Quote Originally Posted by uchimizu View Post
One good example is "Omiai", or arranged wedding, which seems to be quite rare in Japan nowadays. The only time I heard about it what for people I know from the countryside, as they obviously cannot meet many people in their rice field, and especially not the rare woman who would accept the quite inconvenient life in the countryside. Arranged marriage was more common 50 years ago, but it was also so in Europe (not sure about the US).
It's not as uncommon as you might think, as I've done it myself, but in my experience at least, it's not nearly as formal as what many people imagine.