JP photo-shooting: 1st draft ready!

It's such a long process...

• Apr 8: photo-shooting in Nara, Japan - around 400 photos taken
• Apr 28, 30: photo selection - we chose the best 100
• May 20: softcopy of all "raw" kimono photos received
• Jun 8: 1st draft ready - a layout putting 100 pictures into 35 pages

It's been sooo long that we almost forgot images other than those in Kimono...so happy to view the wedding dress & evening dress photos, as if they were new...very fresh and excited us!!!

So, it's homework time. We need to look into detail every page and feedback if we want any adjustment. Hopefully that can be done smoothly and our target date to collect final products in July can be held.

hehe, an enjoyable task...looking at the photos = replaying the day in Nara, all the fun fun and sweet moments we had, our hard work of how to make perfect photos & the always "look forward" sentiment...^0^

Hope xx and other "about to get married" friends will enjoy their photo shooting experience, too! Yeah yeah!

Price paid for the service.....

28th April was our first day of team work to battle against our common enemy. They were once our trustworthy agent, but it turned out that their service was nothing but ridiculously nonsensical. 'Twas really an experience for Jin to see how a "service of non-Japanese standard" would be, but in general, it was even below it... We were not treated as a customer even though we paid a fortune for their "worthless service".

***Note well: The following explains the content of the battle we fought with our Photo Shooting agent - Romantic Life - for their mistreatment they served us with, and the accomplishment we achieved from the battle. This post is NOT to put down on Romantic Life of their service, nor is it to provide our readers with how they can things be negotiated. This post is only to share with you what we had to go through for what they have done and we had to go through.

The mistreatment they had on us.....

1. Treated customers as if they were friends - called Jin with a nickname in Cantonese knowing that Jin cannot understand it.

2. Called Carol with a comment which was not appreciated at all. Such comment was not at all a fit since Carol had put sooooo much an effort to get into such result, and the treatment she received was just too cruel.

3. None of the arrangements and communications were intuitively made, and resulted in stress, burden, extra work, and also a mistreatment from the photo shooting staff (located in Taiwan, met for the first time when we were in Nara).

As a result, the first promise / explanation we received from the customer representative "We are here, a one stop service to make the communication with the staff as much as possible and transparent, to make the stress on the bride (since in this market, such miscommunication happens and puts burden and stress onto the bride, which yields to increase of stress level to the couple...) as little as possible" was not executed. Instead, the customer representative's activities were so junior and irresponsible, that we became the victim of their miscommunication. This was extremely stressful.

However much the arrangements were horrible, the end result of photo shooting was still satsifactory. The photo shooting crews and we were focused in making a one-and-only superb album. Our focus was very intense, that we want to give complements to the photo shooting staff.

So, the battle was against the Hong Kong arrangement crew. We met with the Shop Owner and explained the above. In the beginning, the Shop Owner thought we were complaining about the photo shooting crews. However, as our explanation elaborated, they started to feel the guilt. Fortunately (and indeed, this is a good thing), the Shop Owner is responsible of the customer operations and customer satisfaction, and since she was from Taiwan, she has the Taiwan customer oriented focus which resulted in a sympathy and feel of apology from all of the explanation we had elaborated.

This was a good thing, and the communication from here went smoother.

As a result, we were able to receive quite a number of accomplishment, which really is priceless.

1. ALL soft copies of the pictures we had taken in Kimono. This is because as I elaborated in the earlier post, the Kimono which Carol wore - furisode 振袖 - can only be worn by an unmarried lady. Hence, by practice, this was the one and only chance Carol could wear this type of Kimono in her whole life. It was very important that we have as evidence as possible of this period of time.

***It turns out that the number of photos taken were over 100 which resulted in quite an amount of bonus we were able to receive.

2. Discount in the creation of album. Since the number of photos we chose were a total of 100 (the package only included 30, hence we needed to pay for the extra 70 pictures to be included in the album). This discount also was quite some amount.

All in all, we felt that this battle was well thought, and we both did a good job. On top of this, the Shop Owner was really rational, understanding, reasonable, and fair. Her mind was sharp at all times, and was thinking in realtime of what went on, and what needed to be done in order to "keep the customer satisfaction, yet keep their store stance." We feel it was fortunate that we fought with her and no one else.

