What Should We Do About the Baby’s Shrine Visit and First Festival Photos?

What Should We Do About the Baby’s Shrine Visit and First Festival Photos?

Todya, I had a conversation with my wife.

mom

We should probably go ahead and book a photo session for the omiyamairi and hatsuzekku

Omiyamairi is a traditional japanese Shinto ritual where a newborn baby is taken to a shrine, typically around one month after birth, to be blessed and introduced to the local guardian deity.Hatsuzekku refers to a baby’s first seasonal festival.Girls’ Day on March 3rd or Boys’ Day on May 5th — marked by decorations and traditional rituals.

ATSUSHI

May 6th is about a month after the due date, so we decided to schedule the birth around that time, taking into consideration my wife’s recovery and our son.

Looking for a Photo Studio

While we planned to do the shrine visit, we wanted to have the commemrative photos taken at a studio rather than on location. When we searched online, we found many studio offering costume rentals(a common practice for these milestone photos in Japan),but the cost ranged between 50,000 to 80,000 yen(approx $350-$550 USD).

We tried using a service called Mitsumore, which allows you to get quotes from photograpers, but most of thephotographers there offered only on-site services and didn’t include studio shoots or costume rentals, so it wasn’t a match for waht we needed.

Then we thought,

mom

Why not use the same photo studio my older sister used?

ATSUSHI

Good idea. Since we can’t get a proper estimate from Mitsumore anyway. let’s just go with that.

so. we decided to book the same photo studio that my sister in law had used.

Only Two Possible Dates Left — Thanks to Rokuy

We had to coradinage the date based on both my work schedule and Rokuyǒ.
Rokuyǒ is a traditional Japanese calendar system that labels each day with auspiciousness ranking.

People often avoid important events like weddings or baby blessings on unlucky days(Butsumetsu, for eaxmple), and try to schedule on lucky days like Taian.

When we cross-refernced our availability and the Rokuyō calender, we found only two viable days. We didn’t want to miss the chance, so my wife quickly made the reservation call.

mom

Hi, We’d like to schedule a photo shoot for the omiyamiri and hatuzekku on May 5th. Do you have any availability?

Luckily, there was still one slot left! We were relieved.

Even though the studio’s website said reservations need to be made 2-3 months in adavance, it all worked out fine for us.

And Finaly・・・

I noticed some milk stains aroud our sleeping baby’s mouth, so I coudn’t resist snapping a quick photo.

That’s all for now-
unit next time!