We're Getting Married!

I've never been known for my subtlity. :D Grin.

Here's the story for all who've asked:

Tuesday, being Vernal Equinox and a national holiday here, Tom and I spent the day exploring Hikone Castle. It was a short shinkansen trip south to Nagoya and a messy train ride from there to enjoy the only one of the four best castles in Japan that we'd not seen (the other three are Matsumoto, Himeji, and either Hirosaki or Inuyama depending on the resource). It was a cloudy day and the castle wasn't our favorite ever (no demon blossoms!) and I was just kind of going with the flow. After we did a lap around the garden pond and arrived at the ancient teahouse, I was a bit amazed at Tom's dissappointment that there were "no tables". Little did I know that that was where he'd planned to propose... I was just enjoying the view, the green tea, and the sweets (so much that I dropped it right into my lap, covering myself in green powder right on the fly of my jeans... lovely, eh?). Probably okay that he waited.

We wandered back to the train station when we ran out of things to do, to Tom's further dissappointment. I fell asleep on the boring train ride back to Nagoya and therefore met his suggestions that we head to the surely stunning restaurants on the fifty or fifty-first floors with non-committal "whatever"s. Poor guy! We went back to the hotel and then had dinner in a truly mediocre Asian restaurant with torches and creepy bathrooms.

Finally, back in the hotel room, we'd been chatting and drinking tea over convenience store deserts when he asked me to show him the photos I'd taken from the teahouse. A bit curious, I showed him and was a bit mystified when he plopped the camera down on the table. Then he started getting really nervous which made ME really nervous! :) He handed me a jewelry box but when I opened it there was a ceremic pig head he'd bought in China (pigs are one of our inside jokes). I think he thought I'd be all surprised but I totally expected that one. And he was just so nervous I knew something else was coming. I didn't expect the ring though, which is what he gave me next. Then, getting down on one knee... then the other... then both, he took my hand, put the ring on my finger and asked me if I'd marry him!

The rest was a blur of giggles and jumping up and down and hugs. We're engaged! We're going to get married! And we're both so, so, so happy!

I caught the shinkansen back to Tokyo and work the next morning at 6:55 am but still couldn't sleep even though we'd been up brainstorming most of the night. Unreal!

Now I'm still in shock but have been brought back to reality a touch as a begin to appreciate the immensity of planning this thing. I have No Idea how people make things like just picking a date and place look so darn easy. Honestly, no clue. We're currently thinking about Christmas/New Year's out west in the mountains (at a ski resort) or somewhere in Indiana. The first thought was Hawaii but it has only taken a couple days for me to realize how much more important it is for me to have the people I love around for the big day than it is to be warm.