Currently, the album is in production, and the Shop Owner (since she insisted in taking over the production operation, because she has a 12years of experience in this operation, and she wants to do this for us to "gain the trust"), and she understands our trust in their service is down to the pits. It is on their hands to prove to us that they are "not as bad as what they had done to us up until now", and to make us satisfied.

Let's see the end result (^-'b

Photo shooting - the day God shed light on us - v(^^)(^^)v

~ April 8, 2008 (Tue)~

06:00 - Wake up
We jumped up only 1 second after the alarm clock rang...

J: It's going to be a loong day la...hope everything will be fine..Can I stay awake?

C: Ah, it's time! wake up quick! it's TODAY!

06:15 - Breakfast
We needed to make sure we store enough energy for the day, as we only prepared some bread for the day due to super tight schedule. It was a proper Japanese style breakfast with rice, miso soup +...oops, my belly! ><

07:00 - Make up start
We wished to had a pre-photoshooting briefing but were told by my "account mgr" in HK only to meet with the photo-shooting team at 7am, for styling.

Well, the first 15 mins was no pleasure at all. Firstly, Jin was kicked out of the room for "girls only, pls come back again in 1 hour" (poor Jin, he could have slept for another precious hour and J: samishi nya><) Secondly, I was kind of blamed by the stylist for not showing up the previous night (come on, I was told NOT to make any contact until 7am...) ......ai, needed to suppress my fire and stayed clam, in order to build a positive relationship with them. But...my stylist was having a bad cold, kept coughing and complaining to herself...what an angry but straight-forward person...@_@

Anyway, we had ourselves dressed up in 2 hours... I was in wedding dress and Jin in Tuxedo.

So, without the "supposed-to-have meeting" the night before, everything was messy messy and promises from HK not fulfilled. Fingers crossed...

09:15 - Depart from hotel
All of a sudden, two guys grabbed our belongings at the entrance of hotel...they claimed themselves our photographers.

J: who are these guys? I have never seen them..where is the director? (note: we met a guy during the HK meeting who was "supposed" to be the director - who eventually did not come to Nara).

C: they look like gangsters and still not awaken!! I am soo worried!!

The first photo shooting spot - the closest temple to the hotel
Apparently, the photographers did not do their homework. None of our request was taken into consideration.

The photographer quickly tuned into his auto mode and brought us to his comfort zone - spots that they had been taking pictures for the past 2 weeks.

J: Why are we going here? I don't recall discussing such a thing. Didn't they receive the information that we have briefed so much?!

C: Oh no, this is not going to work. I need to stop and brief them RIGHT NOW!

While we were doing the short briefing, staff of the temple rushed out. It seems it was the Buddha's birthday and ceremony/festival will happen shortly. They did not permit us to take photos there. The photographer did not seem want to stop and the staff keep persuading/pushing us to leave...

J: I don't understand Japanese...I don't understand Japaneses...

C: @_@

I couldn't stand it and asked the photographer why we were there and what for. No photo was taken in that temple AT ALL. It's simply waste of time. Also, will all activities be stopped because of Buddha's birthday?

The second photo shooting spot - a nearby Sakura tree
Probably trying to make up for something, they brought us to a big Sakura tree and started our first round of photo taking.

J: Finally, the photo shooting started. But why this place? wanna go to places that we planned ...

C: Whatever you want to take...make sure we have good photos and I will tolerate only for 15 mins...!!

Wao! It was sooooo difficult to make good posture. "Head lower", "chin lower", "RELAX!", "RELAX!""look at wife" "look at head/hand" (???)...the photographer kept yelling at us...we had no clue...we thought we were already relaxed....aiyaya...I was a bit irritated for not being able to fulfill their request (but it's my responsibility to improve). Jin felt the same, too...(I hope my interpretation didn't make things worse).

At that time, a group of kindergarten kids went by....little kids kept saying.."kawaii~" at me...hohohoho...

Anyway, time's up, rehearsal done. We needed a "real place" to take good photos, we requested to move to a lake in the Nara garden.

The third photo shooting spot - 浮見堂
We got on the rental car and moved to the lake - 浮見堂.

