-
It was Silver Week (Wikipedia): a five-day weekend where Monday was Respect for the Aged Day, Wednesday was Autumnal Equinox Day and so under Japanese law, Tuesday was an ‘extra’ holiday.
-
I was thinking that I didn’t remember a five-day weekend last year and it turns out it’s only in years where you have Respect for the Aged Day be Monday and Autumnal Equinox Day be the Wednesday. This triggers the application of the rule under Section 3(3) of the Act on National Holidays (国民の祝日に関する法律) (a copy of which is available in English). The rule turns an ordinary weekday into a public holiday if it’s surrounded by two public holidays. This doesn’t happen very often: the next time will be 2032.
-
Does all of that ring a bell? Almost certainly not for you but I did wonder if I’d written about this before and it turns out yes. In this weeknote in 2022, I wrote:
I was going to call the week ‘Silver Week’ but after a quick glance at Wikipedia’s entry) I realised that wouldn’t be correct. Silver Week refers to a rare occurrence where a week in September will have three consecutive holidays. Since the holidays here were on Monday and Friday that doesn’t technically qualify. Instead we’ll have to wait til 2026.
-
Since it is September, that meant it was time for the Pretty Cure movie, Star Detective Precure! The Movie: The Mysterious Garden and a Secret Pair. For those not in the know, this is the film for this year’s series, Star Detective Precure! (Wikipedia). I took Emma and John to our local cinema on Saturday and, at the risk of sounding far more invested in this series than would be healthy, I was a little disappointed. I thought last year’s film had a story that better resonated with the show itself. This year lacked that and instead really felt like they were going through an obligatory part of the formula.
-
I mentioned back in May that Eri and I are considering sending Emma to Bunka Gakuen University Junior and Senior High School from 2028. On Sunday, they held their Cultural Festival and I took Emma down there (giving me my first chance to go inside the school). Since it was a ‘cultural’ activity day rather than an observation day, I didn’t see classes being run but I could see the facilities, talk to some of the overseas staff members (who teach the classes in English) and walk around the campus a little. I admit I was expecting to see more biracial children.
-
The weather for the first few days of Silver Week was pretty miserable but things cleared up a bit on Tuesday and we decided to use the opportunity to take the kids to Ueno Zoo. We’ve gone a few times now and every time I feel like every time I think the same thing: you get a decent look at a lot of the animals but this in part that’s because of how small the enclosures are and that always makes me feel guilty.
-
Eri took Emma and John back home but I went with Rowan to catch a shinkansen. He’d said he wanted to go on an E5 train but I went to the wrong platform. We didn’t have time to jump on the E7 and so waited for the next train. To my immense surprise (and I’m a little ashamed to admit delight), the train that pulls up next is the E2 (Wikipedia). I could hardly believe it. The E2 is the last active service Tohoku Shinkansen model I’ve ridden and, prior to Tuesday, I’d honestly given up much hope that was ever going to happen. It runs a handful of times a day (maybe it’s only once at this point?) and there’s apparently no easy way to determine when this will be. It was great to be able to tick it off the list.
-
Speaking of things that are hard to believe, apparently I haven’t linked to Noah Guthrie’s cover of ‘Sexy and I Know It’ before (Apple Music). I’ve now done that, too.
