As I mentioned in an earlier post, it is now the “Golden Week” holidays in Japan.
It is popular during this week for people to go on trips. Many people who live in Tokyo are going to other parts of Japan or overseas and many Japanese who live in other parts of Japan are in Tokyo now to see the big city.
Today in particular is the holiday 「健保記念日」 (“Constitution Day“). (Click here to read my FAQ about it).
The weather has been warm and sunny since Golden Week started and it’s forecast to continue with the beautiful weather for the entire Golden Week holidays.
The TV news said today that this is the first time in twenty-five years that it hasn’t rained at least one day of Golden Week!
At this time of year, 「潮干狩り」 (“Clam digging”) is popular in Japan.
Many people, especially retired people and families, buy “Clam digging sets” (which include a net bag to hold the clams, a bucket, a small shovel and a gardening fork) and go to the shore and hunt for clams.
The popular places get quite crowded…especially in the Tokyo area and especially during the holidays.
Well, we made plans to go 「潮干狩り」 (clam digging) yesterday. We bought the supplies for the five of us to hunt for clams and we woke up early yesterday and headed to one of the most popular clam digging spots in the Tokyo Bay.
It was extremely crowded but we live in Tokyo so we’re all used to the crowds. It doesn’t faze us.
And besides, my daughters are growing up…I enjoy spending as much time with them as possible before they have their own families.
Also, yesterday was my youngest daughter’s fourteenth birthday. I can’t believe the “baby” of my family is already 14!
So, after our fun day of clam digging (we took home almost 2kg of clams!), my youngest daughter requested to go to a カラオケボックス (“Karaoke box”)…which are private rooms to sing karaoke where only your group can hear you sing…so that’s what we did.
Then we went home and my wife and daughters made spaghetti with clams (that we caught) for my daughter’s “birthday dinner”.
It was a great day!
Here are a couple photos I took during our clam digging. Every other photo I took was of my family digging clams but I don’t put photos of my family online…so I’m only posting these two pictures.
But you can see how crowded it was.
Tokyo Five 
I just also saw a picture about this (clam or shellfish digging) today in Japan Today – I didn’t know this was such a popular activity during Golden Week. We have never tried it before.
LikeLike
潮干狩り (Clam digging) has been popular in Japan for centuries.
(潮干狩り literally translates to “low tide hunt”).
LikeLike
You never see tents on beaches in Hawaii. Everybody prefers to get a tan.
LikeLike
>Everybody prefers to get a tan.
Really?
Tanning really isn’t popular in Japan anymore because of the dangers of the sun to the skin.
There are people in Japan who like to tan still and there are even some tanning salons but most people use sun screen.
And on beaches, in addition to sun screen, the tents and sun umbrellas are popular especially with families with small children.
Yesterday, since no one was there to swim, most everyone (including us) was wearing long sleeves shirts.
In the summertime in Japan you can see many women using 日傘 (parasols (sun umbrellas)) when they walk around.
LikeLike
By the way, since it’s now Golden Week in Japan…Hawaii is a popular destination for many Japanese to go during this holiday period.
I guess you can see many Japanese tourists there now…and most of them will use sun screen, hats, and sometimes even long sleeves while they’re there to protect their skin.
LikeLike
What about parasols (umbrellas)?
LikeLike
>What about parasols (umbrellas)?
I guess most Japanese don’t bring a 日傘 (parasol) with them when they visit overseas.
But, as I said in an earlier comment, many Japanese women use them in Japan during the summer.
By the way, today was the warmest day of 2010 in Tokyo so far. The high temperature was 28°C.
(Also, today is the Japanese holiday 「みどりのひ」 (“Greenery Day”).)
LikeLike