Wao! It's a peaceful lake with an elegant pavilion, the whole area was surrounded by Sakura trees! Thanks Jin for locating this very nice location (sasuga Jin!). One surprise - the road along the lake was covered with Sakura petals which was brought by the strong wind and heavy rain yesterday!!! (Ha! we never knows! god purposely brought the rain to prepare for us!!)

I was totally drawn into that perfect environment, got into the mood immediately (poor Jin was still in the midst of communication barriers and could not relax fully). The photographers, too, was getting exited for the possibilities that he could create in that perfect environment ...we made a lot of postures, one shoot after the other, on a rock backed by the lake, along the bridge, on a small road inside the wood, etc. We started to enjoy it =)

(Jin took this from his mobile while he was told to "rest")

J: Finally, somewhere we have asked to take pictures. Goodo sakura trees!!! Lots of poses which we asked to do!!! yey yey!!!

C: This is so ideal...we are surrounded by sakura, sakura trees, sakura carpet, wind blows us sakura flakes...thanks god we are alive!

It was a hot season for 花見, many tourists were around for sakura appreciation. All of them were surprised at us - it is very uncommon to do outdoor and pre-marriage photo-shooting in Japan. Some took pictures of us (they thought it was an ? event and we were artists/ models! hahaha) and many of them sent their blessings to us...arigato gozaimasu! \(^^)(^^)/

Photographers got really excited, he kept pressing the shutter and went beyond schedule - we had an appointment at Kimono place at 12:00! We quickly called to delay but at that time the photographer tempted me to change to another dress for "just a few more photos". I did the change in the tiny rental car...and continue the photo-shooting....

I was really in the mood and it became easy at any poses that was required of me. More and more photos and more and more time consumed...it was already 13:40 when we left the lake...

13:50 - change to kimono at ふた藤:
Our apologies for being late m(_ _)m! That was so Japan - staff standby for us and kept their smiling faces. All our expectation was met (in term of time requirement, quality of service...everything!) We had 3 staff to help us. 1 of them was the student of the kimono master, it was rare occasion that people do such a formal kimono dressing like us!

While I took my washroom break, Jin had already gotten out of his tuxedo. After Jin was changed to 紋付袴, my hair was already half set. (it was only around 15 min!). Everybody then, focused on my kimono...in a total of 50 min, everything was perfectly done! I also received my Japanese style bouquet - how lovely! This is less than half of the typical amount of time taken!!! Thank you sooo much for the ふた藤 staff!!!

J: Each movement done by the staffs were very efficient and had not a single waste of time. However much they were efficient, their actions ended up in a very professional outcome. This was very surprising.

C: I want to clap hands...this is a magic! wow wow wow...........*o*

(taken the day after - my kawaii Japanese bouquet)

15:10 - full team again:
What a shame...the HK/TW team came late for the pick up (the photo shooting team went for lunch while we were changing). We went back to silence again...they were astonished at our looks and how serious we were for the photo-shooting. I felt the pressure of the photographer. His didn't react as sharp as he used to be and let us do all the instruction...

15:30 - The fourth photo shooting spot - 春日大社-夫婦大國社
This is a temple for blessing of all aspects to a married couple. We chose this place not only for this very meaningful aspect, but also for the fantasy of the heart shaped wish board called"絵馬".

(hehe..this is the wish that we made (^3(^^)

We made a request to this particular place, which was something unknown to the team. It supposed to be a 10 min walk from the car park to the temple, but we ended up taking almost doubled time... I could only take small steps in kimono and wherever we went, we caught people's attention... people amazed, congratulated us, kept taking photos of us, not only as a scene but also with us... we were like tourism ambassadors, waving our hands, smiling to the crowd. ahhhh, we needed to say no, walked quickly and avoided eye contacts to the people...sorry!

We were worried if we were allowed to take photos in the temple....especially it was the Buddha's birthday...Jin made a courtesy conversation with the staff at the temple and yeah! everything was alright.

We felt that the photographer was a bit nervous, did not know how to handle photos for kimono. No more sitting on the ground and everything had to be super cautious/ elegant. But gradually, he found his way, he focused more on the overall atmosphere of the pictures, instead of doing this and that actions, he wanted us to give more emotion and facial expression. Jin was 100% tuned into this photo style, we all were excited for involvement of EVERYONE! Jin even made surprises to us...he initiated a number of facial expression/pose for photos, HAPPY!!

