Golden Week!

This week was Golden Week.  Golden Week is a week that has a TON of national holidays rolled up into one.  First, April 29 is Showa no Hi--Showa Day--a day to reflect on Emperor Hirohito's 63 year reign.  The next holiday is May 3, or Constitutional Memorial Day.  It's a day to think about the meaning of Democracy in the Japanese government.  Midori no Hi--Greenery Day--is similar to Earth Day in the US and is on May 4.  It's a day to think about nature.  Kodomo no Hi--Childrens' Day--is celebrated on May 5.  It is mostly a festival for boys, since that's how it originated, but I think it supposed to be for both genders now.

Golden Week means no work, especially for teachers.  It's nice.

On Friday I got off early, so I called Rhett in hopes of meeting at the beach again, but he was on some crazy bike ride.  So I went to Anjo instead.  There wasn't much to do though.  I just walked around a lot.

On Saturday we had a picnic on the beach with two of my best students and a friend.  We had quite a lot of food.  I wore a tank top and a short skirt in hopes of getting a tan, and I must say, mission sorta accomplished!

Then on Sunday we went to Junko's house.  Junko works with me at William's.  We met her husband and her mother, and had an excellent meal.  Her husband cooked various kinds of meat and onigiri, and Junko made some awesome veggie dishes and yogurt.  We must have eaten for three hours.

Monday was spent cleaning.  Yuck.  >P

Tuesday was really fun.  Rhett made us a picnic and we rode up to Okazaki.  I needed some fabric for my Mina Majikina costume, so that was our final destination.  On the way we stopped at Garage Sale--my favorite recycle shop--and looked around.  We saw an awesome couch for six bucks!  We planned to get it on Wednesday.  We also stopped at a really cool shrine.  It was on the top of this hill that was surrounded by a thick grove of trees.  It was beautiful.  We ate at a nearby park and then headed back home.  On the way home we stopped at Aeon and treated ourselves to some more food.

Wednesday was fun too.  We talked to another teacher at William's so that we could get the six dollar couch and planned to do that in the evening.  During the day we rode to Gamagori's Laguna Asia park.  We got to see the ocean, which is always nice.  We had to ride back in a hurry to get to the store on time, but it turned out that the couch was gone!  T-T  So we treated the other teacher to dinner for his time and then helped him out with his computer.

Thursday through today have been spent getting some much needed R&R.  It's been really great to just hang out.  I've cut out all of my pattern pieces for Mina's top and will sew it this week.  It's a little behind schedule, but that's okay.