A Photo of Three Sisters

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The Three Sisters Peace-ing It Up

The Hair and A Cake

First, we have the little hat. As a side note, doesn't H look handsome in his hakama? It only took him about twenty minutes to get dressed. He also didn't get all bound in. This meant he got to eat at least some lunch with everyone else. I didn't. Needless to say, I was horrifically starving by the time we left. Luckily, I have the best nieces EVER - they had baked me a cake, so I devoured it in the car (picture at bottom).


Next, we have the big hat, the one that hides my devil horns. It did a lovely job of that, if I do say so myself. This is H and me, with our lovely rickshaw driver, in front of one of the large torii gates along the sando to the shrine.




  

Lastly, as far as hair goes, we have a shot from behind. The first few times I went down stairs, I was a little worried about tripping in the sandals I was wearing, so I took advantage of my groupies. Actually, they were my dressers. I'm not cool enough to have groupies. Yet... 

The delicious cake.

Kekkon Shiki - Yippi!

As a small child growing up in the 80s, I tended to picture lots and lots of white lace when I day-dreamed about my wedding (being a tomb boy, I never would have admitted that at the time - I'm still a touch embarrassed to be admitting it now). Now, the very thought leaves me with a, dare I type it, 'gag me with a spoon' on the tip of my tongue. 

Fortunately, white lace has no place in a traditional Japanese wedding (Japanese versions of western weddings, on the other hand...). Pictures of the shiromuku etc. have already been posted, so I won't go into detail on them here. A brief description of the TWO HOURS it took to get dressed will suffice, I think.

First, I got stripped down to just my undies (you'll find out what colour soon). Then I stepped into some thin undergarments, over which a make-up drop-cloth (something tells me that's not the right term...) was layered. My hair got all tucked back into various nettings and pins. Then I got painted. A white face and white neck, which I think really went well with my newly shaven neck (I forgot about that story, and what a story! To sum up, blond hair peeking from under a black wig doesn't look good, so I was asked to shave some whispies - I forgot until the night before and so asked my big sis, M, to do it for me with my dad's electric razor. Um...I lost more hair than I expected. I'll try to find the photos and post them afterwards).

After the white paint came eye make-up (lots of it!) and nice, red lips. Then the wig was lovingly placed over my strawberry blond locks.

I will state for the record that I did follow the old custom of having something old (hair pieces), something new (my special socks, which cost about $25.00 - for socks! Mind you, they are special), something borrowed (borrowed, rented...it's all the same thing) and something blue (which was discovered by all as I was being dressed - blue underwear shows through thin, white undergarments, apparently). It wasn't intentional, but when you need an excuse for why you wore bright blue undies, you take what you are offered (care of my dad when he heard about the blueness afterward).

I wore my hair three different ways - with just the ornaments, with a small hat and with the big hat (the one to hide my horns). I think I may just put examples of the three versions in their own, photo-only post. So, please check the next post for those ones.

The weather was cold, but there was no rain. This was key because our rickshaw ride would have been a no-go had precipitation decided to, er, rain on our parade (did you catch that? TWO, count'em, TWO, puns in one sentence, for we really did make a parade going down the street being followed by hordes of tourists).


The ceremony was short and sweet, and I didn't have to say a thing! I just had to remember which way to turn a branch (I cheated and looked at H), and to not let the sake go to my head (sure, it's only a few sips, but that stuff is strong!).


Anyway, I will write a 'ceremony' blog at a later date.

So hardcore it hurts!

Where, oh, where, does the time go...?

Okay, I'm fired. It has been, what, three months since my last entry?? This is what happens when you let one instance of accidentally-forgetting-the-memory-card-and-forgetting-where-the-camera-cable-is stupidity set you off course. I told myself I would find the cable and then continue posting in order. Of course, the cable was never found and things just got busy. 

Anyway, a little summary of the past few months is in order, methinks. 

March 31st. This is the day that my family came to Japan. H and I picked them up at the airport and played, in the words of my buddy Red over at Red's Travels, 'baggage tetris' (though I prefer the word 'luggage'). To make the game even more exciting, we added people to the mix - never was a more uncomfortable, yet joyous, trip made. I think I had first aid box edges imprinted into my leg for several days afterward.