J: Although I had to tell the staff some exaggeration, we were able to get an exceptional approval from the temple to take some pictures. This was a great thing!!! We even got a small gift (not on sale)!!! Thank you obasan!!!

C: My dream came true! I am in Kimono with Jin in an authentic Japanese environment. I used to be the tourists who takes pictures of kimono girls but I am taking opposite role...haha. We were also told that this is the one and only one temple for a couple's wellness in all aspects! We will definitely become "shiawase" yo!

The fifth photo shooting spot - Japanese tea house 水谷茶屋
A Japanese tea house is a must! (I always like Japanese tea house and it has been a must-go place for my every visit) Thanks to Jin's extensive research, this tea house was the most gorgeous one in the area. It was in fact also an unknown place for us, we needed to keep walking to find this place and we were there!

Again, Jin made a courtesy conversation and got approval from the staff. This time we got an easy "Yes". This was a very cozy place surrounded by the nature. Nice contrast of green (trees) and red (carpet & umbrella) which serves as a perfect background for our kimono.

I couldn't stand the temptation of Japanese green tea and started ordering... We thought it might be good for the team to take a break, we treated them green tea and snack as well. They were melted by our "hospitality" and became so nice to us, we started some heart-to-heart conversation, how Jin and I met, how was the typical life of photographers, etc. They even took out their personal camera and took photos with us. It was no longer "work" but a "tourist fun" for them. This was really GREAT!

The photographer was really like a kid, explored something new (kimono and Japanese places) and was totally into taking photos of his real interest (which of course aligns with our requests). He jumped here and there and suggested many ways of taking good pictures. We finally reached this ideal situation of "ENJOYMENT FOR EVERYBODY!!"

(Jin's mom said we look like 七五三 kid's birthday dolls)

They also helped us to take private photos via Jin's mobile phone...hehehe (which was supposed to be restricted)

J: This tea house was very nice. It matched very well with the Kimono. It was worth coming here.

C: Yeah! This is so nice. At this point, I am already 80% satisfied.

The sixth location: Dawn at 奈良公園
We enjoyed the time so much that we forgot when it was...probably after 5pm. Time became so critical as sun was setting. We named a few and the photographers suggested a place on the other side of the 奈良公園 , for sunset photos. It was a huge pitch of green. So spacious and peaceful.

We prepared a number of props but it had been too busy and messy that we were unable to plan/structure any...here we go - prior to the trip, we decided to write each other a message card, expressing our feelings. We kept it a secret and read only on the photo-shooting day. We wanted the photographers to take our real, touching emotions.

J: The 奈良公園 is very huge but there are items in the 公園 which each is very attractive. The section we took the sunset pictures was an open area of lawn. Very large yet silent place which went well with the sunset.

C: hehehe...how lovable Jin is! we had a lot of sweet sweet moments together and the photo team said they really envy us...!

The seventh photo-shooting spot - 人力車
We planned a lot of scenarios for our precious kimono look, including 人力車. The team was very committed and quickly located 人力車 for us...Jin again spoke with the 人力車 "driver" about our request. It costed some extra money and we went for it. We had the "driver" pulled the 人力車, Jin pulled the 人力車...funny photos!

J: This was an interesting experience for me. I hope the pictures turn out well!!!

C: haha, do we look like 華麗一族? The photo shows not only the authentic Japanese but also thickness of history.

19:00 The eighth photo-shooting spot - Nara old streets
It was getting dark when we return to the Nara old streets, which is somewhere near to our hotel.

However, our eager wasn't fulfilled yet. Night pictures were extremely difficult...the level of light needed to be so well measured and tuned. A few trial and errors and photos became PERFECT! I mean Jin looked sooooooooo handsome in those dim photos (haha!!!) The photographer was really in his mood and fulled engaged to take good photos for us. Trying this, trying that, and showed us the gorgeous photos!! We mean it!! sooooooooooooo gorgeous!!! Yey Yey!!

J: The pictures he started to take were very artistic. I can't wait for the outcome!!!!!

