holibags

unbelievable - it's another public holiday!

as a result of all these single days off, getting proper time off (for a real holiday) for many japanese can be difficult to say the least, certainly more than a few days at a time. people talking of 2 week holidays abroad are usually met with intakes of breath and an astonished "aaaaaaaayyyyyyy?". I suppose these hand-outs are meant to keep you sweet by thinking you've had so much time off that you couldn't possibly need a change of scenery. it's staggering: I count 23 public holidays this year - some official - some unofficial*.

anyway - all this means that the japanese are the masters of short trips. yuka's off to pick pears in Hyougo with a bus load of old biddies from her mum's town (long story) but today happens to be school sports day - coinciding with that very thing, but also signifying the fact that it's now cool enough to go outside and not get sun stroke. so back to excercise it is........just as the baseball season seems to be ending?

on that topic, a 13 year old died last week of exhaustion after playing baseball. 2 lost games, 1 long telling off from the coach and several hours of punishment practice later saw him collapse after about 12 hours near the park. heavy stuff.

jan 01 - New Year's Day.
jan 10 - Coming of Age day
feb 11 - National Foundation Day.
mar 21 - Spring Equinox.
apr 29 - Nature Day.
may 02 - Golden week*
may 03 - Constitution Day.
may 04 - People's Day.
may 05 - Children's Day.
may 06 - Golden week*
Jul 18 - Day of the Sea
aug 13 - Festival of the souls*
aug 14 - Festival of the souls*
aug 15 - Festival of the souls*
sep 19 - Respect for the Elders Day.
sep 23 - Autumn Equinox.
oct 10 - School Sports Day.
nov 03 - Culture Day.
nov 23 - Labor Thanksgiving Day.
dec 23 - Emperor's Birthday.
dec 29 - End of year*
dec 30 - End of year*
dec 31 - End of year*

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