A Glimpse of the Feast

The family, H and myself stayed at H's family home (upstairs semi-private apartments are wonderful things) for the first and last week of my family's stay. We were presented with a veritable feast on several occasions, care of my mother-in-law and an aunt - home-made tempura is pure heaven - and were left to our own devices for the rest of the time (my mother now adores H's cooking. It's a constant 'what oil does H use?', 'Can I get the same cabbage in Canada?' etc. barrage of questions. Unfortunately, my recent uselessness in the kitchen has only further spiralled into embarrassment). 


My family stayed for three weeks total. It's all a little long to get into in just one entry, so, I will leave it here for now and continue under a new title.

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.

Hair Raising Wedding Planning

Oh, the things one must go through for beauty, or, er, authenticity, at least. 

Two weeks ago (a Sunday) found H and I setting out to a tiny little room of an office near Inokashira Park in Kichijoji. The office was home to a Japanese bridal professional who would help us with choosing and fitting kimono and shiromuku etc., in addition to dressing me the day of the ceremony (it's going to take two hours!!!!). 

While we were there, she asked about hair - I shared my desire to have my own hair, rather than the big, black wig that is sometimes worn. Alas, if I wanted to wear the big hat (which my mum is pretty sure makes me look like the pope), I would have to forgo the natural hair and get all wigged out. *sigh*

After tucking my hair up in pins and nets and a tie, I had the contraption put on by our lovely helper. But then my great big head had to go along and do something stupid...namely by being too big. But apparently, these wig-things come in different sizes. Saved! So on it went (see left), and then in went some decorations (see right) and voila, one step closer to going Japanese.  


They had a brown one and a black one, but before you go thinking that I went with the brown (for the actual ceremony, of course, as you can clearly see from the pictures that the one I tried on was black), being closer to my real hair colour, you have to understand that the brown is the colour of fake Japanese dyed hair brown - not exactly becoming on anyone. So, black it is.  


To look at it, you would never guess how heavy that wig thing is. The reason is that under all that hair, as you can see on your left, are metal bars that kind of groove together to make it flexible. So, luckily, although a bit creepy, the wig intrigued and pleased me. I'm not too sure that I'll be feeling as pleased with it the day of the ceremony as I attempt to navigate the shrine grounds with several extra pounds on my head, but for now, it is quite the novelty. I especially enjoy how every Japanese person who has seen the photos tells me, between gasps of laughter, how much the wig suits me. But is it really the truth when they're holding their sides from laughing so hard?? I guess it's all relative, though. The final product will look entirely different to boot, what with my face being painted all white, so it's anyone's guess as to what I'll look like in the end. 楽しみですね！

Shrine Trippin'

It occurred to H and myself that our wedding date was fast approaching and yet we had not a single plan written in stone. This is what happens when squealy friends are not present to carry me along on their excitement train, flipping through wedding magazines and going to bridal shows and the like... I suppose I would do it myself, but I know (and have been able to find out so little of the things I want to know) so little about Shinto weddings that I'm rather lost. I know that magazines exist for Shinto weddings in Japan, the problem is that the kanji are far too numerous and I cannot read them well enough to make them useful. Thankfully, once we got on the ball, H broke out his organizational skills and we are well on our way to having a plan.

The other day we checked out some shrines in person. You might recall that, from way before, I was in favour of Hakone shrine. Well, we drove about two hours to get there, waited in a line of idling cars (and yes, our car was idling, too...don't even get me started on the Japanese and car idling) and finally got a parking spot. Of course, people were still getting their hatsumode on, and  once January is over, things will quiet down.

Hakone Jinja

 

Must say, I was a little disappointed with the shrine - I had built it up in my head to be this amazingly magnificent collection of buildings when in reality it is quite a small shrine. It's beautiful, and the surrounding trees, lake and view are stunning, but still, I was a little let down. But, I got over it and in the end, after much mulling over of things, chose Hakone.


Reasons I had aplenty. For one, the sando (the pathway leading to the shrine, right), is just fantastic. It is in the forest and comprised of quite a few steep, stone steps. The trees are so tall - it makes me feel like I'm in a fairy tale. It's lined with stone lanterns and has a few bright, orange buildings off to the side, including a dojo and kyudo (Japanese archery) range. Another winning point is that it is located on the shore of Lake Ashi, in which it has a large torii (below, left). On a clear day, you can see Mt. Fuji peeking out from above the other hills of Hakone...It's brilliant. Did I mention there are pirate ships sailing the waters of Lake Ashi?? Even better.

