First off, I never blogged about Valentine's Day and White Day. Basically here on Valentine's Day women give men chocolate, either because of a romantic involvement or out of obligation (like to a coworker). It reminds me of elementary school when you had to take a valentine for the whole class. I don't think it's quite as romantic a holiday here---it's really all giving chocolate out to all the men you know. We were back in the US on Valentine's Day so Chad didn't get any chocolate at work. White Day is on March 14th (one month later) and it's when the men return the favor by handing out a chocolate Valentine to all the women they know (and it's my understanding that they have to give larger presents, like jewelry, to their significant others). Chad didn't give any chocolate out either--not very Japanese of us, I know. Although we're really not sure how much of the chocolate-swapping goes on in his office. Maybe we'll find out next year. I did see all the elaborate chocolate confections in stores around this time---they get really serious about the chocolate here.
There was Girl's Day, also known as Hinamatsuri, or the Doll Festival. It was March 3rd. The day is to celebrate girls, and as far as I can tell, mainly involves grandparents buying expensive, ornate dolls for their grandaughters. I saw a lot of these dolls in stores.
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| excuse the bad iPhone photo |
Then there was Golden Week. There are four holidays in one week at the beginning of May. Most people take a couple of days off and make it a whole week vacation, although they also have to take their kids out of school if they are going away. Not really sure how schools feel about that here. Anyway, traffic is nuts, airports are nuts and trains are kinda nuts. As I posted about earlier, we went to Kamakura to see the Daibatsu there and it was packed out. I compared trips with another expat who went at a different time of year and yeah, so.....it was a madhouse because of Golden Week.
The Golden Week holidays are:
April 29th---Shōwa Day---To celebrate the events of the Shōwa Period of Japanese history (1926 to 1989). A lot went down during that time period. For starters, Japan went from being not such a great place to the lovely country we know and love today.
May 3rd---Constitution Memorial Day---To celebrate the postwar constitution going into effect. And to reflect on the joys of democracy.
May 4th---Greenery Day---For this one, I really can't do any better than the interesting Wikipedia entry:
The present observation of Greenery Day as a national holiday in Japan stems from the celebration of the Emperor Shōwa's birthday on April 29 every year during the Shōwa era. In 1989, following the ascension of the current Emperor Akihito to the Chrysanthemum Throne, the name of the holiday was changed from "Birthday of the Emperor" to "Greenery Day". Officially, as its name suggests, it is a day to commune with nature and to be thankful for blessings. The day was renamed to "Greenery Day" to acknowledge the controversial wartime emperor's love for plants without directly mentioning his name. However, in practice it is seen as just another day that expands the Japanese Golden Week vacation.
May 5th---Children's Day---To celebrate children. Historically this is also known as "Boy's Day" because families with sons fly koi banners and decorate with samurai dolls. The samurai dolls are also very expensive. Our Japanese teacher made the mistake of bringing us an advertisement of these samurai dolls which also had very elaborate samurai costumes for boys. Chad really wanted one for himself. But they are, no kidding, about $1000. I don't think so.
At one point around this time, Chad called home to tell me about some enormous koi banners hanging about a mile from our house. So I waddled on down there to get the photo below. According to what Wikipedia says about the banners, these indicate that this particular family has at least two sons. And that they are really into the koi banners.
There were a couple of other holidays in there that I didn't hear much about at all, although they are listed as public holidays. Maybe I'll save those for next year. :)
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