Above Photo by Leah Haydock Photography

Will You Marry Me?

Sarah & Masa, Tokyo, Japan

I had arranged many surprise visits with Sarah throughout Europe when we both attended Suffolk University in Boston, and were studying abroad but in different cities. After we moved to Tokyo together, I wondered, now what is the biggest surprise I can do? Sarah wanted to climb Mt. Fuji, one of the three sacred mountains in Japan. I was nervous for almost six months of planning a July 23rd proposal (a Taian or lucky/happy day) at the summit. We left the last station at 11:30pm and at 4:30am as the sun rose over the summit of Mt. Fuji, I got down on my knee, opened the Tiffany box, and said “Love of my life, will you marry me?” With tears in her eyes, she said yes. We were married a year and a week later at her grandparents’ farm in Bar Mills, Maine, with a second ceremony in Tokyo.