There are a lot of events being held in Japan during the so-called Golden Week, a series of national holidays usually held in the end of April/beginning of May. Yesterday I went to a place in Tokyo called Haginaka (萩中) where a friend of mine was going to participate in a Samba Carnival.

Japanese samba ladies!

This was the third time that the event was held, and it seemed like it was very popular by the locals. Although Haginaka didn't exactly seem like the most lively place in Tokyo the shōtengai was filled with young and old spectators. Here are some of my photos from the event:

Thanks to Yoshimi-san for inviting me to the event!

Yoshimi has asked me to come join their samba classes starting from next week. If all goes well perhaps I'll get the chance to dress up and dance at the carnival next year.. Would be fun to at least give it a try.. ^^

The house seen from the room. The small house to the left is the one I'm living in.

Japanese style garden!

Pretty!

My new room

 The rooms are traditional tatami-mat rooms, and the first couple of nights I didn't have a madrass so I had to sleep directly on the floor. Thanks to my friend Larissa however, I have upgraded my room with a mattress to sleep on! I'm forever thankful!! Haha..

A golden bamboo stick for luck, and the picture I got through the Fuku Musume-contest

I don't have that much stuff to use for decoration of my room, but at least I finally had the chance to put up the picture I got through the Fuku Musume contest in December. Yay!

Besides moving out I must admit I didn't really do that much out of the ordinary. There was a little bit time for partying, mostly time for school work, and the time in between was spent with friends. Yuma came visiting me too, but I guess he is busy even when it is holiday so we didn't have the chance to hang out that much. Yesterday we had a big picknick with some friends in the Expo '70 Commemorative park in Osaka, which I also went to a couple of weeks ago for Hanami.

My friends in front of the Tower of the Sun

 It wasn't really the best weather for a picknick, as it was raining a little bit and at times even quite cold. But all in all it wasn't too bad, so it was a good thing we didn't cancel it. I had baked a banana bread and brought some Norwegian snack called lefse, and some of the others had brought Japanese snack and other things too.  Our friend Racchan has just started working for Kirin Beer, so she sponsored us with some drinks!

Look what Yuma found in the river!

After some photos we let the little guy back into the river.

 We spent most of the day in the park, and after we had eaten all our snack we went out to explore more of the park. Although I had been there one time before, it is quite big so it is better to take your time and not rush through all in one day. Last time I only had the chance to see the east side of the park, so this time we went through the west part.

In search for a four-leafed clover

Posing with Kirin beer.

In the end we found a tower that had quite nice view of the park, where we took some last photos before leaving the park in search for a Japanese izakaya. 

The Tower of the Sun seen from the opposite side of the park

And with the end of that day my Golden Week also came to an end. Today I'm back in the research room at school, ready to continue my hard studies. But with that said, I haven't really been a good student at all today anyway. Better get myself together and stop procrastinating!!

"Golden week" might not make any sense to you unless you somehow are familiar with Japan or Japanese holidays. For that is exactly what it is, unbelievable as it seems, a whole week of Japanese holiday.
As a Norwegian I must admit that I'm used to long holidays, both during summer, winter and a couple of weeks in between. In Japan, as you might already know, this is however not the case. Especially for people who have started working there are not to many times during the year where they actually have enough days in a row to take what you could call a real holiday. Supposedly that is why the Golden Week is such a "golden" thing: give them a week off and they are basically in the seventh sky. Along with the prices for hotels, transportation tickets and number of people in that temple you wanted to visit, because they seem to skyrock too.
I would also have liked to have a nice and long Golden Week without any school at all, as is the practice for most Japanese schools. But Ritsumeikan is known as a university where you get few holidays, and for good reasons. This year our "golden week" gives us a total of two days vacation from school, and in return we have to make up for the lost classes by coming to school a couple of Saturdays in May. I don't know about you, but I do not find that all too golden to be honest..
But there is still one aspect of Golden Week that makes it live up to its name. The fact that one gets the chance to spend time with their loved ones. Tomorrow my boyfriend, who has been working in Ibaraki since the beginning of April, will come to spend his GW in Kyoto. There is absolutely nothing that could have made my Golden Week more Golden then that. <3

Have a super Golden Week!

Golden sunset in Japan..!

Here in Japan we have just had our so-called Golden Week, which at Ritsumeikan equals 3 days without school more or less strategically chosen to be Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Which means that if you want a real holiday you have to skip school on Monday or Friday.. But don't get overly excited about your suddenly big amount of freedom: The classes you've lost will be given back to you cause Ristumeikan has Saturday-classes to make up for the Golden Week.! Woho!

Well, to be honest I did not do much during the Golden Week anyway. I was planning to go studying in the library at school, but since it was closed I ended up in the basement of one of the other buildings where they rarely close before 22:00 anyway. Beside going shopping one evening that is pretty much all I did during my Golden Week. But hey, I did a lot of traveling in February/March so I'm not going to complain. Besides I'm going to Tokyo this upcoming weekend!

On Saturday I did however do a little bit of sightseeing. I even had a personal guide with me, mr. Kazu, who wanted a chance to practice his English.
After meeting him in the city centre we strolled down to the Heian Jingu shrine, which I had been to once before during the student festival back in October (can't believe it has been over half a year..!!)
At that time it was evening though, so I didn't see much of the temple itself.

The gate to Heian Jingu

The weather was perfect - It feels like a Norwegian summer here now - so it was a good day for sightseeing.

View from a bridge towards the mountains in the east.

The Oten-mon Gate ()

Heian Jingu: Daigoku-den (大極殿)

むすび木！

 Beside the nice buildings Heian Jingu also has a pretty large garden. Last time I went here we never went to this part of the shrine, in fact I did not even know that there was such a big garden hidden behind the buildings.. Anyway, here are some of the pictures I took

A Japanese family feeding the ducks

かわいい〜

Picture of Taiheikaku (泰平閣).

Everything is nice and peaceful.