A Canadian Family in Koganei

It's moments like these when I wish I had kept a detailed log of what went down like my dad did... But, since I am rather long-winded, I suppose it's a good thing (for any readers out there) if I cannot be as detailed as I would like.

I do remember that we spent the first day in Koganei Park (accessible out the north exit of Higashi Koganei Station on the Chuo Line). The cherry trees were partially in bloom, and even though not as awe-inspiring as they are at full bloom, it was enough to set off an obsession for my little sister, E. Other highlights included watching carp (koi) swim and gulp air, and contemplating a rather packed island of turtles and the one poor guy who just couldn't get up to sun himself. Notice I included the word 'sun' - you won't read this often in the summary of this trip. It was, for the most part, cold and wet and cloudy and foggy and more cold and wet. Moving on...

But Koganei isn't just home to big, slimy fish and cute, little painted turtles. Oh no, it's also home to the Edo-Tokyo Tatemono-En. An an open-air architectural museum of Edo-era buildings, it is a lovely place to get a quick overview of how Tokyo-ites (Edo-ites? Edo-ese? Edo-ians?) lived. They have fantastic guides (and the odd fantastically learned visitor willing to explain everything as though he were a guide). We breezed through a few buildings (best one: samurai farm-house, complete with four-tatami samurai suicide room...see, 'shi' is the Japanese word for four and death, so...) and made our way over to the Edo shopping street, stopping at the bus (under which my father took a peek and announced it to be a four-wheel drive),the trolley car and the (now waterless) public bath.

Forgive the lack of photos - the ones I have are somewhat less than flattering. I might nip a few from my sisters collection, but I'll decide that later.

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??