Special Celebration

We were so happy our grandmother's 88th birthday was celebrated at this special venue - Hotel Bellevedere. It is not only the place we used to go for nice onsen/hot spring but also the place Matthew and I did our 2nd wedding ceremony (we got married in Barbados) 8 years ago. I was just looking up the hotel website to see if they had any nice photos to show you what our wedding was like then I found this!



We were on their website!! I didn't know until today...

Anyway this is one of our favourite places we have been in Japan. We just missed the cherry blossoms blooming but they were still very beautiful. We had a few hours before we had to sit down for the dinner party so we walked around the hotel and enjoyed a warm afternoon.



Beautiful Pacific Ocean:



Having this wonderful view in front we enjoyed a foot bath:





Kids loved the hammock:







Just me and my Matthew:



We were in full swing inside the hotel too, playing pool and table tennis :)











Finally grandma arrived - the age difference between her and Rua is 88 years!! Amazing!!



We had to make sure we went and sat in the onsen as many times as possible while we were there (my family loves onsen so much!) so we made sure we had one before and after dinner. You are not supposed to take any photos (as you can imagine) so I can only show you these photos I borrowed from the hotel website.

Infinity bath overlooking the Pacific Ocean:



Fresh rose petal bath:



I could have stayed in the bath forever and ever but it was time for the special celebration! 88th birthday celebration is called "Beiju" and when celebrating beiju in traditional style, the birthday person wears a cap (zukin) and a vest (chanchanko) and sits on a cushion (zabuton) all the color of gold. Some of our cousins couldn't make it but we had a good number of relatives together.



We had a delicious course meal and lots of nice Japanese beer!





Rui wrote a nice letter to great grandma:



Me and grandma:



Luca and grandma:





Hinata, Oliver and Rui:



Grandma in her beiju outfit with my mother and her sister:



With Mako:



It was such a great get together. We haven't seen grandma over 2 years. I cannot believe how healthy she is. We enjoyed many old jokes from our uncle and catching up with some of the cousins we haven't seen in years - all about the fun times we had at grandma's place over the years.



We all exist because of our wonderful grandma. We love you so much!!