Golden Week Happenings

Am now in the middle of Golden Week - Japan's most expensive and most crowded travel period. Seeing how much more prices are in this week, you wouldn't be blamed if you thought this might be Japan's only holiday period. It's that bad. Prices jump by 2.5 to 3 times - and travel in Japan was never cheap to begin with. That aside, what is Golden Week anyway?

It's actually a few national holidays grouped together - namely 29th Apr, 3rd, 4th and 5th May. As to what each of the days actually are, have gone through several changes since day of inception, but as of this year, 29th Apr is the Showa Day, 3rd May is Constitution Memorial Day, 4th May is Greenery Day, whilst 5th May is Children's Day or Boy's Day. Of these few, I think Children's Day is quite an interesting one, because even though Singapore also celebrates a Children's Day, the actual practices and notions are quite different. In Singapore, Children's Day is literally a day that celebrates being a child - so the best thing is to give you a holiday of course! =P But here in Japan, Children's Day is actually more like Boy's Day, and koi-shaped banner flags are flown. The equivalent for girls, Hinamatsuri, is actually on a separate day - March 3 - and ornamental dolls in the Heian period style are displayed in the house.

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Aside from all these, some updates on recent events.

Thursday was spent with the floorball members - jointly in a celebration of our girls' team getting Champions for this league season as well as a farewell gathering for Jon, who will be moving back to Norway (with his lovely Japanese wife!) for good this coming Saturday. Sad but this is not the end and I'm sure we'll meet again some day soon! Since being so fortunate as to have met him and Sissel at floorball, I now have a reason to go visit Norway! =D So I'm sure I'll meet him again someday! He's really been a great player, mentor and most importantly, friend.

Friday was a visit to Masa's house! Because Bel and I were saying that we were really curious about how a Japanese person's house is like and so Masa very very generously invited us (and a few others) over! One of the most fun I've had in Japan! We basically chilled out at his house - played badminton, guitar, card games, Uno, Jenga, and even ate yummy curry rice that his mother kindly cooked! And met his cute sister too! =)

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And recently, I've been watching Xing Guang Da Dao (5th season) on Youtube, since chancing upon one of the episodes recently. And I've realised that I like 咪咪小眼睛的男生！^.^ Haha Lin Jie Yu and Luo Zi You are both very cute! Because of their eyes haha =P