Leah’s Bat Mitzvah in Toyko!

The Glaser family celebrated daughter Leah’s Bat Mitzvah in Tokyo, Japan, where the family was living at the time as expatriates due to Dad Jonathan’s job. The family is now back in Connecticut.

More than 30 family members and friends made the trip from the United States to celebrate with them. The Havdalah service was at the Jewish Community of Japan followed by dinner and dancing at the Tokyo American Club. The family threw a beautiful religious celebration and integrated many touches from their newly adopted home.

Pictured L-R: Mom Alisha, Sister Sophie, Bat Mitzvah girl Leah and Dad Jonathan.

The photographer was Tracey Taylor and Dee Green of 37 Frames and the rest of the vendor information is listed below.

Mitzvah Invitation & Service

The family worked with Just Invite Me on the elegant invitations.  For their out-of-town guests, Mom Alisha created a website to help with things to do and see while in Tokyo. The Havdalah service was at the Jewish Community of Japan, a synagogue of approximately 100 families, where the Glaser girls attended religious school while in Tokyo.

The colors white, turquoise, and gold accents were used throughout the party

They planned excursions around town to nearby tourist sites and arranged guides for their guests. The website included: jet lag tips, things to do and see, cultural information and basic travel suggestions, as well as the schedule of events for the weekend

Leah's dress, a Stella M'Lia brand, was purchased at Ragamuffin & Radical Rags Shop in Mount Pleasant, SC. Since the family was only in the States a brief time, the boutique allowed Leah to choose several dresses in a few colors with no obligation

As a special gift Leah's parents gave her custom-made silver tallit clips with a sakura flower (cherry blossom) that was the symbol of the ward they lived in while in Japan. They were created by close friend, Lynn Cooper of the Etsy.com shop, KanoaPureSilver

For months before the big day, Mom Alisha carted a bag of needlepoint around to sew a tallit bag and was finished in time to ship back to America for finishing and then picked up and brought back for the big day!

Mitzvah Details

Each table setting was slightly different with a cohesive peacock-themed color scheme. One of the many challenges of an event in Tokyo is there are no linen or table number rentals, so they ordered linens back in the States over the summer and carried them in their suitcases! Mom Alisha made the table numbers, place cards and all signage.

The entrance to the Tokyo American Club

Several trays of place cards greeted guests at the Tokyo American Club -- gold dots indicated vegetarian meals

The area set aside for kids and their buffet had a separate patio that was turned into a kids' lounge serving kid-friendly appetizers as well as root beer floats and smoothies

The elegant adult tables

The color coordinated menu with a beautiful peacock accent

The extensive welcome bags, (because guests came so far), included American and Japanese snacks to help stave off munchies when up in the middle of the night from jet lag as well as "survival kits" to help with the side effects of both jet lag and touring

Mom Alisha made pillows with Leah's name on them to decorate the kids' lounge area

Colorful custom socks matched the decor perfectly

For some of more "noise sensitive" guests, they provided ear plugs, which were a big hit!

For the sign-in, Mom Alisha painted a chair with Leah's name in English and Hebrew and the date. It was also used as the Horah chair and she now uses it as her desk chair

Mitzvah Fun

There was a photo booth for extra fun.

Fun props made for great pictures

Mom and Dad in disguise

Mitzvah Moment

Leah is a stroke survivor and wears an assistive device on her right leg which was blinged out to match her dress for the weekend!

Mitzvah Cake & Favor

There was a traditional birthday cake and everyone sang to her!

L.L. Bean tote bags were monogrammed for each guests and hung from bows on their chairs with custom labels

Mitzvah Project

Travel is a huge part of the family’s life living overseas, as it is for many expats and Leah decided to incorporate this into her Mitzvah Project. She volunteered with her school making onigiri (Japanese rice and seaweed sandwiches) for homeless men and noticed how much pride they took in their personal appearance. She wrote letters to all her friends and family asking them to collect travel-sized toiletries. She collected them while back in the United States the summer before her Bat Mitzvah and also rode her bicycle around Tokyo collecting items from her friends months before. She collected over 2000 individual items, and was able to make up personal hygiene kits that the family distributed to homeless men.

Leah with more than 100 necessities bags for homeless men in Tokyo. Each bag contained soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss, warm socks, razors, shaving cream, combs, brushes, tissues, shampoo, lotion, lip balm, and mints

And here is the whole family out on the streets distributing them at 4:00 AM in a typhoon because they said they would be there!

Mom to Mom

 Some advice from Mom Alisha:
“The biggest challenge for me was planning an event in a country where no one knew what a Bat Mitzvah was! However, this was actually quite liberating on some level – Leah and I were free to plan exactly the event we wanted to without competing for vendors, worrying if anyone else would do the same things, or that it had all been “seen before.” As a Mom, I found the best mindset was to do the special touches we wanted, and anything that couldn’t be done, I’d remind myself that no one but our little family even knew they’d been a possibility and wouldn’t be missed. Leah and I are both crafty and love to plan, so we did a lot of extra touches ourselves, which was both fun and special. As a Mom, I loved having her involved in as much as possible.”

Vendor Directory

The following vendors helped to make Leah’s celebration extremely special. If you give any of them a call, please let them know you read about their services on MitzvahMarket.com.

Service: Jewish Community of Japan, 81-03-3400-2559 
Venue: Tokyo American Club, 81-03-4588-0381
Party Planner: Mom Alisha Glaser
Music Entertainment: DJ: Duane Wachna/MC: Guy Totaro
Photographer/Videographer: Tracey Taylor and Dee Green 37 FRAMES, 81-80-3271-9071
Invitation: Just Invite Me, 847-285-3495
Décor/florist: Bloom and Stripe, 81-3-6421-1187
Place cards, signage, pillows: Mom Alisha
Favor bags: L.L. Bean
Cake: Cookie-Hound
Cloth napkins: efavormart.com
Personalized paper cocktail napkins: ForYourParty.com
Sign-In Chair: Mom Alisha
Talit clips: Lynn Cooper, Kanoa Pure Silver, Etsy.com
Custom labels for welcome bags Evermine, 1-855-383-7646
Dresses for Mom: Theia, Neiman Marcus
Bat Mitzvah girl Leah: Stella M’Lia dress from The Ragamuffin Shop & Radical Rags, 843-884-4814
Sister Sophie’s dress: Sweet Kids
Suits for Dad: Teijin Men’s Shop of Ginza
Hair/makeup: Roberto Perozzi