There are many, many, many envelopes in Japan...

I have been living in this country for... 9 years now. Yep, 9 years! Holy crap, that's a long time.

Even though I have been here for that long, there is always a first time for everything. Like the big party tomorrow.

Tomorrow is my dear friend Toru's wedding day to his lovely wife, Yone-chan. (They are already married by law in February)

The following was my conversation with him during a dinner we had earlier in the year:

Toru (To): "Dude, you want to come to my wedding?"

Taiko Tar (Ta): "When is it?"

To: "June. Yone wants to be a June bride. No, actually that's the only time the hall is available."

Ta: "I'd love to come!"

To: "You know that it is customary to give money to the couple when they marry, right? We don't do gifts, "

Ta: "OK, that's great, so I don't have to worry about your wedding gift. I will give money anyway for a present, otherwise you'll end up with ridiculous collection of chinaware."

...

I then contacted my J-mum in Niigata to consult how much money is customary to be given to the happy couple. Okaasan then said, "Well, it depends on how close you are to the person who invites you. It starts from 10,000 yen (about US$100), basically, but people hardly do that, it's regarded too cheap. Then it goes up, if s/he is your good friend, then you give 30,000 yen; if you come as a couple then you get a 'discount' for the couple 'rate' of 50,000 yen or if you're a close relative then it's only fitting if you give 50,000 yen per head, for every family member who goes to the wedding celebration. And remember, don't do 20,000 or 40,000 or 60,000; basically no even pre-fix, it's symbolizing death"

And then she said, "Since you're not Japanese, you can be culturally ignorant and not give money or give however much you are willing to, but I don't suggest you do that. How close are you with this person?"

Me: "You're joking! No, I can't be culturally ignorant. I have been living here for that long. That will be very rude. Well, he was my former colleague at the previous company, and ever since he became one of my savior angel in Tokyo."

Okaasan: "Yep, you're a 30,000 yen tag, at least."

My summer vacation allowance has immediately become a wedding gift.

...

So, later on I discovered that all this gift money has to be presented in a special envelope. Not having done this before, I am completely oblivious as to what the envelope should look like.
I went to the stationery store just now and headed straight to the envelope area. Whoa! There were so many selections for it. From the tiniest of envelopes to the biggest ones. They are all basically white, but with different side coloring. I saw black, green, pink and red. And then there is another one with an elaborate crane in front of it and there was another one with an elaborate origami ornament in front of it. Needless to say, I was at loss. I just want an envelope.
The clerk at the register was rather busy with other customers, so with good faith, I brought a sample of 5 most festive looking envelopes, in different colors. Finally it came my turn, then I just had to ask,

Ta: " Excuse me, but I just want to buy one. I'm not very sure which one I should get. Can you tell me what the differences are among these envelopes?"

Shop clerk: "The black color symbolizes death, so this one is for funeral. Now this dark green one is for a similar purpose. The pink one is for when you give money when visiting someone at a hospital who is very ill. This gold and red one is for people who just graduated university or any school. Now this one with the silver and golden crane, that's for weddings. Which one are you going to?"

Ta: "I like the black the best, I think this one looks very elegant. But I am actually going to the wedding, so the crane it is."

...

Back at the office, I bugged one of my colleague to advise if I'm supposed to be writing any stuff on it or not. As it turns out, there are three places on which you're supposed to write something.

1. The strip in the middle: you should write your name

2. The front cover for the money: a statement on how much money you are putting in the envelope in old Japanese writing

3. The back cover for the money: your name and address, preferably written in old Japanese style writing. The address is especially important as the couple needs to know where to send the hikidemono -which is their "thank you for coming" gift for people who have attended their wedding. Toru did say that he is going to present a catalogue where we can choose anything in it as our own hikidemono.

So, with several ernest attempts, covered in black ink; my envelope is finally ready. Ta da!

This is the end product, the ink is still not dried, so I have to wait to put it behind the crane

the envelope broken into parts

Oh, crap, now I have to worry about what to wear tomorrow morning. Why do I always do these things at the very last minute???