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2008年1月29日

I'm Engaged--!!!

Her Story [click for "His Story"] :

Christmas was almost here, but I didn't feel too much in the Christmas spirit. Here in Japan, it's a rare sight to see a few strings of lights on a balcony denoting 'Christmas spirit.' Christmas is more of a party than a holiday, and Christmas cake is looked forward to more than presents under a tree. Plus, my class stress was mounting as finals and final projects drew closer. Unfortunately, most of them were due after Christmas break, threatening to ruin the joy of my break with dread of 'examination hell.' To top it off, my break didn't officially start until the 26th. I had classes on Christmas!

But Josh was catching the midnight bus and arriving Monday, Christmas Eve morning. I was excited to see him again, and already counting my absenses to see if I could get away with skipping Monday and Tuesday classes. That Sunday night, we played games and chatted on Skype webcam until it was time for him to go to the bus. He was practically going nuts at having to wait to leave; it was nice to know he wanted to be over with me for Christmas so much. I admit that my dread and stress of homework was killing a lot of my own hype.

That didn't stop Christmas Eve from being wonderful, though. The first time I see him after being away for school is always a particularly special moment; that first embrace is the most comforting and loving embrace, and it reminds me how real and precious Joshua is. From then on, it's great moments of love and laughter, with a few mild arguments now and then that keep us remembering God's grace in our relationship.

Christmas Day started out normal and leisurely. We started up our usual Bible study; today was 2 Corinthians chapter 11. We read it through once, then started going through it slower, commenting on what was of particular interest.

Josh stretched and leaned back, "Okay! Well, I'm good with that, how about you?"

I looked a little sheepish. I struggle with self confidence problems in 'Christian circles' sometimes, but thanks be to God that my desire to learn and grow in God wins out over that. I admitted, no, there were still other parts I wanted to talk about...

"Oh...okay!" So we talked a little longer about a few more paragraphs. Seemingly not long later, Josh was shifting and stretching again, "Okay! Well, I'm done..."

I looked sheepish again. "Actually, I wanted to talk about..." He let out another "oh!" and turned to talk with me again. We laughed his eagerness to be finished off, and had a good Bible study. After that, I leaned back and we chatted a little. Our plans for Christmas day were simple and fairly undemanding. We were going to first visit a mountain called Arashiyama [literally "storm mountain"] in northwestern Kyoto where there was supposedly a very pretty bamboo forest. I had a feeling it was probably rather small, but still neat to visit. After that, we would ride the tram back up to a monthly flea market and see if we could find a few fun things to buy. Then we were going to drop by the grocery store, and head home for a leisurely rest of the day.

Since it wasn't much of a demanding day, I wasn't very fast moving. I became aware, however, that Josh was making fairly frequent comments about going ahead and getting dressed and heading out. A little surprised about the rush, I got up to pick something out to wear, but he reassured me "No rush of course!" I couldn't decide what to wear, so I had him pick the top. I started to wear my normal jeans, but on impulse picked my white pants instead. When I had dressed and he saw me again, he exclaimed "Oh wow. Those pants look really good on you..." Inside, I was rather pleased. Sometimes, even during the dating stage, you get used to seeing one another, so it's a special victory to still turn the other person's head like you did when those 'crushes' first started.

We stepped out into a very cold Kyoto day, walked to the local tram, and rode all the way down to Arashiyama for our second time. I like it that both times I have ever been to Arashiyama has been with Joshua. We tend to wait on each other to go sightseeing, because it's just so much more fun with a dear friend! This was our first time seeing Arashiyama in the daytime, however. After getting off the tram, I was once again struck with just how beautiful it looked. We started walking down the sidewalk, and in seemingly no time at all found the entrance to the bamboo path. Wow!! I had no idea bamboo grew that tall! Looking through the lines of bamboo trees, I recalled all those Chinese movies where fights took place in a bamboo forest. Somehow, I secretly felt that the artistic beauty of those forests was played up for the theatrics of the movies, just like everything else Hollywood and co. does these days, but no, today I discovered that bamboo forests are by God's hand naturally an artistic candy for the eyes. It was a positively beautiful sight, stretching much farther than I had hoped...