Hakone also lends it self well to a weekend adventure. It is just crawling with hot springs (to be enjoyed in birthday suits only), is home to an old, red train (the Hakone Tozan Railway) that switch-backs its way through the mountains, has a cable car that glides over a volcanic valley spewing clouds of white and yellow volcanic gasses (Owakudani - this link has a video and even shows the pirate ship!), is the site of one of the old check-points to enter Edo (the old name for Tokyo) and still has part of the original Tokaido (the ancient road connecting Kyoto to Edo) winding through its woods. And pirate ships. Oh, I already mentioned those, didn't I... 

The Other Contenders (AKA - The Losers...I kid, I kid...) 

After Hakone, we sped back towards the ocean for a stop in Kamakura. H was gunning for Kamakura's Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine, but as light was fading fast, and we figured Hachimangu would have better lighting than some of the other myriad shrines in Kamakura, we decided to save it for last and instead dropped in to see Kamakura-gu. 

Kamakura-gu

It was cute, it had miko (shrine attendants dressed in red hakama and white haori) and it was slightly off the beaten track, but it was, well, meh. I blame the lack of orange paint, not to mention the blatantly visible pop machines. It just didn't scream "fairy tale" to me.

Tsurugaoka Hachimangu 

This shrine is truly something. It is HUGE, absolutely beautiful and a little too popular for my liking. It you do a search of 'Tsurugaoka Hachimangu weddings' on Yahoo or Google, the number of tourist shots of brides that pop up is enough to sober any excitement one might feel at having their wedding there. And me being 'gaijin' (a foreigner) pretty much guarantees that not only will other foreigners be snapping my picture, but scores of Japanese tourists will be doing so as well. Yikes. Like I won't already be stressed out enough worrying about tripping over my zori (traditional sandals) and ruining a freakishly expensive, rented wedding outfit (expensive to the point that very few people can afford to buy their own).

 

Hachimangu did have something very powerful that nearly swayed me, though: Cherry Blossoms. Early April is peak sakura season and the sando that leads to the shrine is lined with cherry trees (right, but lacking blossoms). It would be pretty darn beautiful, especially a picture taken by one of the bridges at the entrance of the shrine, with water lilies in the background and sakura petals fluttering around... But then again, camera-wielding tourists...

Anyway, Hakone won, as already mentioned. The other shrines will just have to deal with being visited in a less formal manner.

A Shiromuku Kind of Day

I've heard that wedding planning can be difficult and stressful. So far, I've not had to deal with that. I guess it's living in a foreign country where I'm basically incapable of arranging things myself that makes it so much more relaxed for me. That and the fact that I know so little about Japanese traditional weddings that I really don't have any expectations and am fine going along with whatever. Yup, not Bridezilla for me. Perhaps for the Canadian ceremony, but I think even then I'll be able to avoid falling into stereotypes. 

Anyway, H and I were to Kichijoji the other day to take a look at some shiromuku. Now, most people these days rent the whole wedding kimono shebang because buying new is so expensive. That seems a little sad to me, though - I want a souvenir out of this experience, and I want something more substantial than a few photos. But buying everything is just impossible. 

Luckily, H discovered that you can buy second-hand shiromuku for relatively cheap. The beautifully-coloured red ones are a mite more expensive (about 2.5 times more expensive, actually), but the basic white (and there are various patterns to choose from) are decent. And they're pretty high quality as they are sold by rental companies who generally buy high quality stuff. 


So that is what took us to Kichijoji on a cold, grey November day. We took a look at a few patterns, but the one with embroidered plum blossoms, in addition to the more common embroidered crane, caught my eye and it is that shiromuku that I wish to buy. We left with empty hands, but I do hope we make it back at some point. Following are a few pictures. 


The picture on the right, quite obviously, is me wearing the shiromuku. Since it is worn over top of a kimono and obi, as well as all sorts of undergarments, to get the idea of what it will look like and how it will fit, you have to have a pillow fastened underneath, on your upper back, and then it has to be pinned in place. It made me look a little like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, but with a kimono showing underneath, rather than a sweater and jeans, I think it will look okay.


The one up top was originally of me wearing the shiromuku, but to make it front and centre, I cut myself out of the picture and stuck it over top of some squid drying in Shikoku, for no other reason than it amused me.

Here is a little bit of detail. This is a close-up of the right-hand sleeve. You can see the bird, which is a crane (tsuru in Japanese) and the plum (ume) blossoms. Cranes seemed to be a popular pattern for shiromuku...I wonder if it's just this store, or are cranes somehow connected with weddings in Japan, I wonder. Anyway, the colour is a tad off. The reason being, I wanted to increase the contrast to make the pattern easier to see. The downside is that it looks a little yellower than it actually is.


