Golden Week in Japan!
Trip Start
Jun 27, 2009
1
26
47
Trip End
Jun 25, 2011
Nachikatsuura, Hongu, Susami,
Japan
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
The end of April, beginning of May is called "Golden Week" in Japan. It's called that because there are a string of 4 national holidays over the course of one week, which allow the "hard-working" Japanese people to take off from work and actually travel. The holidays are: Showa Day (honors the birthday of Emperor Hirohito, the reigning Emperor before, during, and after World War II), Constitution Memorial Day (commemorates the date on which Japan's postwar constitution took effect), followed by Greenery day (for friendship with nature and gratitude for its blessings) and Children's Day (really just for boys, on this day families let it be known to the neighbors that they have a boy in the house by flying carp kites outside)
01 setting up camp, making dinner
.We did a lot during Golden Week, and started off by camping in Hongu. Hongu is a small town where the JET we call, "Hongu Dave" lives. It's about an hour away from where I live, a beautiful mountainous drive. We had a great time hanging out around the campfire, talking, eating. During the day we went on a hike to a hidden waterfall and then of course, hit the onsen!
A JET named Jean from Kyoto came down to visit for a few days during Golden Week, too. I gave her the royal tour of Nachi and the surrounding towns and we even dressed up like ancient Japanese pilgrims and "hiked" on the ancient pilgrimage road through the huge cedar forest. It was fun to dress up and walk in this huge kimono like thing-it even came complete with a mosquito netted hat, which I could see would've been very useful back in the day. So many Japanese people were taking pictures of us, haha. Since I didn't leave the country for this vacation (trying to save money), we had a time to do some normal things like see Spiderman 3, and just lounge around and do nothing. It was nice to relax!
Towards the latter part of Golden Week a bunch of headed to Sara's town for the annual Inobuta Derby
02 rose, melissa and lily sitting by the fire
. Her town, Susami, claims to be famous for (all Japanese towns have to be famous for something!) a special breed of wild boar. Apparently they bred a wild boar (inoshishi) and a regular pig (buta) and the result is the 'inobuta.' There were so many people in this normally sleepy town, families playing BINGO, kids doing carnival games, lots of yummy food, and of course the PIG RACES! There was a betting station where you go to place a bet on the pig you think is going to win. Their names were funny: Matsui, Ichiro, etc..We also watched a Squid cleaning competition, where elementary schoolers race against the clock to gut the squid. One girl had black ink all over her hands when the buzzer went off!
Once the holidays were over it was back to the daily grind for me. Thankfully I was invited on a school trip this year at one of my Elementary Schools. It's nice to be included since most time JET's are left to sit alone in the teacher room, and usually aren't informed of special days like this. The whole school walked about 45 minutes to a beautiful stretch of rocky coastline. Every student came to school that day with water shoes, nets, fishing poles, and buckets. Of course being a foreigner in Japan, I wasn't told where we were going or what we were doing on this 'school trip' so as usual, I didn't ask questions, just went along for the ride
03 sarah making her gourmet Freek meal!
. I knew I'd figure out what was going on on my own eventually. Once we got the beach each class took their annual class picture and then set out in search of sea creatures in the numerous tide pools. The 6th grade boys, being the oldest in the school, were allowed on the large rocks to go deep sea fishing with their teacher and the Vice Principal. I floated around saying hi to the different groups of kids, looking inside buckets, and learning the names for the things they were catching. It was a beautiful sunny day and it was so nice to be outside all day. We all ate our bento (lunch boxes) on the rocks and after lunch had another hour to explore before it was time to go home. I had fun looking at all of the kids home cooked bento's, they are all so intricately prepared and well presented. A lot different than the ol'peanut butter and jelly sandwich or lunchables in American kids lunch boxes! I think that's about it, OH and at one of my schools the 3rd graders gave me a huge tadpole! I named him Shota after one of the boys in that class. He now has all of his arms and legs and really likes to jump. I'm going to let him go soon cause I feel bad. He needs to be with his friends instead of all alone in a tank. I included 2 pictures of him when he only had one arm, and one of him just hanging out.
I'm counting down the days until my visitors to come this summer! My mom, Aunt Mary, and 2 cousins Maggie and Will are coming on June 18th and my friend/co-worker Kim from Browne is coming July 6th! I can't wait to see familiar faces :)
