Our July 29th

This article was written in 2024.
I participated in a summer relay project and wrote this on the theme of "Summer Memories."

Dear Husband,

It is your favorite season, summer, but the extreme heat continues.
Are you drinking enough water while you work?
When you come home and there is still water left in your bottle, I get worried and ask, and you say, "I refilled it at work." I won't ask you to report it every time, but please remember that there is someone who worries about your health even more than you do.

Now, when it comes to "summer" for us as a married couple, it's our wedding anniversary, isn't it?

For us, "getting married" was a given, and even when we entered the period where we could have registered our marriage at any time, you didn't really do "the proposal."
I was actually thinking of doing it myself—the proposal.

But you had a plan in mind, and you had already decided on the day to register our marriage.
I'm the type to act on impulse, so I was about to get ahead of myself without thinking.
I want to praise myself for being able to wait properly back then.

The marriage registration date you decided on was July 29th.

It's "Meat Day," isn't it?

Let's eat meat every month on our anniversary.
If we combine "because it's Meat Day" and "it's our anniversary," we might be able to eat some fancy meat.

No, while the sound of "Meat Day" is exciting, there was a more important reason.

July 29th is the day we started dating.

"I really wanted it to be July 29th. I felt it had to be July 29th."
When you told me that, I was happy because it showed me how much you cherish our "beginning."

July 29th, the day we started dating.
In the sweltering heat, you sent me a photo of a "squirrel looking limp from the heat" while you were away on a business trip.
"Even the squirrel is this limp," you said.
I found it a bit heartwarming to imagine a grown man taking a picture of a squirrel.
It was also the moment I became convinced that you are a truly kind person.

Five years later, our summer began as we set out to register our marriage on July 29th.
Having a dear friend act as a guarantor, receiving our wedding rings on the 28th, and going to the municipal office to submit the papers after 5:00 PM that day.
That was our plan, wasn't it?

I've forgotten why we didn't go to submit them on the 29th, but I figured we must have had some plans, so I looked back at my camera roll and saw we had gone to the Pokémon Center.

Did we go to submit them the day before just to go to the Pokémon Center?
No way.

Did you want to go to the Pokémon Center on our anniversary?
Isn't that a weak reason to shift the submission date?
Especially when this is a major life event?

I'm sure you remember why that happened.
It's always me who forgets things.

But you were there laughing like a little boy, so none of that mattered anymore.

When we received the rings at the bridal jewelry shop, I said I wanted to wear mine right away, but you wouldn't let me, saying, "Not until we're officially married."

You really are a man of integrity.

We were under the impression that if we submitted the papers after 5:00 PM, meaning after the office closed, they would be processed the next day.

We spent the day having fun, and when night fell, we went to the after-hours window late at night.
There was a security guard there, and when we submitted our marriage registration, he said, "Congratulations," and added, "We will process this tomorrow, but the submission date will be July 28th."

We were shocked by this, and I remember the two of us freezing up and saying, "Huh??????"
We had come all this way to register on the 29th, and then this happened... we couldn't help but look at each other.

I told the security guard, "We want it to be the 29th," and at that moment, I was thinking (I wonder if he could do something about it if he wanted to).
Right next to me, you asked, "Should we come back after midnight?"

You really are something else.

And so, we decided to kill time in a plaza near the municipal office until after midnight.

A summer day.
In the plaza at night, just as summer vacation had begun, young people with energy that rivaled the summer heat were having a party, raising cheerful voices.
I was so happy at that moment, sitting side-by-side in the corner of the plaza killing time, laughing and saying, "We can't do things like that anymore, can we?"

I feel like we talked about how "it's been a long time until today" and "we've been through so much."
I wonder if we have built the kind of family we envisioned back then.

After midnight, we received a second "Congratulations" from the security guard, and we walked home along the humid summer road.

In my camera roll, there is a photo from July 29th at 12:03 AM, of you and me laughing so happily and joyfully in front of the municipal office's after-hours window.

Even though I tend to forget things, I remember this day every time summer comes around.
That night before we submitted our marriage registration.

July 29th has come around again this year.
The theme for our reflection this year was, "How were those three years (on the island)?"

From here on out, forever,
I want to continue marking the years reflecting with you like this every year.

P.S.

I thought about writing some final remark pointing out something about you or something I wanted you to fix as a punchline, but nothing came to mind.
Doesn't this just make me someone who published a love letter?
How frustrating.