29 April, 2005

Golden Week's frenzy

May's special holiday, Golden Week, has just started. Golden Week consists of several national holidays in this period - Greenery Day (29 April), Constitution Memorial Day (3 May), National Holiday (4 May), Children's Day (5 May). So this period based on these successive holidays is called "Golden Week" in Japan.

Thanks to perfect calendar, this year's Golden Week is superb, ranging from 29 April to 8 May. In addition to the usual holidays, two weekends come at just the right time. Tomorrow, 30 April is Saturday and 1 May is Sunday. In fact, 2 and 6 May are Monday and Friday. Though many of companies have those two days off and, even if not, many workers take them as paid holidays. Then, another weekend comes again. As a result, ten days off. What a happy calendar.

In Golden Week holidays, Japanese people are busy at moving around. University students living alone in Tokyo return to parent's house in the countryside, fathers aka salaried male worker have to take their families to amusement parks and shopping malls, and 20's rich female workers visit to Paris to buy Louis Vuitton's handbags. Crowds appear anywhere in Japan - traffic congestions on motorways and crowds at trains stations. It's no surprise. We have got used to it.

But this year, it's going to be more crazier than ever. According to Japanese travel agency, JTB, the number of tourists who travel abroad during the vacation will be more than 60 million. 60 million people!!! 60 million Japanese go outside of Japan with digital cameras. 60 million Japanese gather to only a few airports in Japan... It's crazy.

Because if the long vacation, distant destinations such as Europe and America are popular. On the other hand, owing to recent anti-Japanese movements in China, many tourist have cancelled their visit to China.

I'm not going anywhere, in particular. Meet some friends, go back to my parents' and stay usual.

Have a nice holiday.