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U.S. Foreign Service Officer headed to Wuhan, China

The mission of a U.S. diplomat in the Foreign Service is to promote peace, support prosperity, and protect American citizens while advancing the interests of the U.S. abroad. The work that diplomats do has an impact on the world as they serve at one of any of the more than 270 embassies, consulates and other diplomatic missions in The Americas, Africa, Europe and Eurasia, East Asia and Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia.

The duties of a Consular Officer include to provide emergency and non-emergency services to American citizens and protect our borders through the proper adjudication of visas to foreign nationals and passports to American citizens. We adjudicate immigrant and non-immigrant visas, facilitate adoptions, help evacuate Americans, combat fraud, and fight human trafficking. Consular Officers touch people’s lives in important ways, often reassuring families in crisis. They face many situations which require quick thinking under stress and develop and use a wide range of skills, from managing resources and conducting public outreach to assisting Americans in distress.

Japanese wedding photo shoot





A few weeks ago I received an email from MISHOP (Mitaka International Society for Hospitality), a local community group, asking if I wanted to participate in their annual "bride dressing" for foreigners. I received the email because I'm part of the group of foreigners that meets with retired Japanese people in the Mitaka community to practice Japanese. I quickly responded back saying that I would love to participate and reserved that Saturday afternoon in my calendar.



Last week, when I met with one of my tutors, she suggested that Sean come along and wear a suit so that we could take "Japanese wedding" pictures together. I was completely on board with the idea but wasn't sure that Sean would be too whipped out about it. Fortunately, he agreed and yesterday we spent the afternoon learning about (and experiencing firsthand) the time, energy and patience it takes to get ready for a Japanese wedding.


The photo shoot was held in a traditional Japanese house that is now a community center and museum. The building was beautiful and had three tea rooms and a garden in the center. Sean had to do a lot of waiting around since the gown dressing process was quite lengthy.  When it was my turn to enter the dressing room they first worked on my hair for about 30 minutes. I was scolded a bit for not putting on any makeup. She braided my hair into some kind of side bun and then pinned flowers in it. I was not allowed to wear earrings.



Then I had to strip down and three older Japanese ladies got right to work on me. They kept exclaiming that they could not believe how tall I was (them came up to my armpits). The process involved lots of complicated layers, pins, straps, corsets and belts to hold all the layers in place. I started sweating because of all of the clothes and also because I had three women in close proximity constantly tugging, grunting and shifting things around on me. I had to put on the special socks that separate your big toe from all of the rest. The last step was to don the beautiful wedding kimono.





The kimono itself was extremely heavy and took all three ladies to lift it and put it on me. They are very expensive and most Japanese brides rent one instead of buying their own. The fabric was incredibly ornate, detailed and colorful. When I asked the ladies why I was bound up in so many layers that I could hardly move they said, "It's because if the bride doesn't like the groom or his family she can't run away even if she wants to" and then they all laughed. I'm not sure if they were kidding or not.





After everything was in its place, I was escorted out to the photo corner. I had to have help to walk and sit down since moving was extremely difficult and I had to take tiny steps. We got some pictures together and then I went back into the changing room and have to take everything off again. It was quite the experience and I'm looking forward to showing my tutors the photographic results!
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    Sarah Sanderson
    I am currently in Mandarin language training as a new diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service. Sean and I depart for Wuhan, China in November 2019 for my first tour in consular affairs.
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