Aiko Tanaka, 27, met Olegs Orlovs, 27, for the first time when she visited his home country, Latvia, as a tourist with her family in 2002. Olegs was her tour guide.
He became friends with her mother and told her he would be coming to Japan as an international student at Hitotsubashi University to study Japanese as well as economics and finance. After meeting up again with the Tanaka family in Japan, he grew close to Aiko.
After nearly six years of dating, including 2 1/2 years in a long-distance relationship, they registered their marriage on March 25 last year, the birthday of both of their mothers.