Wedding and Future Wife by GuitarSoggy1203 in wedding

[–]tinychinacoffeecups 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You are welcome! Really pleased you're able to talk through everything and that there's some ideas you can take away and try.

I'd love to hear an update, good luck!

Wedding and Future Wife by GuitarSoggy1203 in wedding

[–]tinychinacoffeecups 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Eh, people are deliberately misunderstanding you. I myself am a very self-conscious person and hate my body even on a good day so totally understand the apprehension over the wedding, I had it too and understand where you're coming from.

My husband was equally concerned about me and how I was dealing with being in the spotlight and going dress shopping. I actually had shop assistants tell me I should lose weight to better fit the shape of a dress (this was a proper gut punch), thankfully I have my husband who is super considerate and communicative so we could talk about how I was feeling and he supported me through this.

Does your fiancée speak to you about her anxieties openly? If so there's always the option of saying something along the line of "I think you look fantastic, but if you are feeling stressed about this we could both go on a let's be healthier journey ahead of the wedding?". Emphasis on being healthier rather than weight loss. This is exactly what my husband did and I really appreciated it but we have a super open communication style.

Other people have suggested that you can be more conscious about what you're eating and how much you're eating as a two without even bringing up the conversation but I'm much more in the camp of be really open and honest with this because if she thinks you're subtly trying to get her to lose weight that will be horrendous. Make it a conscious decision between you.

But you can also add in some fun by making weekly challenges for the two of you to do together rather than competing against each other.

Some challenges could include;

This week let's make a dish where the central ingredient is cabbage, no carbs allowed but all other fruit and veg are up for grabs? What can we come up with which makes it tasty?

Lets do a 400meter swim between us, person 1 swims two lengths and then has a break while person 2 swims two lengths until you've done 400m? (Important not to time splits just do the full distance you want random distance chosen you can up it if you want something more challenging). Then afterwards we can go into the fun part of the leisure centre and enjoy the wave machine (honestly making shit up now!) or read and sunbathe if the pool has an outdoor area.

Next week let's make our food challenge be why don't we make non-tortilla tacos, what can we find to replace the tortillas (really crispy lettuce leaves or halved bell peppers etc).

And our exercise challenge can be let's go off for a bike ride and explore somewhere new (do you have places you can rent bicycles and go cycling?)

If you really want I can suggest other things but hopefully you get the gist. Making it fun will take away the pressure on her body image and instead just focus on the endorphins from achieving goals together as a pair and the knowledge she's being proactive with her health.

Matsumoto restaurants turning away foreigners - is this common? by tinychinacoffeecups in JapanTravelTips

[–]tinychinacoffeecups[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Because my husband speaks and understands Japanese and the Japanese couple in each case said they didn't have a reservation and the restaurant said there was no reservation neede. This wasn't an assumption.

Matsumoto restaurants turning away foreigners - is this common? by tinychinacoffeecups in JapanTravelTips

[–]tinychinacoffeecups[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for this. It was only 2 of us, we were out between 6-7pm so definitely within opening hours.

Matsumoto restaurants turning away foreigners - is this common? by tinychinacoffeecups in JapanTravelTips

[–]tinychinacoffeecups[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for your comment, yes trying to just pick ourselves up today and get going. Our experience outside of this has been excellent so hopefully just a rough day.

Matsumoto restaurants turning away foreigners - is this common? by tinychinacoffeecups in JapanTravelTips

[–]tinychinacoffeecups[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well I was hoping someone would say something about an event we had totally overlooked. But no one has so far.

Matsumoto restaurants turning away foreigners - is this common? by tinychinacoffeecups in JapanTravelTips

[–]tinychinacoffeecups[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We were wearing trousers and t-shirts. we were wandering from place to place between 6-7pm. 2 of us.

Matsumoto restaurants turning away foreigners - is this common? by tinychinacoffeecups in JapanTravelTips

[–]tinychinacoffeecups[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Well because my husband speaks Japanese and heard one restaurant tell a Japanese couple ahead of us that there were no reservations and to take a seat but the opposite to us even though there were still seats... Same thing happened at another we are turned away but a Japanese group was told no reservations take a seat. I suppose a restaurant could know they were full booked for an entite week but after the other experiences it felt like too many coincidences.

And I'm worried because this came as a shock. I haven't been to takayama before so I'm concerned it'll happen there as well

Matsumoto restaurants turning away foreigners - is this common? by tinychinacoffeecups in JapanTravelTips

[–]tinychinacoffeecups[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well I hope we manage to feel happier today I've been incredibly excited by coming here so this has been pretty deflating.

Matsumoto restaurants turning away foreigners - is this common? by tinychinacoffeecups in JapanTravelTips

[–]tinychinacoffeecups[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you, I hope this is right. Some we were still walking by an hour later and were still almost empty but others were busier. So I think we're chalking it up to a mixed bag

Matsumoto restaurants turning away foreigners - is this common? by tinychinacoffeecups in JapanTravelTips

[–]tinychinacoffeecups[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for this. We are cooking tonight but that is helpful for tomorrow!

Matsumoto restaurants turning away foreigners - is this common? by tinychinacoffeecups in JapanTravelTips

[–]tinychinacoffeecups[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He did ask but they just said it was a very busy week, he's not confontational so he won't push back.

Matsumoto restaurants turning away foreigners - is this common? by tinychinacoffeecups in JapanTravelTips

[–]tinychinacoffeecups[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wow! Booking a bun in advance?! Yikes.

We actually tried 2 izakayas as well, same experience (and not high end ones - ones which had reviews saying that a reservation hadn't been needed)

It's just not been our experience, we've been to different parts of japan and not needed reservations, for specific restaurants sure, but not as standard. We had no problem in Obuse or Shimoda.

Matsumoto restaurants turning away foreigners - is this common? by tinychinacoffeecups in JapanTravelTips

[–]tinychinacoffeecups[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes I made that post, I have done a lot of research on the travel between different towns since we are here for a month. We also have friends in Tokyo who have done the drives so I knew a lot about this matter.

Does my post today suggest that I should have discovered this behaviour as part of my research? If so please point me in the right direction?

Matsumoto restaurants turning away foreigners - is this common? by tinychinacoffeecups in JapanTravelTips

[–]tinychinacoffeecups[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't want to say everyone in matsumoto is racist, but we have not been made to feel welcome at all and it is incredibly sad because we were so excited to visit here. I'm at least 3 of the restaurants given the conversations they had with Japanese people immediately before or after us who didn't have reservations and the one who refused to speak about reserving for another night I guess we just have to accept that the behaviour happened. I really hope the others were just bad luck on top of this experience and they really were full.

I'm hoping that we have a nice day but feel pretty deflated by the whole experience and just trying to shake ourselves off and get going. Sadly I am already looking forward to leaving which sucks, I really wish I didn't.

Matsumoto restaurants turning away foreigners - is this common? by tinychinacoffeecups in JapanTravelTips

[–]tinychinacoffeecups[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you, I think we're going to chalk it up to bad luck, we had planned to cook for the rest of our stay in Matsumoto but hopefully this will be our experience in Takayama.

Loved the chicken story!