C: Wow...it was so artistic and classy...like movies of the 50s...I mean ...again, 華麗! hahaha

20:00 Return to hotel
We were so content! (despite that fact that we missed Chinese costumes) We continued doing some private photos with Kimono...but all of a sudden! I felt soooooooo painful in my chest, the kimono was really tight tight...I was able to switch off the pain mode when I was 100% focus on photo-shooting but...when everything was done...it blasted out. Jin quickly undressed me. We folded a thick level of clothes (for return on the next day)...n layers of clothes that we wrapped ourselves in the kimono. Whoa?! it was sooo heavy!!! I couldn't believe we were wearing such heavy weight and walked (moved) all over!!!

With such a "weight training" and after the undressing of kimono...I found myself lost the belly created from the breakfast (for time concern, I only had 1 bite of the bread for lunch)....we became soooooo hungry and rushed out for food. Due to door restriction, we needed to come back in 30 min, we bought some food convenient store and kept eating eating eating like refugees. ><

P.S: We had our own way of showing appreciation...it was a loong day with so much achievement, we really deserve something! It is our habit to "chop" a "well done" stamp on the other's forehand if something was done brilliantly. We both awarded this stamp!

It was sooo content..and we were full full....drawn into bed and a deep deep sleep.....

A few words from us:
J: This was an interesting experience for me. I had known that taking pictures is very much an important aspect of life for the HK people, but everything was new to me. I think the camera man was very tolerable to me since I could not understand his instructions. However, I think the outcome should be awesome!!! Because, Carol was soooooooo lovely and cute and kawaii and kirei and and and .......!!!

C: Jin, I know it was not easy for you. Thank you for tolerating everything...HK/TW service level, communication barriers, my temper....hahaha. For me it was a mixture of everything, but the happy memories with you and the excitement of anticipation (for the final products) worth everything! Let's keep our fingers crossed, hope everything will turn our perfect in our album!!!

J: hehehe. Thank you ne, Carol, for all your tolerance in smoothening out the communication. The outcome of the picture and my expressions are solely because your care was there. Although there were lots of efforts, money, and time spent, I think we did put EVERYTHING into this big event. I just cannot wait for the outcome already!!

P.S.#2: this is a bonus photo...thanks for reading this lengthy article...>w<

(This was the 'dorayaki" or "叮噹豆沙餅" as we call it in HK, it was of the size of my face! hehehe, so yummy and I finished it up at that night...)

1 day before photo-shooting...

It was SUPER WINDY and RAINED cats & dogs (or 'rein deers'?) in Nara!!!!!!

(my new bf? Jin shaved! looks so different. hehe)

................................hmmm, we were so worried and my mood went really bad...it would be a great disappointment if it kept raining like that - the shooting will be cancelled (!) and I wouldn't know how we would end up with...><

Not much we could do but kept praying for a better weather. We planned to come this 1 day earlier for a mini sight-seeing but it rained so bad that we could hardly move around.

( I must say Jin has higher EQ than me to certain extent...especially under an uncontrollable situation like that. He never shown bad temper like I did and tried really hard to relieve my tension..arigato nya)

We visited the kimono place and got final items confirmed. What next was return to the hotel for check in and thought that would already called the day.... things changed after dinner!

It was still windy but rain became smaller. We managed to did an enjoyable walk after dinner, checked the busy street and walked all the way for night sakura.

Weather report in Japan was even able to tell the eact weather forecast in 3-hour intervals of a day. Forecast for tomorrow became no rain from mid night to morning, a bit cloudy in the morning and sun would start to shine from 12pm onwards! Yey Yey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was gonna be alright!

I was so hyper...and we had a happy exhausting walk all night long. Returned hotel later than we planned and fell asleep - charge charge for our big big photo-shooting day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(yey! this is one of the props we specially prepare for the photo-shooting...hehe) Photo-shooting day, tanoshimi danya (= look forward)

Just imagine, ..... part 2

Carol in ...................

such a hair style?!!!!

It was the courtesy of the 着物 shop that made a sample of hair style which may fit Carol. The staff there was worried that since Carol is not from the country, she may not have an idea of what kind of hair style she would be. And so the staff made such an out-of-the-box action to have make a clearer image!!! Furthermore, .....

Some arrangements with accessories!!!

