A Day to Remember (March 3, 2011)

Monday I got a text from Shinsuke.

Shin: Alyssa, are you working this Thursday evening?
Me: No, why?
Shin: I'm creating an event (on facebook) on Thursday night to film a lesson and I need my former students.
Me: Ok, I can help out. What do I need to do?
Shin: Look at the event on fb :-) and Alyssa, do you want to have a nice dinner on Saturday?? ;-)
Me: Sure! Where at?
Shin: It's been planned ;-) And dress nice.
Me: Ok :)

After the text conversation I was pretty excited. I haven't told Shin, but my parents called me to tell me that Shinsuke had called and talked to them. I kept thinking, Is he going to propose?! The entire week I was looking forward to Saturday. Occasionally my thoughts would stray to Thursday. What if he was proposing on Thursday? But no. It couldn't be Thursday, could it?

I'm not going into detail about what happened before Thursday night because I wrote about that in my previous post. But keep in mind that I borrowed the video camera from the library. After eating a delicious curry dinner prepared by Jessica and going home to put on make up and try to do something decent with my hair Jessica and I made our way to the JFSB.

(Here is the event that Shin made on fb)

Time	Thursday, March 3 · 8:30pm - 9:00pm
Location	JFSB 150
Created By	Shinsuke Tsuchiya
More Info	Dear former students and friends of mine, I am filming a lesson for my portfolio and I need some "students". There will be cake and fun and surprise! Tsuchiya sensee

Shinsuke had also invited Joy, Jamie, Yu, Jake, Andrew, and Angie. Though, Angie was not there yet. Yu and Joy brought a cake that I assumed was a prop for the lesson. Jamie's fiance Matt was there to help film as he didn't speak Japanese.

Shinsuke started teaching the lesson and I noticed he had written down his lesson plan in the diary that we write to each other. That's strange, why would he do that? I thought to myself. While Shinsuke was asking everyone genki desu ka Angie walked in、apologized, and found an empty seat.

Using the character cards of Sakurai, Matsumoto (both from Arashi), and Suzuki-san (I will have to explain about her later) he asked various people whether these people were pretty/handsome or ugly. Then a few people did the Core Conversation where one person is asking another whether the person in the picture is pretty. After that he went on to the Core Conversation with one person offering cake and the other modestly refusing it before accepting it. The last CC was where one person asking about what something in a bag was.

The entire time I was wondering why he had used our diary to write the lesson plan in. Was he going to propose tonight?

Shinsuke asked me to come to the front. He began by asking me if he was handsome and I said, in Japanese, "You're very handsome!"

"Won't you eat some?" Shinsuke asked.

"Some of what?" I asked, following the core conversation.

"This cake," Shin brought out the cake and held it out to me.

"Oh no, I'm fine."

"Okay," and he put he cake away.

I was at a loss of words because that wasn't a part of the core conversation. Silence followed. Then Shinsuke pulled out a bag and motioned for me to begin the next CC.

"What's that?" I began.

"Which one?"

"That."

"This? Oh it's a sweater, I got it for a present," he pulled one of the sweaters I had given him for Christmas, then motioned for me to continue.

"What's that?"

"Which one?"

"That."

"This? What is it?" Shin took out the bento I had given him earlier that day and handed it to me and instructed me to open it.

When I opened it there was a note inside saying "Thank you for the delicious bento!" (I will have to post later what exactly it said), and under the note was a small box.

"What is this?" I asked, noticing Jamie pulling out her camera and beginning to take pictures (actually, I think she started once I had gotten up there).

"Open it," Shinsuke said.

I opened it and inside was a ring!

"What?" was all I could say.

Shinsuke took the box from me and said something along the lines that my bento were always delicious and then, "Won't you continue making bento for me?" (This is a Japanese way to ask, will you marry me?)

"Yes," I managed.

Shinsuke, a little clumsily, put the ring on my finger (he almost put it on my right hand), then I kissed him. Everyone came forward with their congratulations and I did my best not to cry (of hapiness).

And that is how I got engaged.