It’s Golden Week in Japan!
So I wrote “Gold”.
“Golden Week” (Sometimes abbreviated to “GW”) is a week beginning 29th April, containing multiple public holidays in a row.
This year, the dates of the holidays are:
Saturday 29th April: Showa Day
Wednesday 3rd May: Constitution Memorial Day
Thursday 4th May: Greenery Day
Friday 5th May: Children’s Day
Many people take the Monday and Tuesday off too, to make a 7-day consecutive holiday. Sometimes it can be even longer (a few years back it was 10 days, to celebrate the new Emperor’s Coronation).
Golden Week is one of the most popular times for Japanese people to travel, both domestically and internationally.
Most tourist spots get packed, so it’s best to avoid travelling to Japan during this time.
Students of the Japanese language will notice that 金 appears in 金曜日 （きんようび）the Japanese word for “Friday”. So Friday is literally “Gold Day” or “Money Day”. My Japanese teacher told me that this is because Friday is often payday 🙂
Calligraphy by Vicky 