"Oh Josh, you should definitely take pictures of this!" I told him. He had specifically brought his camera and camera case for our trip.

"Yeah..." he said, gazing at the trees, just as much in awe as I was. "Well, for something like this, you would definitely want a tripod."

"Use your mini tripod then!" He consented and started shuffling around in his bag for it. After a few seconds, he grew more perplexed and wondered aloud what had happened to it. He doubled his efforts to find the tripod, but still with no luck.

Finally I offered, "Here, let me help!" and reached into a side pouch to feel around for the missing tripod. Right as my fingers touched something, Josh suddenly flung my hand out and looked almost in a panic. Completely bewildered, I ventured an explanation, "Uh sorry...? I don't have coodies! I was just going to help..."

"Sorry..." He said, seeming to recover. "It's not there, I can't find it." Not dissuaded, since I knew my hand had touched something, I insisted on at least one of us looking in the side pouch again. "Oh that?" He said, still a little ruffled. "Oh that's just my cell phone, it's just my cell."

"Oh...okay..." He took some pictures of the forest anyway, [I love how the one I linked to turned out.] and we continued walking through it until we came out the other side. Given a choice of right, left, or up, we tried to go up. That ended in a gate requiring a tourist fee, so we turned around and took the right path. Breaking out of the forest, we came upon a small lake and the most peaceful side of Japan I have seen yet. In front of us walked an old man using two walking sticks. We found cute old houses I would love to live in, an old coffee house, and several dead gardens that must be beautiful in the spring. Eventually we turned around and headed for the left path.

This path took us up and down the mountain side. By this point, I was really happy we came to Arashiyama for Christmas. I couldn't help but admit that so far, this was my favorite place in all of Japan that I have ever been to. Since it was fairly deep into winter, there were almost no tourists. We practically had the entire mountain to explore to ourselves; it was like walking around Fall Creek Falls back home but without the crowds.

Eventually, we came to the option to climb up or down. We started off going down, because the path looked beautiful as well as adventurous. It was steep, and I was definitely not in the right shoes, but I was having so much fun now. We stopped to first take a picture of him there, and then me as well. Moving a little farther down, Josh suddenly stopped and pointed,

"Look! Is that a boat??"

Immediately both of us got a bit interested, and I was downright excited. "Where, where?" I tried to see, but couldn't. We began to go farther down, but realized that the path looped back to where we would go by the end of the day. In that case, we put finding the boat on hold and went back up the mountain to see what was higher.

Climbing up the mountain, we came to a beautiful overlook. From here, you could see the slopes of the Japanese mountains coming down to meet a curving river. The mountains were mildly dotted with old Japanese huts, and way down on the river we see the boat! We stood here and took in the beauty quite awhile before turning and going back down the path.

Arriving at the bottom of the mountain, we looked over and could see the boat closer now. "Wow! It's like a traditional asian-style!" The boat was mostly flat, with a hut in the center like you sometimes you see in the movies. At the helm was a man with an extremely long pole of bamboo, pushing the boat forward down the shallow river Italian style. Looking closer, we could see figures inside the hut, and that's when the lightbulb went on for both of us.

"Wow! I wonder if you can pay to ride those!" I was getting more excited by the minute. A boat ride - wouldn't that be fun?! As we walked the path along the bank, we speculated about the possibility.

"Of course," Josh said, "if it's going to be really expensive, I don't know if it's worth it..." Oh yeah, everything here in Japan tends to be really expensive. "That's true," I conceded, suddenly trying to guess what a boat ride like that would cost. "I mean, if it's like ten or twenty dollars," he continued, "sure, but if it's like 100 dollars, no way." I nodded, already preparing myself for the sign to say 10,000 yen [=100 dollars] when we reached the boat dock. "Yeah, if it's really expensive it's not worth it. We already saw the whole boat route from the overlook, anyway." I commented.

When we reached the dock, a Japanese man almost immediately started throwing out English words to get us to ride his boats. We immediately looked for the price: 3,500 for two people. The way it was phrased, it seemed that it was even guaranteed only you and your friends would ride the boat (rather than be crammed on it with other random tourists). I looked to Joshua; was this price okay? He wasn't completely leaping at it yet; he seemed to be in thought.

