Golden Week

Golden Week is a week that has lots of holidays close together that occurs at the end of April and beginning of May, so it is often a week of holiday from work and school. Apparently, Golden Week is the longest vacation period of the year for many Japanese jobs. It is also an extremely popular time to travel, so travel is very expensive and famous places around Japan such as famous hot spring spots etc. end up extremely crowded and busy.

The holidays observed during Golden Week are the following:

• April 29th: Showa Day (which honors the birthday of the Showa period emperor Hirohito)
• May 3rd: Constitution Memorial Day
• May 4th: Greenery Day (another name for Showa Day)
• May 5th: Children's Day or Boy's Day

I was very busy during Golden Week, which may have been the cause of my illness...This is what I did☆

SATURDAY April 28

I went to Asakusa with my new friend, Michiko--a Keio girl who's going to UMD next semester!

Asakusa is known as a part of Tokyo where you can still get a sense of traditional Japan.

This is Kaminarimon, or the Lightning God Gate. It was really crowded because of Golden Week...but really pretty. It's really famous and shows up in lots of paintings.

Like this from 100 famous views of Edo:

 This is a view from the shrine of Sky Tree, which is close to Asakusa, but you still need to take the train to get there. I also heard that it's really expensive to go up to the top...But I think it's pretty cool looking from afar.

It was a really hot day, so after praying at the shrine, we got shaved ice! Once you pass through the Lightning God Gate, there are countless souvenir and snack shops and stalls. I love the feeling of walking past all those stalls. It's like you're at an old fashioned market.

This was my first shaved ice ever~

Michiko got Calpis (a drink) flavored and I got strawberry.

 This is Asakusa's famous amusement park which has been around since the 1980s. We couldn't go inside, but from what I saw from the outside, it definitely gives a sense of old fashioned-ness. The rides were even faded in color. For people who want to get a tast of the 1980s, they go here.

This is a really famous landmark that everyone takes a picture of, because they think it looks like golden poop. It's on top of the Suntory (a beer company) building and is supposed to be the froth on beer.

This is a famous river called Tamagawa River, which marks one of the borders of current day Tokyo. We learned about it in class, so I thought I'd take a picture. At night, there are apparently ferries that are hung with lanterns that take people on short river cruises.

I had always wanted to go to Asakusa so Michiko was so sweet to take me there! It was lots of fun seeing Asakusa and talking with Michiko about lots of things. 

MONDAY April 30th

 I got 2 free tickets from Nakamura-san at my conversation club to a Walt Disney exhibit! So, I invited Hinata and we went together.

 Unfortunately, it was prohibited to take photos inside of the exhibit, but this was Mickey at the entrance! He's so cute~ The exhibit was really great. More than a Disney movie/character exhibit, it was an exhibit of Walt Disney's life.

At the beginning of the exhibit, there was a movie by Walt Disney's daughter talking about how she organized the exhibit for Disney fans in Japan. There was one part where she said, "My father once made a film on Japan..." and it showed some footage on that video and......Hinata and I were so embarrassed as Americans. The whole thing was talking about Japan was the land of days of old exhibiting the 'exoticism' of Japan through natural forests and shrines. Well, it was made in that kind of time period so it can't be helped, I guess...

The first part talked about Disney's life. The second part talked about Disney's shorts and the creation of Oswald (the failed Mickey) and Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy. The third part talked about the Disney movies made while Disney himself was alive: Snow White, Cinderella, Pinocchio, Bambi, Fantasia, etc. It was really interesting and the way it was set up was really pretty. The fourth part talked about the creation of Disney World/Land and Disney's home life and hobbies. At the end, there was a slideshow of Disney quotes and Disney movie screenshots that was so cute and moving that I almost cried....

It was a really well done exhibit overall. My only complaint was that it was really crowded so we pretty much had to just follow the flow of the line, and there were several spelling mistakes in the displayed English. I mean, no one probably noticed except for me, but it shows that translators are really lacking, I think, or it was just carelessness that wasn't reviewed. I really think, though, that in situations such as this, it is important to display correct spelling, or it seems really rude and not very intelligent.

 After the exhibit, there was a souvinir section, where I bought this really cute Japanese style Disney folder which commemorates Disney's 101st anniversary. And! The Mickey shaped red keychain shown above! It plays Mickey's Japanese voice....It's so good....I got it from a capsule vending machine, so I could've gotten Minnie, Daisy, Donald, Goofy, or Pluto, but I'm so glad I got Mickey!

By the way, the other keychains pictured are voice actor voice keychains I got in Akihabara a few weeks ago. The blue one is Suzumura Ken'ichi and the red one is Irino Miyu. Just because...I like voices.

WEDNESDAY May 2nd

 On Wednesday, I went with Tamaki and Hinata to Odaiba, which is an artificial island out in Tokyo Bay. We took the monorail to get there. It was yucky and rainy, but we still had a great time. And I love Tamaki and Hinata so much for showing me around.  

 This is a place that was full of oldies stuff. There was an 80s style arcade, a store filled with snacks and toys from the 80s and 90s--pretty much a nostalgia place.

Then, we went to Odaiba's haunted house which was my first experience in a haunted house and probably my last. I hate scary things so much...So, first we were given an explanation of the story behind the haunted house and Japanese people make up the most terrifying stories. The haunted house took place in a highschool where lots of students had committed suicide and one of the students named Tokio committed suicide because he felt neglected by his mom or whatever. Feeling guilty, the mom wrote a letter of apology and left it inside of one of the classrooms. So, our mission was to find the letter. We were told to hold onto a rope and the set up was Hinata in front, me in the middle, and Tamaki in the back. And I am SO glad I was in the middle because I hid my face in Hinata's back while Tamaki covered me in the back and I was pretty much closing my eyes the whole way, screaming when the other two screamed. Ahh it was terrible...

 Anways, moving on to something more pleasant, outside of the haunted house was a Takoyaki (octopus balls) Museum--another way to say lots of takoyaki stalls all lined up together. Pointless, in my opinion...

 This is Rainbow Bridge, the famous Odaiba bridge. It lights up at night in rainbow colors, apparently. It actually looked kinda pretty in the rain, though.

 And this is the Odaiba statue of liberty. Japan is a country of imitation? um, well...

Afterwards, we went on Odaiba's giant ferris wheel! It was my first time on a real ferris wheel. It was cool.

Hinata and Tamaki inside of the ferris wheel car. My cutest and sweetest friends! 

 Then, we went to Odaiba's cat cafe! This was a first for all of us. It wasn't as nice as I thought it would be and it stunk like cats, but petting the cats was so nice~~They were so fluffy and sweet gwaa

 Me petting a cat☆

 Cat☆

 I loved this cat. It was so cute and looked like a stuffed animal.

You weren't allowed to hold the cats unless they made the move on to you. This cat jumped into Hinata's lap so she had lots of fun with it.

 This cat jumped onto Tamaki's shoulder. I caught it's angry face...

For the rest of my Golden Week, I hung out with friends in Ikebukuro, Ueno, Akihabara, and Shibuya and it was really busy, but I have no pictures from that, so it wouldn't be very interesting. Plus, I'm sure you're tired of reading all this already, right? Anyways, it was really busy but really fun. Thank you to all of my friends who kept me busy during this time! Now it's back to school...