Monday, April 28, 2008

It's that time of year again!

Yep, once again Salarymen all across Japan are rejoicing! It's that time of year again, the "Golden Week" of legend!

A string of public holidays put in quick order making for a short breather in the harsh world of business, the holidays are exceptionally pointless. Ok, "Constitution day" has at least some historical significance, but "Greenery Day" and "Children's Day" score pretty high up there in pointlessness in my book. "Children's day" is about "a day set aside to respect children's personalities and to celebrate their happiness". I can now very clearly say that I will not celebrate neither their personalities nor their happiness.

However, to add insult to injury, this year has the holidays placed in a pretty bad order only giving a measly string of 4 free days in a row.

Holiday you say? So you're thinking fun trips to exciting places? No I say and I'm a salaryman so I know what I'm talking about. Because the whole nation is off at the same time, any place you think is a good idea to go to is already swarming with thousands of salarymen with their families that had the same thought you did. The best strategy is to try and stay out of harms way and don't think about flying anywhere because the airport is swarming with people and the travel companies are consumer friendly enough to pump up ticket prices to almost the double of normal rates.

I have a vague recollection of someone earlier posting a comment on a possible "Golden Shower Week" as a theme for this week and I will personally abstain from that theme this year but to each his own!

3 comments:

Chris said...

The word "Lemmings" comes to mind, when I see the freeways PACKED!!! with people spending as much time in traffic as they do doing anything else.

Lemmings!!!

Mr. Salaryman said...

Yeah, it's pretty horrible... At least it's a little break even if it's too painful to go anywhere far. Hope you get a break from the school!

Anonymous said...

Thanks to flexible hours I'll be working on both days and taking the time off when the rest of the country isn't.

(It's been quite tough getting this concept across to some people - "Oh you poor thing, working on a holiday").

Related Posts with Thumbnails