"Well, what do you think?" Figuring even 3,500 was probably a lot of money for one small boat ride, I started to say that it wasn't that big of a deal... He paused in thought again, then suddenly threw out, "Ah let's just do it! It's not that bad of a price." Perking up, I said "Okay!" with a happy smile. He smiled back and pulled out his wallet. "I'll pay for it." I didn't argue, and in a few moments we were walking up to the boat.

Our boat driver beckoned us in. Up close, now, we realized that the hut was surrounded by sliding Japanese glass panels. Sliding one open, we ducked inside and were blown away. Inside the hut, we took our shoes off and crawled onto a velvety rug laid over tatami flooring. What? We both had totally been expecting benches. For my part, I assumed there would even be a little dirt and water sloshing around in the bottom, like every other small boat I have been in. But inside this boat, the floor was soft tatami mats, a rug, and a tall beautiful lantern that served as a powerful and cozy heater against the winter chill.

Settling in, we watched as our driver and another pushed the boat off, and our trip began! The ride was lots of fun. I was very happy, but in stark contrast to the thoughtful and calculating Josh before, Josh now seemed to be beating me in excitement. He's an energetic guy anyway, but when he gets particularly excited, he has childlike habit of jumping up and down rapidly. Sitting doesn't dissuade the habit; he was bouncing in his seat shaking his fists up and down, looking like a can about to explode. I laughed, and before the laugh could die from my lips, he kissed me. When we looked up again, our driver, looking mildly surprised, grinned and turned back to his task of pushing the boat. We grinned too, not very ashamed of being in love. Not but a few seconds later, he kissed me again, and this time I looked up to see another boat driver on his way into the dock. He looked at me, grinning mischeviously, and I grinned sheepishly back. I saw him look to our driver with a look that said "Hey, did you know those two back there are--?" Our driver looked back at him and gave a shrug and grin that said "Yeah yeah. I already know."

Now, I sat grinning and looking around. Josh took out his camera and was snapping shots everywhere. I watched him take them for awhile, then settled in to look around leisurely at my own pace. Somewhere across the river, closer to town, was a music box museum. Today they were playing music so loudly that it drifted clearly across the river to us. It was the theme song to Miyazaki's "Gedo Senki" [Tales from Earthsea], positively one of the most beautiful and gripping songs I have heard. We both love that song, and when that song ended, it played select beautiful themes from Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away, and others of our all-time favorites throughout the boat ride. Eventually, I started talking as we sat, listened, and watched.

"You know, I think it's really neat that even in this way God has made us so similar. I mean, we both love exploring and nature, and it's not like one person is like 'Ah geez, are you done yet? This is so boring' etc., and we like having all these adventures together and--"

I had turned to look at him, and the look he was giving me stopped my run-on sentence in its tracks. It was the most intense "I love you." look I had seen from him in awhile, perhaps ever. Oh... I thought, a little stunned. This is a very romantic moment. Apparently now is not the time to be rambling. That, too, was okay. I don't mind silence. I smiled with warm love back at him.

Then he turned from me. Suddenly my whole world crashed to a stop. Oh my gosh, is he--? No no, I mentally shook my head a few times. I had really been wanting to get engaged for quite awhile now, but thinking on it and hoping for it only tortured me and risked ruining the surprise and specialness of the moment whenever it really was going to happen. Besides, it could be as late as when we leave for Knoxville again! I can't be thinking about stuff like--

He reached into his camera case, his back to me.

....

.................. Oh my gosh.

He's going to propose. He's going to propose...It's happening. Christina, it's happening! My eyes slowly became glued to his movements with the camera case, then I pulled them away quickly. No, don't look until he's ready! I focused on some inane square of tatami mat, my heart beginning to pound. The heavy beats probably counted out somewhere around 2 seconds when curiosity overcame me. I chanced a look again, and now he was holding something box-shaped, procured from the camera case. Quickly I looked back to the tatami mat, chastising myself for trying to peek ahead of time and now with renewed resolve not to again.

