in the sun

today is The National Holiday. seriously. That's what it's called in the JET calendar. Yesterday was the Constitution memorial day and tomorrow is Children's Day. Three holidays in a row--Golden Week. Actually there is another holiday the preceeds this on April 29th and it's called Green Day. Not because of any environmental reasons. It's actually because the emperor before the current one used to like the color green and his birthday was celebrated on April 29th. but now that he is no longer the emperor his birthday is the national holiday and celebrates his favorite color. nice, eh?

so the japanese are on vacation. they are traveling and i have joined in the fun. am now on Tokashiki island and enjoying the relaxing sun filled days. It rained non-stop monday and tuesday so i was really afraid of a rained out vacation, but the Japanese weather service has been right all along, and it's warm, sunny, with a cooling wind.

on the fun irreverent side of things. this past weekend had a wonderful time discovering new places to party in Naha. went to a live music bar where the band plays covers of japanese and western songs from 50's onwards. people get up and get down. was a fun time, and all the band members are actually employees of the establishment and serve the customers between sets. ate at a wonderful thai restaurant whose outside decor has peeked my curiousity for 8 months now and the inside was 10x better. beautiful place with reasonably priced delicious thai food.
also enjoyed some karaoke and at both places we went found TATU songs to sing in Russian. that was great fun. yes, i know and like TATU songs from their first album in Russian. and it was really strange seeing cyrillic letters on a karaoke screen with a nonsensical video playing behind it.

am tired now. might have been in the sun too long today.

cheers