Golden Week was this past week here in Japan. It’s a cluster of holidays that all happen within the same week. This year, one of the holidays was last Tuesday, two were this week (Monday and Tuesday), and one landed on Saturday (boo). If people are going to use vacation time in Japan (and oddly enough, it’s not a given that one would actually use one’s vacation time), Golden Week is often when it happens.
Since it was Golden Week, I had Monday and Tuesday off — no classes. So I took off to Osaka on Friday afternoon, to visit friends in my Japanese “hometown”. I got caught up with friends, ate some great yaki-niku, did some sight-seeing (more on that another day), even went to a movie.
I got back late Monday night. Tuesday, since it was a holiday, our church hosted a missions festival. Also a good time. Then in the evening, after an already full day, I went out: A worship band called Audacious (from the UK) was in town and there was a worship concert going on. Also good.
Then came Wednesday, and it was back to school.
Ouch.
I feel like I could have used another day off just to stay at home and catch up on sleep. The holidays were a lot of fun, but I didn’t have much down time, alone, just to chill out. I’ve been looking forward to the weekend since Wednesday. I haven’t slept well, despite being tired.
But it’s Friday now.