Story of Japanese princess giving it all up. Would any of you women out there do the same if given the same circumstance? TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- Crowds of well-wishers shouted "banzai" (long life) and applauded as Japan's Princess Sayako left the royal palace Tuesday to marry urban planner Yoshiki Kuroda. In doing so she bid farewell to her life as a privileged princess. The marriage means she relinquishes her title, swaps the grandeur of the Imperial Palace for an ordinary apartment, and trades official duties for housework and the supermarket run. The reserved princess, whose hobbies include birdwatching and traditional Japanese dance, wrote of feeling "lonely" about leaving the palace following a stilted farewell ceremony with her parents at the weekend. Her final, private goodbye to the empress, to whom she appears very close, is likely to be more emotional. "I would like to tell Sayako just what comes to mind on the morning of the wedding, but like my mother before me, I may not be able to say anything at all," Empress Michiko said recently. Sayako's sister-in-law, Crown Princess Masako, found the opposite transition -- from commoner to princess -- so stressful that she had to take more than a year's break from public duties, only returning to the public eye in the past few months. A hint of the culture shock awaiting Sayako was revealed in an exchange with a lady-in-waiting quoted by one newspaper. "It's really hard to clean everything up, things like closets and bureaus just after you move into a new place," the Asahi Shimbun newspaper quoted the lady-in-waiting as saying. To which Sayako replied: "What, you have to clean up?" But Sayako's serious, bespectacled fiance has said he is determined to help her adjust to her new life. Though a descendant of Japan's now-abolished aristocracy, Kuroda shares a modest apartment with his widowed mother. The newlyweds will move to a rented apartment not far from the palace before taking up residence in a new condominium to be completed next year, media reports said. 'Miss never mind' Sayako is at least unlikely to suffer the embarrassment of becoming tabloid fodder, as the Japanese media tend to keep a respectful distance from royalty. The wedding also will involve little of the fanfare associated with European royal weddings, or the public frenzy that accompanied her brothers' marriages. "We aren't especially interested in the royal family, but we do like to see things when something special is going on," said Yoshiko Baba, 59, one of the crowd gathered near the palace. "This is a very happy occasion," she added. In line with the custom of the imperial family, which traces its history back at least 1,600 years, the ceremony will be carried out according to the rites of Japan's indigenous animist religion, Shinto. "Nori is very kind, she's a real old-fashioned Japanese girl, very different from the young people of today," 59-year-old Michiyo Ichikawa said. The wedding of the daughter Akihito nicknamed "Miss Never Mind" for the words of encouragement she offered at difficult moments, will be a welcome cause for celebration in the imperial household, recently shaken by disputes and illness. Last year, Sayako's brothers squabbled over Naruhito's public complaints about the way his wife had been treated. Honeymoon plans have not been made public but some media said the couple would visit such domestic sites as the Ise Shrine in central Japan after settling in to their new life. The shrine is dedicated to the goddess Amaterasu, mythical ancestress of the imperial family. The couple's life after the wedding will be cushioned by Sayako's $1.29 million dowry from the government. She has taken driving lessons in an apparent attempt to fit in with Kuroda's enthusiasm for motoring, and has also spent time brushing up her cooking skills. Sayako has already given up her part-time job as a researcher at an ornithology center in Chiba, near Tokyo, possibly to give herself more time to adjust to unfamiliar chores. http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/11/14/japan.princess.reut/index.html
Depends if the guy is really worth it and will help of course. You know the appartements are so small in Japan, that it doesn't bother you at all to clean this up. And doing the groceries is not really a chore. Maybe it will bother her to live in a really small appartment and not really being able to keep up with her hobbies. Where will she watch birds in Tokyo?!!
May i ask what ur ethnicity is? Just curious, since it seems like you are familiar with the Japanese lifestyle in Japan.
I am from the Caribbeans but I am somewhat familiar with the Japanese lifestyle cause I was there last year for about 6 months working in Tokyo. So I had lots of time to "mingle" with the locals
I'm happy for the princess and wish her all the best. She may be giving up her title and the luxuries but she may be gaining something more important.
first time i heard dis story too.. but dont the guy become a prince wen they married ... how come the girl have to be strip of her title ... i guess it's the japanese thing ... im chinese by the way... so i dont really understand???
