The big day!

At least part of it anyway.... the big day being Michele's 60th birthday. We started the day slowly giving her time to explore her presents. She loves her camera- good thing I know what my sister will love and need! Having got ourselves in order we headed out for a leisurely morning- none of this rushing about and getting ourselves exhausted as we have a big dinner planned tonight at the place we booked yesterday.
So the start of the day was a leisurely walk to Teien Art Museum which is the former residence of Prince Asaka. Michele's choice (after all it is her birthday and one must respect ones elders!) and what a great choice. She had been there when other exhibitions have been on, the exhibitions actually hid the beauty of the house, but she knew that it is an Art Deco house as it turns out once a year the exhibition is the house itself and this is what we went to see.
It is kinda difficult to know what the entire history of the place is as the signs were in Japanese but the house and its fittings are truly gorgeous. What made it even better was that you could photograph whatever you wanted (flash off) so we rose to the challenge of trying to capture an entire house on our cameras. Michele put her birthday present to good use and is really pleased with the results.
The decorative covering of heaters, air vents and doorways were not safe from our camera shutters. The Lalique vases and the beautiful entrance with Lalique glass were things we wanted to capture as did every other tourist. It was a tad difficult getting the picture of the doorway given that there were either people wanting their photo taken in front of them or reflected in the glass as they tried to do what we were doing- that is getting a photo without someone's reflection in it including our own reflection- we almost succeeded.
About 50 shots later we went outside and of course there is a beautiful garden and an opportunity to sit and enjoy the outdoors sipping on an iced green tea purchased from the conveniently located vending machine at the corner of the garden.

An examination of the toilet facilities and then off to the gardens Michele had picked out for our lunch time picnic. We strolled along to the supermarket and got some lovely salad and refreshments and continued back in the direction of the apartment.
Unfortunately Happoen Gardens asks that one doesn't bring in food and drink, understandable really, so we went to the little children's park near the apartment and had our picnic at the wisteria shaded picnic table and then went to stroll around Happoen Gardens. They are small but have amazing variety of features to them. Like many Japanese gardens Happoen has the tea house, pond, fish and seating areas to admire the variety of vistas created by the plantings.
This particular garden is small although gives the impression of being much larger once you are in it. It is also a very popular choice for wedding photographs. While we were there, there were four different brides and grooms- they don't have bridesmaids and groomsmen etc.
Japanese wedding photos are taken before the actual wedding ceremony and often in European style gowns. The traditional clothing is usually only for photographs as it is very expensive to hire.
We weren't lucky enough to see a bride in the traditional wedding kimono but we did see almost the full gamut of styles and choices in the four couples who were being photographed. It was tricky trying not to be caught in the background of someone's wedding photo. Just what you'd want is a couple of Australian tourists slopping around in the background of your very beautiful wedding album.
In the shots I've included are the traditional white and another one with some sort of pink fluffy stuff on her gown. Sometimes the gowns are only borrowed for the photo shoot. Usually the bride changes during the course of the actual wedding reception, the one we went to, Sakurako's she only changed twice but we know of other bride's have changed 5- 6 times changing in to different coloured gowns.
So much for the reflection on some wedding traditions... and back to the birthday..... we have been enjoying the lovely sunny day and have grand plans for the evening at a lovely restaurant having a sushi banquet.