ShoyuJapan.com

Japan has a series of national holidays lined up all in a week from April 29th to May 5th making up what they call “Golden Week”. As you can expect a good portion of the country travels during this time of the year, both international and domestic. And others take this time to relax. From my own experience, this is definitely not the time to be driving while in the country. The roads are jam packed. Public transportation systems (like the trains and subways) are your best bet, and yes they are more crowded than usual, but much more dependable time wise.

4/29 Shōwa Day (昭和の日 Shōwa no hi) The former emperor’s birthday
5/3 Constitution Memorial Day (憲法記念日 Kenpō kinenbi)
5/4 Greenery Day (みどりの日 Midori no hi)
5/5 Children’s Day (こどもの日 Kodomo no hi)
or Boys’ Day (端午の節句 Tango no sekku)

This is a video of a Jumbo Carp Streamer called Koinobori in Kazo City, Saitama Prefecture. Koinobori is a symbol of Children’s Day. (I wanna go see this next year in person)

“3can4on” is NOT read, “three can four on”. It is actually read, “san-kan-shi-on”. Sankanshion is a seasonal weather phenomenon with an alternation of three cold days and four warm days from about February to April as winter changes over to spring. I could never remember how to say this until I saw the name of this store. At first I kept saying “three can four on”, then someone told me the correct reading of it, “san-kan-shi-on”. The name of this store makes it easy to remember, don’t you think?