How Was Your Vacation?

Many businessmen in Japan have an interesting vacation whenever they get a few days off in a row. Golden Week (from April 29 to May 6th or so) is an opportune time for the businessmen to rush out of Osaka or Tokyo and return to Kanazawa for some Hard Work. Many businessmen's parents still own and operate small farms, usually growing rice but also a variety of other foods such as apples, pears, cucumbers, and potatoes.

But the older people can't run it completely by themselves. They need help at least during planting season and harvest season. Fortunately for them, planting season comes about the same time as Golden Week. Convenient! Businessmen rush home (with their families, wives and older children are allowed to participate) and help plant whatever crops need to be planted.

Harvest season coincides nicely with another vacation called Obon (mid or late August, depending on where you live.)

Finally, some businessmen don't return just twice a year but every day. They work in a company during the day and after work, return to their parents farms and help out with whatever needs to be done. They have two full time jobs. It's no wonder that on Saturday night they want to relax in a bar with their friends and a few schooners of beer.

Below is a video of a typical rice planting. The 'traditional' method - planting by hand - seems to be done primarily by women. The machine is handled by the men.

A New Episode of Hokudai/Cast

Hokudai/Cast 109: What is Golden Week?

Listen, if you wish, to Hokudai/Cast 109: What is Golden Week? below or go to our website at Hokudai/Cast. In this episode we talk about Golden Week and life for a senior student who is looking for a job. Finding a job this year is difficult because the world economy - upon which Japan depends so much - is not in good shape.

In next week's Hokudai/Cast she will talk about her life in England. She also talks briefly about going to Paris and dance clubs. She went on 海外自習 a year or so ago and enjoyed the experience.

What is Golden Week?

Golden Week in Japan (there's one in China, too) consists of four holidays pushed up close together. The first one is Showa - you know him perhaps as Hirohito - Emperor's birthday and then followed closely by Constitution Memorial Day, Green Day (not the band), and Children's Day. There used to be a Boys' Day and a Girls' Day but only the Boys' Day was a national holiday. Sometime in the 80s, the two were combined into Children's Day (May 5th, which was traditionally Boys' Day.)

• April 29 Emperor's Birthday (天皇誕生日 ,Tennō tanjōbi)
  
  
• May 3 Constitution Memorial Day (憲法記念日 ,Kenpō kinenbi)
  
  
• May 4 Greenery Day (みどりの日 ,Midori no hi)
  
  
• May 5 Children's Day (子供の日 kodomo no hi)
  
  Since all the holidays are smashed up together, it is a great time for companies to close up shop and let all their employees take a vacation. The most popular destination seems to be grandmom's house. People return to their hometown or their parents' homes. The highways have massive traffic jams (measured not in time but in length; some are 35 kilometers long) and the trains are packed solid with travelers.
  
  About 10% of the population of Japan leaves the country, usually for places in Asia like Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore. It is a great time to stay home and enjoy being with friends and family.
  
  This year, because of the economy being so depressed, companies are allowing employees almost two weeks of vacation. This is the longest continuous paid vacation most employees have ever gotten.