So that, everyone, is the shiromuku that I desire. Not as sleek and elegant as a Western-style dress, but oh so traditional, which, I think, is befitting a history major.


Thoughts??

Location, Location, Location

It's all about location, baby, and we've got it narrowed down to two. 

Now, H is in favour of the main shrine, Hachimangu, in Kamakura, a city about an hour down the coast from Tokyo. You can find English info and pictures of the shrine here. I love Kamakura, but then, so does every single tourist (Japanese and foreign) to come within a three-hour radius of Tokyo. I don't really fancy being in that many photos, or having that many telephoto lenses aimed at me. But, it is a lovely shrine.

My first choice is a shrine at another major tourist destination, Hakone, although it is a little more out of the way. It has hugely tall cedar trees and is in the "mountains" (they don't seem quite high enough to be actual mountains...), on the edge of the nice, big Lake Ashi. Hakone Jinja (scroll down that page for more pictures) even has a torii gate in the lake, and, on a clear day, a view of the Fuj (um...that would be Mt. Fuji) - it's just fantastic.


After H and I visit Hakone again in person, I will post clearer pictures of my own.

A November Strawberry Shortcake

If there's one tried and true method of ingratiating/endearing yourself to others, it is to make them dessert. I mean, who doesn't like the cake-bearer? In that vein, I have spent the morning baking a strawberry shortcake. Actually, truth be told, I just like baking stuff and giving it away.

Over at the Food Network, Anna Olson has a fantastic, if not at all traditional, recipe for strawberry shortcake. I've made it about a million times in the last year (Japanese people really like shortcake), and it is divine. Even in my dinky little oven, it cooks up pretty nicely.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Me-cake if I didn't run into some form of obstacle. Today's was that the one cake (stupid 9" cake pan!) came out very, very thin. As I had been planning on doing two one-layer cakes, the thickness was more important than ever. What to do??

Well, it ended up being one double layer-cake. *sigh* H says we'll just all eat the one cake together rather than separately. Not a huge difference, but still. 


I had some chocolate ganache left over from a cake I baked the other day, so I put that down as a thin layer on top of the first cake. Then came whipped cream, the second layer with more whipped cream, and the strawberries. It looks delicious - here's hoping it is delicious.


Oh, as a side note. My hope is to have a lot of cake entries on this blog, and to get your opinion on which looks best. I think I'd like to bake my own wedding cake, you see, so I'm going to have to try out a bunch of different recipes over the next few months. Next up, a really cool-looking cake from the ladies at Mennonite Girls Can Cook. I'm thinking this one. Those flowers? Pineapple slices! I know, crazy! When I get a chance to make it, I'll add some pics.

              Tiny Oven         Just Right        Too Small            Not Bad


Ever see such a little oven? It can roast a small chicken, nothing bigger. And it is seriously a microwave/oven. Compact, yes, but if you want to heat up some butter for a recipe, or anything else for that matter, while you're using the oven, you're outta luck. It also has a tendency to burn the tops of cakes... Oh well, I still love it.

A Bit of Visual

To help with the question from the previous post, I have put my terrible cut and paste skills to work: Which is better, the full hat/hood, or the little hat?

                                                                                 

What do you think?

Getting Ready for the Next Step

When in Rome, do as the Romans. When in Japan, get married as the Japanese. Well, get married as they used to get married, at least. You know, before all the Magic Kingdom nonsense threw decency to the wind and every grown-up little girl needed to have her (bankruptcy inducing) day as a princess. What the Japanese have managed to do to the western-style wedding is truly something.

I, however, have different plans. For years now, I've had dreams of an odd wedding day (hello, pot-luck!), but getting hitched to a Japanese fellow means that I get to make my day (actually, TWO days), even more interesting. Well, the first day, at least. H (the fiancé) and I are going to be married in a traditional Shinto ceremony. That means shiromuku (a white wedding kimono) for me and a montsuki (a black, formal kimono), hakama and haori for H (among other odds and ends of formal Japanese clothing). But the best part is the hat/hood I get to wear. It's big, white and is designed to cover my horns of jealousy. It is the tsuno kakushi. Of course, I've read that it's also supposed to 'prove [my] obedience to [my] husband', but well, we'll see about that...

Anyway, after taking a look at the two different styles of tsuno kakushi, which do you think would best suit a strawberry blond?