We'll fine tune with the rest on the day before so that we get the best combination that matches Carol the best that she likes to be in!!!!!

Just imagine, .....

Carol in................

Carol in such a nice nice 振袖!!!!!! Yey yey!!!

The Kimono rental shop was generous enough to provide us a preview of the kimono in its "dressed up mode". This way, we will have a more realistic view of how it will fit on the bride. It was such a proactive move by the store, and I just want to give them a "yokudekimashita" chop!!!!!

Just for your information, the belt of the Kimono is also gorgeous. We received a preview of that too, but let's keep that for a surprise (^-'b

Countdown starto! tick..tack..tick..tack

Wao! It's already end of March !!!
Only a few days to count - our wedding photo shooting event on Apr 8!!!

BUSY is the key word for this week (sorry to our loyal readers who couldn't find new articles any earlier..haha).

For me, this is the last weekend in Hong Kong.
I gotta review the rundown and do the necessity check & final shopping.

And, finally, I got something for Jin:

Nice shirt, right? (Pls say yes - it's expensive!) It was quite an implusive purchase as time was running out...

Besides shopping, I really need to work extra hard at gym...I lost control last week and the needle of my scale turned right...>< !!!!!!

And thank you to my mommy, who cooked me light food these days and got me the healthy yogurt:

My mommy bought this yogurt machine and made organic yogurt to me this weekend...THANKS! I always love yogurt!!!

I am determined(!) to go to gym everyday for the coming week...make sure I am not tempted to any food...add oil add oil!!

Also determined to do facial mask everyday - make sure I look good in those important photos! (our photographer uses film instead of digital memory...not much refinement can be done afterwards!)

Across the Japan Sea, Jin is also busy busy. So busy that he even missed the sakura gathering with friends ><.

Same for final checks and preparation. Jin is so much more busy than me as he needs to plan for the whole trip, inclusive of a series of banquet places visits.

Thanks so much to Jin's efforts and let's hang in there!

Look forward...

Briefing session: photo-shooting

It took me some time to recap this event... breifing on March 26.

As Jin mentioned earlier, Romantic Life is our chosen photo-shooting company.
It was still too early to be impressed by the final product and we have not been very satisfied with their administration so far...this briefing was rescheduled twice, because of their internal mis-communication.

This also meant that we held up the momentum and busted off ... I was at the edge of being super irritated and not sure how I would react if there were anything else to go wrong...

Kind of stressful.
(I must say my standard has become so much higher since I started working with my demanding internal customers. My bar may even reach another peak now - with my partner coming from the place with the highest service standard in the world...who actually works with his emperor-like customers everyday...and who is actually one of my very demanding customer!! haha)

hmmm...how can we be more relaxed/ have higher tolerance to others?
(but...when it comes to marriage...how can we tolerate?)

In fact my "account manager" is a nice lady with strong human touch. You feel like you are talking with a friend who always excite for you on your marriage. It could be that she works part-time and that's why follow up was (I wish it's a past tense) always not thorough, not detail minded enough, too.

However, with her soft skill, the tension always released when I meet her in person.

Well, back to the topic.
We were supposed to have this briefing 1 month prior to the photo-shooting day. (but we ended up having only 2 weeks) It aims at clarifying what style, effect, venues we want for the photos, and confirm the logistics.

However, the photographers were already gone to Japan when we held the meeting. Presented in the meeting including my account manager, the "director" for photo-taking, me and Jin (via Skype video).

My account manager walked extra miles for me to pick the wedding dress, which was a good starting for the day.

Well... it was a very busy night. So many Taiwanese staff and other customers. Space was limited and noises kept inside the room. People started to yell..and not enough chairs...my account manager needed to knee down for the whole process...wao...it's such a big MESS.

In order to get Jin involved, we needed to use the staff's PC (with Skype). It was quite inconvenient as staff were actually working, busy in and out. One staff was bugging me for almost an hour for having occupied her PC....well...level of irritation kept rising.

One fortunate thing was...since we had so limited time with the preparation team, we thought it might work better if we prepare a super thorough "briefing sheet" for the meeting.

This worked especially well when time was limited and mode of communication was not 100% clear/ smooth.

With the briefing sheet in hand, things went so much easier.

