another long weekend!

Oh Japan. While there are some days I can't stand the sight of any more sushi, and get annoyed with the seemingly-hardworking ethic (emphasis on the seem part), one thing I will always appreciate about your culture is the amount of public holidays.

While I do come from a country where a horseracing and gambling warrant a long weekend in November, it can't really compete much with Japan, which has  Vernal Equinox, Greenery Day (May 4),  Marine Day (3rd Monday of July),  Respect-for-the-Aged Day (3rd Monday of September),  Autumnal Equinox,  Culture Day (November 3rd) and Sports Day (3rd Monday of October), to name just some of them.


So, not wanting to waste a long weekend at home, we ended up visiting a couple festivals before heading up to Northern Gifu and visiting a friend's part of town.  While I've been there a few times before, it's always good to see, especially since it's a village, and feels very villagey, as opposed to my city, which very much feels just like a shopping centre surrounded by rice paddies. While I do have shopping, and the pleasant smell of burning off rice paddies every now and then,  my friend's village seems to be more of a cohesive community, where everyone is related, friendly, and everybody knows your name. I guess it's the one of the perks of living in such a remote area of the sticks I guess.  I'm sure if I was placed there instead of my area, I'd be complaining about being isolated and wishing I had a coffee place within walking distance, so I should remain content just getting to visit that area every now and then.

The weekend turned out to be awesome as well for another reason - actually, the reason that makes me so motivated to travel in the first place - marimokkori! Even more to add to my collection! I finally got the one for my area, Gifu city. Weirdly enough, it's not for sale in Gifu city itself, but in the northern area of Takayama, which is a couple hours away, which seems stupid, but nonetheless, Yay!

 

Comorant (Gifu) 

Sarubobo (Hida)

sleep and food

I always wondered what the preoccupation was with the preoccupation with sleep Japanese people I'd met seemed to have. Granted, I hadn't met many, but I always wondered how on earth everyone seemed to sleep on public transport, and how students slept in class. And how every single student I'd ask "How are you?" to would always reply with "I'm sleepy", "I'm tired" or a combination of the two.  Was it the lack of sleep the students had each night due to studying til the wee hours of the morning? Were the teachers equally buggered from the ridiculous workload they had here, normally working til 8:30 or later at night, that made them sleep deprived too?

And even though I'm getting enough sleep (with the occasional late night watching Heroes or The Amazing Race) I've succumbed to this sleeping thing to. Every day at around 2:30 pm, I feel my eyes get too heavy to keep open, my head slowly slumping down, before I quickly jolt back up once I become aware that I'm about to fall asleep, only to feel my eyes get heavier and my head sinking down. What the hell's happening to me!?!?

After much time pondering, I'm wondering if this sleep thing is like a part of the culture. I've seen heaps of teachers with their heads slumped at their desks, napping, or blatantly sleeping every now and then, especially after work. Which, you'd normally think would be a no go thing, you know, being slack at work to the point of napping and being completely unproductive. But apparently, as long as you're at the bottom or top of the work chain, it's actually deemed okay. Rather than seeming so lazy and unproductive that you're sleeping during work,  it's thought of a good thing, where you've worked hard that now, despite your best efforts, you can't help BUT fall asleep.

I also have a feeling my school lunch is contributing too. There's this thing called kyushoku here for lunch at schools, which means, rather than bringing your own lunch every day, a (Japanese) nutritionally balanced meal is served at school. Every lunch time, students from each class carry the huge containers of food to the classroom, where they dish out their lunch themselves. Lunch usually consists of rice (although, it's noodles on Tuesdays, and bread on Thursdays), soup, salad/vegetable thing, something fried, and milk.

Though, unfortunately, it's not just any milk. It's milk with 3.6% milk fat milk. Which may not seem like much, but seems way creamier and thicker than normally milk back home, and I swear, by some standards, it'd be considered to be a form of light cream or buttermilk or something.  But anyway, I swear this milk, especially when it's been sitting out for at least half an hour or so before eating, must be the culprit behind everyone being so sleepy. If it doesn't make you feel bloated and full by the end of lunch,  I'm sure the fact that it's probably been sitting out for longer than half an hour on most days mean it's filled with things that make you sleep.

Speaking of Kyushoku, just thought I'd share this video of Kyushoku time at one of my preschools. Apparently, everything that can be turned into a song, with this one combining the rules for eating Kyushoku, and saying "Itadakimasu", which is essentially the Japanese equivalent to saying grace before a meal.