Ahoy!

PIRATE SHIP!!!

Hakone Revisited

A little more detail about Hakone Shrine is in order, I believe. 

H and I headed back to Hakone the other day to have a look at one of the inner chambers of the shrine, where the ceremony will be held, as during our previous trip over the New Year's holiday, the rooms were off-limits. This time the sun was shining and it was even more gorgeous! Of course, H is still a little leery about my choice of location - it's so small and old, and the room where the service will be was tiny, too. As far as I'm concerned though, when it comes to churches, shrines, temples and other such places, the older the better. How I hate those new concrete churches with boring, or worse - no - stained glass!!

Anywho, the photo on the right is what the inner chamber looks like. Well, it is what the front (altar?) looks like, at least. I absolutely love all the orange. For me, if a shrine isn't orange, it just isn't a shrine. That goes for the torii gates at shrines, too (actually, red is also okay in my books). I think it is quite sweet, and intimate to just the right degree. Our wedding party will be very small - maybe ten or so people - and I feel a larger room would be rather lonely with only a few seats taken near the front. So, this fits my desires perfectly, if not H's (who's being a very good sport about it all).

While we were there, we also checked out a few hotels for the reception and went about finding a place where I can get dressed the morning of as not all hotels will allow this. See, the thing about hotels in Japan is that they're stupid. Not all of them, but lots of them. Quite often, if a hotel is set up to stage weddings, it will only allow weddings booked with it to use the rooms. Your dress (or dresses) and suit?? From the hotel's collection. Presents for your guests (not just the wedding party in Japan - you buy for EVERYONE)? From the hotel's selections. People to dress you (not just for those brides wearing kimono, either, but for wedding dresses, too...)? The hotel's people, of course! EVERYTHING has to be done through the hotel. So much for personal touches...

Anywho, I am not interested in that kind of thing, nor for the price tag that comes along with it. We're not doing a big reception, we're not holding it in a hotel, and we're not using the hotel's dressers and outfits. Which puts us in a bind as it left us without a place to get dressed. Luck was on our side, however, as we wandered through the city. We found an old hotel/onsen/resting place called Matsuzakaya. They agreed to let us use a room for about four hours (two hours to get dressed, and a half hour to get undressed and then the time in between) for about 10 000yen. Boo yeah!!!

So now we just have to choose a hotel. The ones we had already looked up were a little, uh, less than stellar. We might go with Hatoya Hotel - it's one that H has wanted to stay at since he was a little boy and saw this commercial. The big, flapping fish was mesmerizing, apparently. It's a little ways away from Hakone, but it looks nice. And since I got to choose everything else, it's only fair if H gets to choose this, and fulfill a childhood dream at the same time.