Golden Week

Ah Golden Week, that glorious first week in May where we have three holidays in a row followed by a day of work and another weekend. Usually you get a friday off, have a weekend, and then get the next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday off. Most employers will give Monday and Friday off as well so that their workers can spend a whole week with their families. Not in the public school system though. Lucky me, I had Friday off but had to work Saturday. In compensation though, I did get Monday off. Thus I had five days of uninterrupted bliss-it was grand.

Last year I went to Thailand with Jenny for about 10 days. We got tickets for under 50,000 yen- that's under $500 to you Americans tuning in to this blog from abroad. It was great, we stopped over in Hong Kong and spent 9 days in Bankok, Sukkotai, Chaing Mai, and on the road. I recommend Thailand to you, it's a great place and I am sure the people could use the business down in the southern regions. Just stay away from the boarder with Malasia, their is religious strife, guerilla war fare, and a strange separatist movement. Other than that, Tailand is a blast. (Try the Green Curry)

This year, I stayed home. I have no more days of leave, owing to my long winter break and my trip to England. And the prices of tickets sky rocket if you have to leave Japan during GW itself. I wanted to head to Singapore, but it would have meant taking a 70,000 yen hit. Since I spent exorbitent amounts of money in England two months ago I decided to give my bank account a rest.

This year I did a variety of different things while at home. I went clubbing on Saturday (met a nice man too, hope he calls), and spent most of Sunday recovering and reading the news online. Monday I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. How does such a small space get so dirty? I must have talent, but I did scrub my shower and my floors. Truely I was motivated!

On Tuesday I went to Kyoto with mark and his girlfriend to see a fairly creepy exhibit of human bodies. They were preserved (plasticised) and then dissected in various ways, allowing people to see the inner workings. I thought I would gag, but I did okay. It was actually fairly interesting. Later that evening I went to dinner with a few friends and went book shopping. A good day all around.

Wednesday was recovery day, I was still pretty sick, and movie night. I made tacos, sliced vegetables, and made guacamole. 5 people came over and they all brought alchohol. I had two bottles of 1000 yen (well, 1300ish) sparkling wine, two bottles of regular wine, and I bought my favorite Diet Beer too. We also had Kalua, Bailys, Tequila, Plum Wine (Umeshyu), Shou Chu (grain liquor), Chu Hi (assorted flavors), and fresh lemons. We didn't watch too many movies, and everyone crashed out around three, but it was a good time. I did spend the rest of Thursday recovering though. But I did spend three hours reading the news. I also saw Matt Drudge's CNN appearance via download. Drudge seems like a good guy.

All in all I had a great time. I was worried that staying home would pale in comparison to going abroad, but I feel like I got to know my friends a little better last week. It was good to spend time with so many different people.