潮干狩り

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.

End of GW

This year 憲法記念日 (Constitution Day) was on a Sunday, so it’s observed today.
So today is the last day of 黄金週間 (Golden Week).*

(* GW is a common written abbreviation for Golden Week in Japan. Thus the title of this post.)†

Tomorrow most everyone goes back to school or work.

Many people take a trip either overseas or domestically during Golden Week in Japan. So airports, train stations, and highways are crowded at this time.
At the beginning of the holidays, 下り (away from Tokyo) trains and highways are crowded…and at the end of the holidays, 上り (to Tokyo) is crowded.

Yesterday at about 2:00PM on a highway from 仙台 (Sendai, Japan) heading back to Tokyo there was a head-on collision between a passenger car and a mini-van.
Four people were injured and three elderly people died.

The accident caused the highway to be closed for a few hours, resulting in a huge traffic jam.

++++

This Friday (8 May 2009), my oldest daughter’s high school class will take a field trip north of Tokyo to the countryside.
They’re going to make 「うどん」 (thick Japanese noodles), have a バーべキュー (BBQ), and go ライン下り (white-water rafting in a Japanese-style boat)!

I’ve been white-water rafting in the countryside in Japan with friends before…but I’ve never gone on such great field trips when I was a student in America that my kids do with their schools!
The biggest school field trip I ever took as a kid was from one side of Florida to the other for a trip to NASA Space Station…it was interesting, but not as fun as the places my kids have gone over the years.

What types of school field trips have you gone on as a student in your country?

++++

† As I wrote above, GW is a (written) abbreviation for Golden Week in Japan. But there are many other abbreviations in Japan. For example, if you are in Japan, have you ever noticed “W” written on an ad. “W” is a Japanese abbreviation for “double“.

You might have seen, for example, “W (double) point-card points” or “Kirin W (double) Tanrei beer” (I show a photo of this beer in another post (Click here)).

入場無料

今日は緑の日 (Today is Greenery Day).

Many 動物園 (zoos) and 水族館 (aquariums) in Japan were open to the public today with 入場無料 (free admission). This happens three days year…you can go in these places for free on 緑の日 (Greenery Day), the anniversary of day that the zoo / aquarium first opened, and Citizen’s Day.
For example, 上野動物園 (Ueno Zoo) in Tokyo has free admission on March 20 (開園記念日 (the anniversary of the day that the zoo first opened)), May 4 (緑の日 (Greenery Day)), and October 1 (都民の日 (Tokyo Citizen’s Day))…(Click here to see my 1 October 2009 post about the zoo.)

(BTW, 上野動物園 (Ueno Zoo) always offers free admission to children who are junior-high-school aged or younger (and who go to a school in Tokyo), and also to the disabled and one assistant.)

We decided to go to 上野動物園 (Ueno Zoo) today.
As it always is when the admission is free…it was very crowded there today!

I took a number of photos…but due to the crowds, it was difficult to get good photos. So many of my photos (including my photo of the gorillas, flamingos, and the new baby rhino didn’t turn out well).

But here are some of my photos:

鯉のぼり (Carp Streamers); a Japanese 「子供の日」 ("Children's Day") (May 5) decoration.

ありくい (Aardvark)

ハリネズミ (Porcupine)

Baby Rhino

黄金週間 (Golden Week) has begun today.
And today is also my youngest daughter’s birthday. She’s thirteen now!
So now I officially have three teenage daughters! 😉

Yesterday, 上野動物園 (Ueno Zoo) in Tokyo showed their new 白サイ (White Rhino) baby to the public for the first time.

The new baby White Rhino at Ueno Zoo.

The 白サイの赤ちゃん (baby White Rhino) was born in the zoo on Monday, 20 April 2009 at ２０時半 (8:30 PM).

Here’s a short clip that shows the baby rhino’s birth, first steps, and nursing for the first time:

The サイ (rhinoceros) has always been my favorite zoo animal. They look like living dinosaurs!

東京ディズニーランドの写真

Last weekend, my daughters went to 東京ディズニーランド (Tokyo Disneyland) together. They took their young six-year-old cousin with them.

While the four of them were at the amusement park, my wife and I went to IKEA (I wrote about that last week. Click here to read it.)

Here are some of the photos that my daughters took (I’m not posting any of the photographs that have my kids or niece in them):

The Tokyo Disney Resort bus

"Daisy Duck"

"Pooh-san"

A statue of Walt Disney and Mickey with Cinderella's Castle in the background.

"Buzz Lightyear"

++++++++++

I’m sure you’ve heard in the news about the recent outbreak of a new epidemic in Mexico that has spread to America.
It’s a 豚インフルエンザ (Swine (Pig) Flu)!

First, there was “Mad Cow“, then the “Bird Flu“…and now it’s pigs. Will fish be next?

Japan did a pretty good job of keeping the mad cow and bird flu out of this country. Hoping this new swine flu won’t spread here either!

++++++++++

Anyways, “Golden Week” has officially started today. Students still have school and most people still have to work until Thursday…but some people get to begin their holidays today.
As with most people though, my family all have our Golden Week holidays from next Saturday (May 2) until Wednesday (April 6)…plus this Wednesday (April 29) is off too (But, Thursday (April 30) and Friday (May 1) are work days).

Wednesday, April 29 is 昭和の日 (Showa Day). (It used to be 緑の日 (Greenery Day)).
Sunday, May 3 is 憲法記念日 (Constitution Day).
Monday, May 4 is now 緑の日 (Greenery Day). (It used to be 国民記念日 (Residents Day).
And Tuesday, May 5 is 子供の日 (Children’s Day).

Because 憲法記念日 (Constitution Day) is on a Sunday this year, it’s observed on Tuesday, May 6.
So most people’s Golden Week is from Saturday May 2 – Tuesday May 6.

Click here to read my FAQ about the Golden Week holidays.

Also, this year (2009) in Japan, there will be a second Golden Week in September!
This is because 敬老の日 (Respect For The Aged Day) is on the third Monday of September…and 秋分の日 (Autumn Equinox) is on September 23.

This year, the third Monday of September will be on September 21. So since September 21 and 23 will be off…the government made September 22 between them a day-off too.
So, many people will have Saturday, September 19 until Wednesday, September 23 off…a second Golden Week.