Culture Shock at its Finest: January 2011

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Golden Week 2011 Outlook

Golden Week? Yes, Golden Week.

In Japan, Golden Week is (usually) a week of consecutive national holidays that provides a golden opportunity for people to travel abroad. This year, the holidays are as follows.

April 29th (Fri) - Showa Day. HISTORY LESSON! Japan divides its time periods according to the reign of the emperor. The Showa Period dates from December 25, 1926 to January 7, 1989 under Emperor Hirohito. Showa Day is ALWAYS on April 29th because it corresponds with Emperor Hirohito's birthday.
Side Note : The current period is called the Heisei Period and the Emperor's Birthday is December 23rd. I suppose on his passing that Day will become Heisei Day. Who knows?

May 3rd (Tues) - Constitution Memorial Day. The Constitution of Japan was put into effect on this day in 1947. Also, this is the ONLY DAY the Diet Building is open to the public. Ooooooo.

May 4th (Wed) - Greenery Day. As the name suggests, this day is to take in the joys of nature.

May 5th (Thurs) - Children's Day. Also known as Boy's Day, this holiday is to celebrate children's personalities and to wish for their health and happiness. You can often see carp-shaped kites/flags dancing in the wind.

SO! Why do I write all this?

I am THRILLED to say that I will be spending my Golden Week (taking Monday and Friday off) in CAMBODIA!

Did you read that?

CAMBODIA!!!!!!!

I guess the reason why I am so excited is because I will be the only one in my direct family to have traveled there. There's so much to see: Angkor Wat, Siem Riep, and beautiful beaches. I am from ARKANSAS and I will be traveling to CAMBODIA. I feel as though I am living the life of a celebrity. I dare you: go to the Google website and search "Cambodia" under images. Yeah, that's me in 3 months!!!!

Then I thought some more...
I've been fortunate to travel A LOT in my lifetime. By the time I get to Cambodia, I will have visited 26 countries by the age of 25! WHAT?! Yeah... TWENTY-SIX!!!

Somebody pinch me.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Hakuba Ski Trip 2011

A while back (January 14-16), Shizuoka Prefecture ALTs and Yamanashi Prefecture ALTs met up in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture for a weekend of skiing fun! The drive took about 4 and a half hours (forecast for almost 6 hours) thanks to good directions and generous speeding on the expressway. Shh! Don't tell!

We arrived about 10:30 at the Lady Diana Hotel in Hakuba. There wasn't much snow on the ground, but it was forecast to snow all night and all weekend.

This is what we woke up to on Saturday morning!!!!
Talk about a Winter Wonderland!

Sophie, Drew, and I are ready to hit the slopes!!!!!

Making some new friends with the Yamanashi ALTs.

My apologies that I didn't get any pictures of me actually skiing this time. The snow was coming down VERY hard and it was difficult to maneuver poles, gloves, cold fingers, and to keep my lens from fogging up all at once. We're meeting again in February so maybe I'll have better luck then!