Tuesday marked the first day of golden week, a period in Japan where there are a bunch of national holidays back to back in which most people get a good solid 5 days off from work. It’s like a national spring break.

Most people travel around Japan and it is one of Japan’s big travel seasons. Roads are full of cars (even with the high cost of gas and movement at a snail’s pace) and hotels are more expensive. However, as a 貧乏な大学生 (destitute college student)、I’m not traveling so much. So I did the next best thing and went to Shinjuku so I could be surrounded by all of the people traveling and silently wish it was me.

Ok so I did make up that last part, I am actually quite content to explore Tokyo more. This city is incredible and my visit to the Shinjuku Imperial Garden adds one more item to the list of rocking things in Tokyo. Normally it costs ¥200 to enter, however on this day it was free. There was also a huge festival (I guess that’s what it would be called) about the environment and environmental education. It was very encouraging to see so many people, old and young alike, taking an interest in the environment. Maybe there is hope after all.

Part of the festivities

Yumi holding my chin down as whenever I take the self-portiats like that my head always ends up looking up a bit and it looks funny. As you can see we work well together.

People were picnicking with their families and climbing on some of the trees.

I should also note that global warming was in full swing that day. I mean - it started off pleasant but by mid-day it was around 25°C outside.

The heat was enough that I went and saw a movie, 砂時計　（Hourglass). It was my first time watching a Japanese movie in theaters and I must say that for a love story, it was completely different than what I was expecting. It wasn’t bright or bubbly or happy at all.

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Side note - I’ve updated the about page and there is now a contact form on there. So people that need to contact me and don’t know my email can…contact me.