Golden Week 2022

Golden Week is a cluster of Japanese holidays that all occur in the last week of April and the first week of May. The first two are historical holidays: Showa Day (honoring the Emperor Showa) and Constitution Day (celebrating the establishment of the modern Japanese Constitution). Then comes Greenery Day, which as its name would suggests, celebrates nature. Finally, there is Children's Day, which traditionally celebrated boys and fathers (there is a Girls Day in March) but now celebrates boys and girls as well as their parents and family unity in general. 

Japanese workplaces don't offer as many annual personal days or vacation days compared to its western European or even American counterparts. Yet the total number of days off most workers receive annually is not bad thanks to these national holidays. It's just that everyone has to take the same holidays, so it gets really, really crowded. Add to it the fact that foreign travel is still pretty much off limits, and you get crowds everywhere: the supermarket, parks, roads, museums, city offices - quite literally, everywhere. What to do then during Golden Week?

We went to Karuizawa in Nagano Prefecture last weekend. Of course, since Karuizawa is only a couple hours from Tokyo, it was also crowded, but we were able to stay away from the crowds for the most part. My mother-in-law's friend, who is also a tennis coach, gifted our girls two small tennis rackets and a net. We gave it a go in the backyard. Although they can't hit the ball over the net yet, they had a lot of fun trying. We also went hiking, as Karuizawa is home to many hiking paths with views of the Japanese Northern Alps. While the shopping streets were totally congested with people, the hiking paths were surprisingly empty. The rest of the time, it was raining anyways, so we stayed indoors doing puzzles and games. 

In a country as mountainous as Japan, you don't have to go far to experience early spring again. You might recall that Hakone. Though south of Tokyo, Hakone still had plenty of sakura blossoms due to its higher elevation. Karuizawa, on the other hand, is north of Tokyo and higher in elevation. There, you could still see sakura blossoms and many other ones, like these:

The last few days back in Tokyo, we have been taking a lot of walks, frequenting our regular park, and exploring new parks. And reading. A few weeks ago, I read Haruki Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, which inspired me to read South of the Border West of the Sun (one of the few Murakami ebooks immediately available to borrow at the library). I enjoyed it more than expected, and so I am now reading Men Without Women, a collection of short stories. At least Golden Week gave me more time to read. 

Days off are great, but when the entire country is taking the same days off, and international travel is still unfeasible (per Japanese border regulations), the country feels like it is bursting at the seams with people. I suppose we will think of this the same way as we thought of the first lockdown: how many opportunities will we have to sit around and spend time together without distraction? That said, I hope next year brings more travel opportunities during Golden Week.