Shichigosan

For our day in Tokyo we spent an afternoon at Studio-Alice having a photo-shoot for Hannah's Shichigosan (7-5-3).

Shichiogsan is a tradition of celebrating and taking photos of children when they reach the milestones of 3, 5 and 7 years old.  Rika tells me this dates back to times of high  infant mortality.  Wikilink (here).

Hannah absolutely loved dressing-up with her choice of kimono and dresses, being made-up, and having pictures taken.

Of course Hannah chose the big pink princess dress.

Studio Alice has an interesting approach.  The photographers spend plenty of time and take lots of great photos with different costumes and props.  You are not allowed to take your own photos during the shoot although video is OK  (the images here are all stills from my I-phone video).

At the end you can choose the best couple of dozen photos and buy a disk of the files.  But the catch is that you have to wait a year for the disk.  In the meantime they will sell you prints, memorial books, key-rings etc.  at eye-watering prices.  We bought the disk and a dozen prints including a set for Granny and Grandad, for about JPY 50k in total.

Video:  Shichigosan photo-shoot