Rendezvous: Bravo Malena!
The Japan Times OnlineBy JANE REES Love was in the air a few days ago on the sun-kissed Hawaiian island of Maui when Tokyo's Taro Koki took as his bride the lovely and glamorous Malena Carolina Bello Bolivar of Tokyo and Caracas, Venezuela.
The wedding took place at the scenic Sky Ranch, holiday home of Sky Lewis, who generously made it available for the late-afternoon nuptials. Breathtaking beauty surrounded the trellised marriage arbor bedecked with fragrant plumeria blossoms, gentle waves crested on the Pacific shore below the terraced gardens, and now and then soft tropical showers blessed the newlyweds. (The Greeks have a phrase for wedding-day rain: "Showers promise fertility for the good earth and also for the bride and groom.")
Friends and relatives of Malena and Taro arrived from far and wide to celebrate with the happy pair. Accidental guests included inquisitive neighbors as well as the stern but good-natured local police, who made sure that the "drop-ins" behaved. Never mind, Taro's adorable kimono-clad mother, Eiko, and courtly father, Takamitsu, graciously bowed to the uninvited, while Taro presented the leader of the local group with a beautiful flower lei. Very nice.
Meanwhile, all the guests were also merrily given ceremonial white plumeria wedding leis by the bride's niece Fabiana Lucas and nephew Guillermo Andres Lucas. The youngsters were accompanied to the wedding by their parents, Fabiola (Malena's sister) and Guillermo Sr. In addition, Senora Elena Bolivar, the very beautiful mother of Malena, came from Caracas to see her daughter married in Maui. Malena is, of course you all must know, a highly successful fashion model. . . . She was attended by her sister and Taro's sister Yoko, along with Frances Van Rensburg (another Tokyo model), who comes from South Africa.
I do declare, I have never seen so many good-looking people all in one place. I know that I have told you before that Taro and Malena have been nicknamed the "movie star" couple by Japan's famous artist Toko Shinoda.
Taro is as charming as he is good-looking; he is also the enterprising founder and president of Zigzag Asia. Takamitsu Koki was dispatched three different times by Mitsui Bussan to the U.S., and Taro attended school in New York, Houston and Chicago, returning to Japan and then graduating from Waseda University.
His friends also came from all over to attend the wedding. Francisco Gomez de la Torres, a Houston classmate of Taro's, was best man. Born in Ecuador, Francisco now lives in San Francisco. Masa Kuji, another classmate of Taro's and an usher at the wedding, and his bride, Naomi, have just bought a house in Palos Verdes, Calif.
As the sun was setting over the Pacific Ocean, some gorgeous hula dancers wriggled and swayed . . . and then all those handsome men I have been writing about took to the floor and hulaed away. It was some party to remember. Norman Tolman flew in from Boston, and caused a stir in a fabulous summer kimono. He, too, wanted to join the hula dancers, but the kimono wouldn't wriggle.
Until the next time . . .
The Japan Times: June 7, 2003