less-than-Golden Week

[Taro Toporific]

I went through Narita yesterday at 4pm and it was a ghost town.
No lines. No waiting. And NO health inspection or any health inspectors to meet my San Fran-Tokyo-Shanghai flight in either direction. Sheesh.
Golden week return rush not so big
Japan Today, Tuesday, May 6, 2003 at 06:00 JST
TOKYO --- Railway stations and airports in Japan were crowded Monday with vacationers returning to Tokyo as the Golden Week holidays were winding down, but the crowds were much smaller than last year...

[Big Booger]

Golden week this year sucks ass.. next year though, 3 days in a row Monday T W. oh how I treasure the future.

San Fran I trust was a return to normalcy?

[GomiGirl]

Damn, I had the best week.. I just went on holidays and didn't take note of the national ones.

I went to a farm on Shikoku and worked like a field hand with a fantastic family. Then went to Chiiori (the Alex Kerr/Mason Freeman project) in the Iya Valley. Was a great break with lots of hiking, fresh air and sunshine. Have lost my refective palid complexion due to too many hours devoid of sunlight and exposure to electromagnetic rays.

Feel refreshed and ready to kick some serious arse!!

[Taro Toporific]

I went to a farm on Shikoku and worked like a field hand with a fantastic family. Then went to Chiiori (the Alex Kerr/Mason Freeman project) in the Iya Valley...

Ahhhh, Shikoku's Iya Valley which is on the other side of the mountains from my inlaw's rice ranch....grrreat! I fondly remember my first on May 5th, Boys' Festival Tango no sekku in Shikoku about 10 years ago, when they put up a carp streamer for me since I was "cheated" in my childhood. Maybe you noticed that out in DO-INAKA Shikoku the carp banners and boys' stuff is still a big deal ... nobody but nobody falls for that PC "Childrens' Day" stuff mandated by Tokyo.
...carp streamers encourages boys to be strong and brave. Families with sons put up carp streamers, symbolizing the wish for boys to grow up strong like the carp that swims against the current. Warrior figures are also put out on display.

[GomiGirl]

The HUGE Koi kites were everywhere!! And they were stunning!! Across the river they have a group of about 50 which were all about 15 feet long.. now there is a fallic symbol if ever I saw one!!

[Taro Toporific]

San Fran I trust was a return to normalcy?

"Normalcy" and San Fran in the same sentence; surely you jest? San Francisco makes Tokyo seem even more boring than it is. I stayed in the Silly Valley, in the shadow of Apple Computer headquarters, with a lesbian couple and their 2 kids. The transsexual husband was formerly my college roommate who took too many steriods for running and ended up in the "other" camp. The bull dyke friends of his/her Filipina wife kept on showing me their creative piercings and tattoos and ... <<use your imagination>>

[Taro Toporific]

The HUGE Koi kites were everywhere!! And they were stunning!!

That was my mistake to say the Carp banners (koi no bori) were "cho subarashi" stunning. They decided I just HAD to have one and ALL the district still talks about the 40+ year old alien "boy" with the biggest carp banner in Shikoku.