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Wedding Anniversaries Grow Like Tree Rings: Year One, Year Ten, Year Thirty
Cut a tree across its trunk and the rings appear. Some years are thick and some are thin, but every ring runs its full circle without a break. Celebrating a wedding anniversary year after year, I think, is much like drawing those rings one by one.
And just as with tree rings, the way you celebrate can change its thickness from year to year. Year one calls for splendor: pool, sauna, a toast, the full serving of everything out of the ordinary. Year ten makes a feast of quiet. For a couple in the thick of work and raising children, what is needed is often not staging but time to sit in silence together. Year thirty suits a sunset. For two people who have talked through everything, an anniversary is complete simply by watching the same view side by side.
Year one: the full serving of splendor: Villa Nigin Amanohashidate
A whole-house villa on the canal in Amanohashidate, limited to four parties a day. Every building comes with a sauna, a pool, an open-air bath and a full kitchen, and you can spend the stay in luxury while looking out over the famous pine grove and the sea. Each building sleeps up to four. On a first anniversary, use every last facility without restraint: laugh in the pool, settle into the sauna, raise a glass in the open-air bath. A year’s worth of stories accumulates in a single night.
Year ten: on a quiet inlet: COVA KAKUDA Iseshima
A private villa overlooking an inlet of Ago Bay. Every room faces the quiet inlet of this satoumi, a coastal sea long tended alongside daily life, and with a sauna as well, the sea of Ise-Shima is yours alone. Ago Bay, known as the sea of pearls, is a mirror-like satoumi where waves barely rise. Spend a tenth anniversary inside this stillness. Make no plans; it is enough to watch the tide of the inlet fill and fall.
Year thirty: watching the sunset side by side: One Story, a Sea of Japan sunset villa
In Izumozaki, Niigata, this sunset villa stands with the vast Sea of Japan spread out before it. True to its name, there is no finer stage for looking back on the one story a couple has written together. The sun setting into the Sea of Japan shifts its position with the seasons, yet returns to the horizon without fail every single day. Like a habit kept for thirty years, it is an ordinary and precious sight.
Next year, one more ring
An anniversary trip does not need to be lavish, and it does not need to be the same every year. All that matters is that no ring goes missing. If this year’s ring is thin, let next year’s be thicker. That is how the tree of a marriage grows.
Stays in this article
AmanohashidateKyoto
Villa NIGIN(ヴィラ ニギン)天橋立
Four whole-house villas along the Amanohashidate canal, opened in April 2025 and limited to four groups a day. Single-storey and two-storey types all come with a sauna, a pool and an open-air bath, plus a 24-hour gym for guests.
2 bd
Ise-ShimaMie
COVA KAKUDA(コーヴァ カクダ)伊勢志摩
A small private villa resort in Ise-Shima, Mie with ocean views and a sauna.
Sado IslandNiigata
日本海夕日ヴィラ One Story
A villa resort in Sado Island. Sleeps up to 5 guests. With ocean views, a sauna.