For the 2nd half of the meeting, the director came. He is a Hong Kong(er?) and visits Nara every year in the same timeframe. He sounds familiar with the setting there and his idea easily merged with Jin's. This was a big relief - finally we found somebody (at least) looks detail minded and knows the actual thing.

His comment to our plan was: too many spots (we are creative, and in another way - greedy =P). It was a plan for a 2-day shooting. (!!!!!!) But he tried his best to work out the itinerary and backed up with options. With gives & takes, our plan was finalised.

Conclusion is: we need to start from 7am and all the way until night!

What a big challenge to all our physical tolerance!

We will make sure we treat them a nice dinner after the photo-shooting...hahahaha.

Countdown started.

The sakura blossoms in the 関西 area started blooming. Starting with 京都 and 和歌山, slowly but surely, Japan is preparing for its pink pink season.

Current forecast shows the 満開 timeframe will be just right. However, we will have to see. It's even thunderstorming in 東京 area tonight. I hope they won't wash away the petals...

But, the temperature these days are pretty cool, so I think this is a good sign - more time to enjoy the sakura!!!

The sakura this year will be a special one for us two. I'm sure this will be the one and only sakura we will remember for the whole life, even if we were to forget all of the rest!!!!! (most probably, we won't forget any of them hehehehehe)

If you want to keep track of the sakura with us, please feel free to take a look from the following link: http://www.tenki.jp/skr/skr_6.html

Sakura in Tokyo...

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20080322-00000005-maiall-soci
(sorry, Japanese link...)

Today, the sakura of Tokyo area started blooming. The announcement typically reported from a specific sakura tree registered by the government has more than 20% of it's sakura bloomed.

As for Nara, there are no updates, but since this weekend will be warm and sunny nationwide, forecast is expecting such announcement around the country.

I just hope some cold weather would come in the following weeks, since when there's some cold time before the cherry blossoms bloom, it will lengthen the time sakura is blooming.

Sakura weather forecast!!

This is JAPAN!!! They afford the efforts to go into details...and very precisely, make prediction for what people is eager about - the SAKURA blossom day!!!

Weather this year is really weird...the cold cold snow stom and we were kind of worried...whether we can catch the sakura season during our photo shooting trip. (It's all about SAKURA yo!!!)

Our photo shooting will take place in Nara 奈良 on Apr 8. Jin has been checking website to keep track with the updates....

The answer is - it's going to blossom on Apr 6! Perfect timing!!!

However, it's too early to relax....let's pray...it keeps the schedule and good weather!!!

Look forward to taking our beautiful photos under sakura trees, with sakura flakes.....sakura~~~~

Choosing the "costumes"

Chop chop chop!!!!!

There is one common way we praise ourselves. That is to have a virtual chop (stamp, called "hanko:判子" in JP) and chop on the forehead (looks like we're punching in the forehead from a third person's view) to appraise his/her efforts.

Well, a request for funny picture was to do this virtual "chopping" to appraise both of our efforts in putting this project together........






Well, ...... it's no longer going to be a "virtual" chop la!!!!!

The actual design has been mosaic'ed to keep a surprise effect. Gomen nasai （^┳^）
And this chop isn't a regular small one, ........

It's almost as big as my big hand yo!!!!! Hehehe......

So, one more step advanced towards our perfect album la.

Kimono rental store reserved.

The whole story started when we were looking at the photo shooting agent... The typical wedding photo shooting takes place in HK, TW, ... but the recent trend is in JP and SE Asia, and even EU. Since I being a Japanese, would be both convenient for me and is also good for Carol to shoot under the cherry blossoms (櫻), we decided to go with an agent - 浪漫一生 - who had gave us a pretty good deal for shooting pictures in 奈良. Carol gave a good idea, "It'd be goodo if I can dress in Japanese Kimono n shoot under the trees..."

Well, ... a good idea became a desire for both of us. She too started wanting to wear the Kimono, and I also want Carol to take the Kimono pictures and be included in our album.

So, the search for Kimono place started from searching "where I can find a Kimono rental stores around the 奈良 area...". The main problem I had was that I hadn't been to 奈良 before. Thus,
I don't know how many stores are available around the city, since I had no idea what the city has around. Secondly, I did not know how much the Kimono rental would cost... So, having Internet as my main source of information, I started searching on the web over and over and over and over again.

