we really started talking about it. I went through the whole ordeal of asking her father for permission to marry her. She told me if he said no that would be the end of the relationship. No pressure, right?

[Coop]

LFIJ and hi kayrone too not living that far away...

pic was taken on a recent trip to CT to see family.

[Coop]

and kay - we had some early discussions about my son. I'd love if you could meet him. I've always wanted to say thank you btw for your concern/help.

[Marko69]

Great story about videoing everyone's reaction LFIJ. And very good at keeping that secret too. I'm glad Kayrone has asked all the questions I would've asked....., but I have one more......, were you shittin a brick asking Kimikos dad for his daughter to marry? And even though he obviously said yes, I was bloody nervous reading it!

Hey Coop!....., can I call you Phil? You look like Phil Collins buddy! Excellent picture there.
The forum game is definitely in my bucket list of things to do. Half the battle for me making it there one day is that my wife also wants to go. I think most guys wife's would be like, "What? Detroit? I'm not going to Detroit you arse.....!" But my wife will be on TripAdvisor looking at all the other places we could be going whilst over there. So that's a huge plus.

[LionsFanInJapan]

Marko - It was pretty bad. After I asked, he said they needed to discuss it as a family, so I should go home and Kimiko would call me when they'd decided. The only saving grace was a Japanese friend told me that was par for the course. Otherwise I would have figured they just wanted to get me out of the house to avoid a confrontation!

[Marko69]

Seriously....., OMG mate. How long were you left waiting?

[bimmer84]

Great story LFIJ. Coop, nice family shot! What was the deal with the train cars in the background?

[LionsFanInJapan]

About an hour or so, Marko.

[Marko69]

Ah, ok. Not so bad then. I thought you were going to say a few days.

[The Cat]

Coop you should be proud, they are great. LFIJ, another epic revelations of the Japanese tradition. BTW if you are thinking of older Japanese songs, that's great. The only one I have is kyu Sakamoto with his crossover hit of 1960.

[Malto Marko]

My SIL came to my house one early fall afternoon (he was not yet married to my daughter, they were dating) by himself which was very unusual. I was watching the Michigan - Notre Dame Game.

When I let him in the door I asked him "Whats up?" He said he wanted to talk to me and Mrs. Malto. I said OK, I have to go get Mrs Malto because she is working in the yard in her garden.

I went outside and told her seatbeltboy was there and he wanted to talk to us. She said OK, I'll be in in a minute.

.................well, a minute turned into 20 minutes and it did not bother me because I was wrapped up in the game but, I noticed seatbeltboy was sitting on the edge of his seat and was very nervous. I asked him if the game was affecting him that much because it was a warm day and he was sweating profusely.

He told me no it wasn't the game, he has something important to discuss with me and the Mrs.

........well, the Mrs. still had not come inside so I went back out to tell her that he was waiting and seemed a bit nervous. She responded that she would be in soon.

5 minutes later, she still had not come in so I told him whatever you have to discuss, fire away, no need to keep waiting for Mrs. Malto because she does not seem to be interested in whatever it is you have to discuss.

He then asked my permission to marry my daughter.

I was dumbfounded. I got up, turned the TV off and asked him if he wanted another beer. He accepted.

After retrieving a beer for him and buying myself a bit of time to respond, I told him that if they wished to get married, there really is nothing I can do about it because they are both of legal age. I appreciate the fact that you took the time to ask my permission and I can tell you one thing. If you don't take good care of her, you and I are going to have a nasty relationship. If you take good care of her, we will have a great relationship.

He sighed a big sigh of relief then downed the rest of his beer.

Right about then Mrs. Malto came into the house.

When she came into the living room I said, "Seatbelt boy brought good news. He and Jen would like to get married and he came to ask your permission".

She responded "Ask my permission? I don't have anything to say about that!" I responded, "Yes you do, just say yes".

She said yes and Seatbelt boy got up to shake my hand, I took it and gave him a hug and told him I was looking forward to him being part of the family. Mrs. Malto gave him a hug also and he headed out the door like his car was on fire and he had to put it out.

That was 13 years ago and we still chuckle about that day and he tells me it was one of the most agonizing days of his life.