First off, the Hawaii – Day Six gallery is up.

Today we slept in a little bit and headed down to our favorite breakfast buffet — Perry’s Smorgy Restaurant. However, as soon as Kelly saw how beautiful and sunny it was outside, we decided to change into our beach gear before going. We only had about 45 minutes on the beach before heading back to our room to get dressed for the wedding.

It should be noted that mid-western / Southern-style “church clothes” are not conducive to comfort in the island climate. My black slacks, shoes and blazer were woefully thick and hot, not to mention completely out of character with the rest of the the whole city. The walk down to Chuck and Danna’s hotel wasn’t terrible, but oh, just wait — it gets better.

As I walk up the steps of the Queen Kapiolani Hotel, I notice that there seems to be quite a draft. In my pants. I remembered quickly why I had not worn these pants in such a long time — they were the ones that split on me during Chuck and Danna’s wedding some 3 years ago! Luckily, Tom came through with an extra pair of black slacks, and I quickly changed and thanked Tom quite a bit! We headed out to the Gloria Diamond Chapel…

Kelly and I had assumed we were driving to the chapel — but we really didn’t know how far away it was from their hotel, and we didn’t have a map. The party instead started out on foot. The map we had was woefully small and only the most crucial streets were labelled. We left the hotel at 11:37 with the wedding at noon, and after over-shooting the chapel followed by head-scratching and reorienting, we were finally back on track. Oh, yes, I must mention — IT WAS HOT. Kelly had some dress heels on, and I had the aforementioned slacks on. Everyone was sweating by the time we got to the chapel (a mere 5 minutes late).

We were greeted by the bilingual (more Japanese than English) greeter / wedding commandant woman from the “wedding company”. She instructed us in short, clipped sentences and suggestive hand-motions and eventually we all fell in place. I didn’t care for standing out in the sun for five minutes lined up waiting to go into the chapel — but really, after that walk standing still was A-OK number one fine with me.

The service was short and sweet and done in both English and Japanese. The opening song was Ave Maria, and the closing song was something in Japanese. The service reminded me a bit of Methodist or Lutheran or something lightly Catholic. The following act in this tightly orchestrated play (Aren’t all weddings like this? Ceremony, photo-op, photo-op, dress rearrangement, photo-op, confusion, photo-op, speech, food, food, Electric Slide) was a “shower of rose petals” followed in quick sucession by the champagne toast and cutting of the cake, and a brief photo op by a large curtain-style fountain. We were then herded into and locked inside of the main dining room.

I should say that I have never eaten anywhere were there were more forks than fingers on your hand. We had four forks (five including the dessert fork), and frankly I didn’t know what to expect, but assumed that we work our way from the outside in. I knew we were in for some culinary treat for sure!

Before all that, though, there was an opportunity for the party involved to give some speeches. Gary went first (in English) and thanked everyone who travelled all this way to come, Roger and Jane Koybayashi (the man who lei’d me the night before), and both his and Mayumi’s parents. Mayumi said her speech in Japanese, so I can’t really tell you what she said, but by the reactions of the Japanese speakers at the table, it was a true tearjerker.

Ryoichi Taki, the father of the bride spoke next — first in Japanese and secondly in English. He noted (loudly) that he does not speak English, and had been up all night practicing his speech. He said that Gary was a bit quiet and shy and that he felt that because of this, Gary was already a little bit Japanese. He also thanked all those in the wedding party, and then sang the opening lines to Elvis’ “Can’t Help Falling in Love With You” in English. It was quite endearing! As he sat and comically wiped his brow, we gave him a round of applause.

And then, oh my brothers, there was a meal like no other I had seen before! A seven-course meal with foie gras, salmon and tuna poke (poh-kay), scallop soup, mahi mahi filets, pork chops, cake, coconut sherbet (frozen coconut pudding, I’m told), and Hawaiian coffee. I should say that while I’ve never had foie gras (duck liver pate’) before — I wasn’t about to turn down the chance to try it. Surprisingly it was quite good, but not necessarily the sort of thing that I’d eat on a regular basis. The entire meal was very good, and very well presented. I enjoyed the mixing of French, Hawaiian and Japanese cuisines quite a bit.

After the dinner, we “vacated the premises” as Gary put it, and while Gary and family went to take photos on Hale Koa beach, Kelly and I retired to our rooms for a while. We intend to hit the Ala Moana Center again today with Chuck, Danna, Mayumi and Gary and then eat at the all-you-can eat Japanese seafood restaurant, Todai. Tomorrow is the Polynesian Cultural Center tour/luau, and Thursday we plan on getting a little surfing in before we head home later in the day!

Update: Greetings from the Ala Moana Mac Store! Honk honk!