1st Wedding Anniversary! October 10th - 11th

Last week at a yoga class the teacher was congratulating one of her students on her 15 year wedding anniversary. The teacher herself must be married for at least 9 years, based on the ages of her 2 children, but she was saying how wonderful it is to see a couple together for so many years. She then asked another student how long she's been married, the answer, 30 years! We all ooed and ahhed and I felt that my approaching first year anniversary seemed a little insignificant in comparision. But as soon as I thought that I immediately brushed that though away because anniversaries are special, no matter how long or brief you've been married for.
Thats what I think at least.

Not only is it wondeful to reflect back on the memories we've built up until now, but also a time to express love and appreciation to Motozo for being the wonderful person he is.

Its been an amazing 1 year and like I wrote in a card for Motozo, a lot has happened in just 1 year of marriage and I can't wait to see what this next year will bring. Cliche, yes, but I do mean it.

Some people say not alot changed after getting married, especially if the couple lived together before getting married and thats what I said the first month after getting married. But not long after, it started feeling different....in a very good way. To be refered to as Husband and Wife felt more official and serious then bf/gf. I dont have anything against bf/gf, but I personally feel more as a unit now that we are legally bound together. I like it when someone calls me Ms. Rubenstein, even though I'm still a Hirasawa (until we have kids I'm not going to go through the hassle of changing my name), I like introducing Motozo as my Husband and I feel naked without my wedding band.

Our anniversary was officially last month, but like most couples, we have 2 dates. The day we filled out the paperwork at city hall and the day we had our "ceremony" and party. I don't know about next year, but this year we only celebrated the 2nd date and we decided to go back to Hakone and stay at the beautiful Yamano hotel where we had our wedding at but was too busy to really enjoy the place.

Since Motozo has a knee injury we couldnt run around the lake together as we did for our ceremoney. I ran early one morning and it was absolutely beautiful! I really wished Motozo could join me, but we enjoyed 2 whole days visiting places we've been to many times before, but never seem to dull.

Rode the ropeway to Gora.

Of course, went to Owakudani and smelt the lovely sulfer.

Briefly watched people eat their extreamly stinky black eggs. It seriously smelt worse in this egg area then close to the sulfer rocks.

Had a lovely time!

Went to the Open Air Museum.

Did our best imitation of the scuptures.

But most of all enjoyed each others company.

Happy to say, we managed to do one thing that was both a first for us in Hakone - Pedal our hearts out in the swan boat.

Motozo feels VERY strongly against motor boats. He likes sail boats and hates how motors boats are polluting water. So of course, we had to expend our own energy to get the boat moving.

Visisted the Tori where we had our ceremony.

Pedaling the boat was harder work then we thought, but lots of fun. I think Motozo and I balance each other out in the area of being energy efficent and animal friendly. I get so caught up about animal rights and health benefits of not eating animals and he reminds me that there are also other things we, as people can work on to save the enviroment.


In the evening we Champagne toasted to ourselves and watched bad movies in bed.

This place will always be very special to us!

I love you dearly Motozo and I'm so happy to spend my life with you. Here's to our next year together!