New Year’s Eve wedding in Tokyo

My fiance and I are getting married on New Years Eve in Tokyo and are having a hard time finding a location for the ceremony. There are only going to be 5 people, so it is very small. Ant help would be great.

Are you looking for a traditional Japanese wedding in a shrine or a western-style white wedding?

Sarah, are you looking for a shrine for a wedding ceremony?

Shrines are too busy to hold a wedding ceremony on the New Year's Eve. Worshippers start coming in the evening/ late at night for the New Year's Day.

Shrines, temples and serious churches must prepare for the worshippers, bars, clubs and restaurants must prepare for the parties, smaller places and public halls will be off for vacation...it's hard for me to imagine that there will be any place available. I'm seriously wondering if you can't do it at someone's home.

It will be a western wedding. Like I said there will only be 5 of us & that is why I did not want to have it at a hotel because they only offer package deals with receptions. I saw online a wedding chapel in Karuizawa, the Hoshino wedding chapel. It looks so awesome, but I do not know how to book it, or see if it is already booked. We are not very religious, and are even thinking about having our friend marry us. We just do not know where to get married at. I would prefer somewhere not commercial. Are there any parks or botanical gardens that will be open?
Thank you SO much for your responses! I feel like I'm going in circles online....
Sarah

Are you "really" getting married or is it just the ceremony. I say really in quotes because marriage is just paperwork, anything else is just ceremony. Even if you have the ceremony you won't really be husband and wife unless it was done legally on paper.

It has bee noted before its a bit difficult for non residents but just visitors to Japan to legally get married (eg registered by a city hall etc). Perfectly fine to have a ceremony, just noting it won't be legal anywhere until you have it officially registered (which you could do in your home country).

You could get married in a park but be prepared for it to be pretty cold, probably less than 10 deg C. Also the parks in Japan are not especially pretty in winter- very little greenery.

I'm not sure if it is available on Dec 31st but many hotels offer "Suite Room Wedding" for a small group (up to 10).
Hotel Nikko Odaiba : http://www.hnt.co.jp/wedding/plan/sui_2007.html
Daiichi Hotel :
http://www.daiichihotel-tokyo.com/wedding/plan/plan11.html

Or how about booking a private room at a nice restaurant?

Sarah,

Is this the chapel in Karuizawa you're talking about?
http://www.karuizawachurch.org/

A quick internet check gave me the information that this church is part of the Hoshino resort. According to the link, Hotel Bleston is in charge of wedding arrangements and their email is;
adviser@blestoncourt.com

They do have an availability checking site in Japanese language, but you need to register to check the availability.

Btw, I'm sure it will be freezing in the winter resort of Karuizawa on Dec 31. Also Japan always have a risk of rain or snow, and that is the main reason why very few people wish to have garden weddings.

But if you find any information like that of this chapel, all you have to do is to contact the person providing the information and track down the address in charge of the arrangements. Good luck, and I hope you know what you're trying to do.

Thank you all very much for your responses! I received an email response from Hotel Bleston Court, which is connected to the "Stone Church" in Karuizawa, Nagano. They said that they have availability for a ceremony. I'm sure it will be cold, but this church is beautiful and it's available. I believe that it takes a little over an hour to get there from Tokyo on the bullet train. Does anyone know how busy the trains are on New Years Eve?
I have researched getting legally married in Japan. I know that there is some leg work involved going to the U.S. Embassy to get an affidavit and then to the ward government office to turn it in and become "legally married", but it is important to me.

Going outbound from the cities, the year end period is the most crowded season of the year. Although it is usually a bit easier on the non-Tokaido shinkansens, be sure to make reservations as soon as they start accepting them (in your case, I recall that reservation acceptance starts on November 30th, but check JR ticket counters in advance).

Upon boarding, be sure to queue in front of the area where your seats are. If you board at the wrong place, the trains can be so crowded with people standing, that you won't be able to walk to your seats.

I'm sure it will be a very busy day both for the couple and those joining the ceremony, but I wish you a nice wedding, which is only the beginning of the long and winding road ahead of you.