Groom-less

Breakups can happen anywhere.

MJ and her new boyfriend traveled from Los Angeles to Utah to explore Zion National Park with its striking scenery, vast sandstone canyon, and pristine walking trails, The Guardian (TG) reports.

Upon reaching Angel’s Landing, MJ’s boyfriend started to walk faster than her. When the 38-year-old told him to go ahead of her, the guy did so without hesitation, according to TG.

MJ finished the hike by herself, and after the trip, they broke up.

Last month, MJ learned on TikTok that there were others who experienced being abandoned by their boyfriend on a mountain trail, ending in a breakup, a term called “alpine divorce,” TG reports.

Women hikers who were abandoned by their boyfriends on the trail managed to safely finish the trek alone.

But more daring, it seems, than MJ was a Japanese woman named Hanaoka. She paid a restaurant in Tokyo 250,000 yen to host her wedding for 30 guests

“Marrying myself does not mean I don’t want to marry a man,” said Hanaoka of her nuptials that did not include a groom, NDTV reports.

Mana Sakura, an adult video star, is believed to have started the solo wedding trend in March 2019 when she put the ring on her own finger at her wedding and vowed, “I will respect my own life. In health or in sickness, I will always love myself and make myself happy,” according to NDTV.

Incidentally, the smaller number of people who are getting married (to a groom) in Japan has not impacted the wedding industry as the solo wedding trend, or “single economy,” has become a lucrative new market for services such as photo shoots of the bride with her loved ones and solo honeymoon packages, NDTV reports.

Many companies are now designing products and services for this wedding trend, including solo camping and solo karaoke, adds NDTV.