I do not know how many sites I had looked over... Using Google, Yahoo J!, goo.ne.jp as the main portal, I think I had searched over 300 links of the terms 奈良 振袖 レンタル etc... I recall finding over several stores, but most of them are extremely expensive... Even taking the average, the typical ones are from 80,000JPY just for Carol's furisode (振袖**). However, just by having the 振袖 is not enough, since she cannot wear it herself. Helping Carol wear the Kimono, called ki-tsuke (着付け) is a requirement, and this can be done typically with the Kimono rental, or a Japanese hair salon can also do so. Next, during the 着付け, the Kimono itself requires all sorts of accessories. The Kimono belt, called obi (帯) requires strings to hold itself. This is called obi-dome (帯止め), other small accessories called komono (小物) is needed, as the Kimono is worn with all of these small accessories. Furthermore, Kimono requires a special hair arrangement (ヘアーアレンジ), along with hair accessories (髪飾り). Then, small prop to accompany with the kimono, like the bag. Finally, Japanese socks and sandals for the Kimono - ta-bi (足袋) and zo-ri (草履). All of these as a total, would cost over 150,000JPY - 250,000JPY.

By the way, since we need to take pictures of BOTH OF US, it's not only Carol who needs to wear Kimono. I also need one, so I also looked for my Kimono, called mon-tsuki-hakama (紋付袴). Men's Kimono is a lot more simple, and I only need ta-bi and zo-ri to accompany the Kimono. Even such, mine is still around 100,000JPY.

Just as an information, it takes typically 1hr - 2.5hrs for lady to wear a Kimono and set the hair.
However, men only take 15min... mmm, ...

Well, in all sense, lady's fashion costs more time and money... Thus, a "dress" always has an implication of feminine focus... So, it's an important mission for me to search for the "best" Kimono for our best memory. My mission starts at my desk.....

Just as an archive of sites searched, here are some sites in consideration....
http://takazen.jp/fct/leah/index.html
http://www.kirara-n.com/frs/20hkm.html
http://www.watabe-wedding.co.jp/dress/list_waso.html
http://www.premiere-grp.com/s03_guidance/longsleeved/index.php
http://www.premiere-grp.com/s03_guidance/longsleeved/index.php?page=3
http://www.a-steady.com/comming_of_age/furisode/index.html
http://www.c-claire.jp/dress/gallery.html?mode=uchikake
http://www.recycle-kimono.jp/rental/
http://www.kyo-roman.com/
http://www.japankimononet.com/new/01/index.html
**Aside: I even found a parody of Yahoo called Wahoo, named because the Japanese character "和風" is pronounced this way: http://www.wahoo.info/

All in all, there has been lots and lots and lots of good Kimono. However, most of them were out of our reach at this time (if the time were to be a bit later on, then we could have afforded more budget in this project), thus we had to balance out the budget amongst all of what we needed to do. Hence, it was our decision to make a reasonable price range that we can be satisfied of.

So, long story made short, we decided to go with one store which takes recycled Kimono from very authentic and well known places. Their philosophy is that through their own connection, they were able to get once a very precious and costly Kimono at a low low price. So, they have a stock of very precious Kimono, however they had no use in the stores, since they were just sitting in the warehouse. They take these Kimono, arrange them, and make them affordable for us at a low price so that we can "enjoy wearing Kimono". Their price range - below 100,000JPY for both of our Kimono, with everything but ta-bi included - is reasonable as well as the quality of the Kimono were acceptable for us. The affordability and the location of the store (being just several minutes from the hotel we will be staying) also made our decision (although we had to discuss over and over and over again, asking the store to provide lots of information so that we can make this decision).

Here it is, the "reserved" furisode at this time.

They will be providing us with further update if any new stocks are available. Since March is the graduation season for Japan, there may be lots of newer design kimono's ready... We just have to cross our fingers.


**Furisode (振袖) is a Kimono which the sleeves drape down to the toes. This type of Kimono is a sign of pre-married lady often is worn on a special day. This is typically used nowadays for Graduation ceremony, Coming of age day (成人式), for friend's wedding, or for photo-shooting for wedding arrangement by parents called "omiai" (お見合い).