My heart beat out another 10 seconds this time when I couldn't fathom why it was taking so long. I looked again, and his back was still turned to me, now fiddling with the box in some strange way. Oh forget the box!! My mind screamed. Just propose!!! I had been strangely calm (more like in shock) when he had first turned, but now I was going nuts and my heart was pounding. Finally, he turned around, and I turned back to him.

He was leaning a little, almost as if he was still kneeling, but my eyes were drawn to the box. I think a small "oh!" escaped my lips, as anxiety was momentarily replaced by intrigue. The box itself was so beautiful that I had actually forgotten there was a ring involved. [I'll update pictures of it later!] It was large, covered with a white textured paper with red trim. Wrapped around it were glimmering gold and silver strings tied into an elaborate knot. Tucked into that was a small paper-made Japanese fan.

He was speaking now, but my whole world was in shock and spinning. My own memory barely remembers what he said. It was a proposal, and without a moment's hesitation I exclaimed "Yes!" I had already known that I wanted to marry Joshua Jones, but the shock of the situation also helped keep the answer sweet and simple.

My awareness of the world around me was a bit fuzzy, but now he was slipping off the gold and silver strings, unwrapping a strip of paper, parting the two white halves of the box, pulling out another smooth wooden box, and then at last, pulling that one open to reveal a velvety inside containing a ring.

Oh right, there's a ring! I was laughing to myself, amazed by my own befuddled thoughts, when he opened the final box. I gasped, "Oh it's beautiful!" Those may be cliche words in everyone's 'typical' proposal, but they were truly the first thoughts that struck me. The second were, "It's like a flower..." My breath was completely taken away as he pulled the beautiful peridot and diamond ring out and gently took my hand, slipping it on my left ring finger with slightly shaking fingers of his own. I was still dazzled by the ring itself when he breathed a relieved and almost surprised, "It fits!" Blinking I looked from him to the ring and said either aloud or in thoughts, "Oh, yeah!" Not for a second had I even imagined it not fitting.

Then ensued lots of kisses, hugs, and relieved and joyous laughter in no particular order. At some point he explained to me the symbolism of the ring: two stones that were he and I, with God as the center and most beautiful stone. It was also the symbol of two becoming one. Inside he had engraved 'For CJ 2007': a ring dedicated equally for Christina Jones, Christina and Joshua, and Christ Jesus.

By this point, our driver was probably dying of curiosity to all the noises coming out of the hut. He turned around, Josh held up the traditional Japanese engagement box, and I held up my hand with the ring, both of us with big grins on our faces. The driver looked surprised, then smiled and exclaimed a hearty おめでとうございます！(Congratulations!)

As the boat docked again and we stepped out, the music across the river was Teru's theme from Gedo Senki again. It was beautiful; the entire day and proposal was beautiful. We walked down the river a little, and I was suddenly struck with the overwhelming feeling that it wasn't just Joshua who had proposed to me that day. After finding out how little of this was in his original plan (the overlook, the boat, the music...), I realized that God had proposed to me today. Just as God formed me with love, and formed my friendships and relationships with love, today I felt as though He had sent his angels all running about to make my engagement beautiful: a gigantic message that said "I love you." I remembered how much God loved me and saw me as beautiful, and was seeking me just like Joshua was seeking me. I thought about how Jesus gave all of himself for me, to love me, and almost began crying on the spot. [I still nearly cry.]

Madly in love and unbelievably happy, we wouldn't even walk together except in a way that meant him holding my hand with the ring. We rode back to the dorm, skipping the flea market altogether, and asked around for a good restaurant in Kyoto. That night was the Christmas party, which we were skipping, but I made a special trip down to tell everyone of our engagement. They all nicely erupted in cheers, and someone handed off to me an anonymous extra present from their secret santa. When we opened it upstairs, we had to laugh. Our first engagement present, then, was a blue cookie monster box filled with oyster crackers passed off as cookies.

That evening we went out to downtown Kyoto to a Japanese style restaurant and dined on some very delicious crab. Other interesting things happened, I'm sure, but by then, only Joshua's wonderful figure and the glitter of a delicate ring on my finger hold the attention of my memory...