I proposed to Ayumi on December 3rd, 2011, which was also happened to be our 5th year anniversary. Yup, after five years, I guess you can say that a proposal was beginning to be an order!
The original plan was to have Ayumi pick me up at the Chubu airport, go somewhere romantic in Nagoya, give Ayumi her 5th year anniversary present, and finally propose to her in some sort of romantic setting (all while having her sisters secretly hovering around in the background taking pictures of the special occasion). Anyway, I spoke with Ayumi’s sisters beforehand and had everything planned out nice and good, but when it came down to it, Ayumi fell sick and she could not come and pick me up at all. I landed in Aichi-prefecture alone, and my plans of going on a date with Ayumi in Nagoya (with her sisters secretly tagging along), had failed!
ZOMG!
I took a lonely 2 hour bus-ride from the airport to Toyota city, all while wondering if I would have a sick Ayumi-chan on my hands when I arrived. Turns out, when I arrived in Toyota I was STILL alone. Yep, things were not looking good. Ayumi was 30 mins late in picking me up, and during the time I waited at Toyota station, I was actually seriously considering postponing my proposal as I expected to be meeting up with an Ayumi who was too sick to be able to fully enjoy the precious occasion.
By the time she arrived the weather was cold and drizzly, the evening sky had darkened to a flat gray, and I was completely lost as to where and how, and if, I should propose to Ayumi.
But, not all was lost! When Ayumi opened the car door to let me in, I found her to be in relatively good spirits, although a little sleepy. Seeing my somewhat healthy girlfriend sparked a determination within me to finally get this “proposal thing” over and done with.
It was GO-TIME!
As it was already too late to head to Nagoya for our romantic date, Ayumi proposed we go to the nearby “Hourankei”, a mountain that is famous for its meandering paths draped in the colors of autumn. Of course, I was in for it!
Hourankei in Aichi prefecture
By the time we arrived it was pitch-black outside, but luckily enough the rain had waned and the neon colored maples clinging to the mountain paths were all lit up.
The place was bustling with young couples on dates and the paths were muddy from overuse. Me and Ayumi made it to the top of the mountain in about an hour, and along the way, I was scoping out places where I could give her the 140 page hand-crafted scrapbook/album I made for our anniversary. It was a monster tribute to us as a couple as it documented nearly all the experiences we shared together in the past 2 years of our relationship.
The plan was to present the album to her, look over the fond memories we shared together in the past couple of years, then propose to her once she reached a special note adhered to the final page.
As there were no perfectly lit places, nor any comfortable sitting areas at the top of the mountain, I settled for a well-lit bench along the river running at its base. I giddily gave Ayumi her album for our 5th year anniversary, and we began giddily flipping through the pages together.
Everything was going well, but when we finally reached the end of the album a young couple came to sit at the bench next to us. At first I was a little annoyed at the invasion of privacy, but then I saw this couple as a golden opportunity for pictures to be taken of me and Ayumi’s special moment. I suddenly left Ayumi’s side, jumped in front of two completely bewildered strangers, and begged them to take my $1500 camera all while I was shaking at the knees.
When I returned, Ayumi was super-confused at what the hell was going on.
“Why are they taking pictures of us?” she asked.
“I dunno!” I belched.
“What? What? Who are they? Why are they taking pictures” she insisted.
“Hey, what’s on the next page?”, I coughed, whilst nudging her arm to encourage page-flipping.
Ayumi turned to the last page and found a note/booklet. In it was a brief letter of love, which ended with a set-up to my once-in-lifetime question.
I got on my knees, said a some words which I cannot remember for the life of me, and proposed to Ayumi Kato.
A once in a lifetime question
She could not believe what was happening, and as a result she kept on asking “Really? Really? Really?” in rapid-fire. I was starting to wonder if anything had gone wrong with her pretty head. A fever maybe?
“What should I say?” she asked.
“Whatever you want” I replied whilst still on my knees.
“Un!”
“And what does that mean?”, I asked, hoping that I had correctly interpreted her Japanese way of saying “yes”.
“YES!” she cried. “Yes YES!”
.
Anyway, she said yes.
We hugged, and I put a ring on her finger that was about 3 times her size. (I still have never bought her a ring that fits. Its some kind of on going joke we have.)
Things could not have gone better!
We thanked the couple taking the pictures, said our goodbye’s, and had a look at the photos they took. Execpt the picture above, 96% of all the photos look as if an old piece of cow-dump had been smudged on a steamy unwashed bathroom window!
Ah well, I am just happy that we have physical copies of the memories, even if they are muddy-blurs of digital data.
Shortly after our engagement, me and Ayumi head back to her car so that we could go our for supper and celebrate. Halfway there, her dad called and “insisted” that we come back straight-away.
He wanted to drink, and was getting an itchingly impatient while waiting for me, his drinking buddy, to return after nearly seven months.
So we went back home, and did not say a word to her parents that night… Actually, as I had an interpretation/translation training seminar in Shiga-ken, the prefecture next-over, we were unable to tell her parents about our engagement until a week later.
But that, my friends, is another story.
Alec Louis-Seize and Ayumi Kato are now happily engaged!
