Picture Update Pt. 2 - Golden Week with the Imoto Family

Golden Week -- 5 consecutive national holidays that many Japanese use as an opportunity to travel abroad.
Basic Facts:
1) The week usually falls between April 29th to May 5th.
2) Showa Day is to remember the former Emperor during the Showa Era, Emperor Hirohito
3) Constitution Memorial Day is to honor the signing of the 1947 Constitution of Japan.
4) Greenery Day is to honor nature and many people go to view the mountains, parks, and woods.
5) Last is Children's Day, often referred to Boy's Day. Girls have their own day on March 3rd and Boys have their day on May 5th... so 3/3 and 5/5. Easy to remember. Girls celebrate by displaying a traditional collection of dolls in the household. Boys celebrate by flying koi fish shaped kites in front of their house.
6) This year, we were also given a "substitute" holiday. On this day, many families travel home from their adventures and rest before having to return to work.


For my Golden Week, I met with two families that are special to my family. The first family I visited was the Imoto Family. Mrs. Imoto (Miho-san) was my Japanese tutor when I was in first and second grade at the Academy. She taught me to read, write, and speak in hiragana, katakana, and vocabulary. They went to Harding University to study and became friends with my family. After two years, they moved back to Japan with their son, Naoya. I was eager to meet with Miho-san to show her how much I have improved in my Japanese and to see Naoya, who was only a baby when they went back. Now he is almost a high-schooler!

The Imoto Family live in Tokyo, on the outskirts, so we spent a day exploring the Imperial Gardens. The palace is, of course, closed to the public. However, the East Gardens are open to the public. I had read that it was in the Top 10 tourist spots to see and I was anxious to see spring's arrival. So we spent Saturday at the East Gardens.

Here I am at the main entrance.





Beautiful flowers.




Beautiful landscaping. The pool is filled with water lilies, but unfortunately, they were not yet in bloom.




Azalea flowers. They grow much larger than the ones in front of my house in Searcy.





A picture with Miho-san on top of the old watch tower. New Tokyo in the background and Old Tokyo under my feet.

Thank you for a wonderful visit!