Golden Week starts in Japan today. Golden week is a succession of 4 completely arbitrary (like greenery day) national holidays mostly in a row.
Today is the past Emperor’s birthday (or optionally showa day, or greenery day), which means a national holiday, which means everyone will take a holiday tomorrow; which combined with the weekend to get 7 days off from today to do whatever they wish.
What will I be doing? Studying and working probably. I’m so boring.
I could take a walk around my neighborhood if the 桜 cherry blossoms still looked like this. However, the cruel irony of nature is… when the weather is finally nice enough to go look at cherry blossoms, they don’t look like this anymore.
But sake companies will still take the opportunity to make money 
Going to see some flowers? Crappy weather? Don’t worry you can still enjoy yourself if you drink this while doing it!
Also, if you take a closer look, you’ll notice that the cherry blossoms are mostly white, not pink. Lots of people (especially foreigners) mistake 梅 or plum tree flowers, which are very purple-ish-pink for cherry blossoms.
I could be eating luxurious or healthy food… but come on, Beef Stew bread? How could I not try that?
Uh oh, I transitioned to food… that means lots of pics of food. I know you love that. This is the best burger in the world. Called Kua’aina burger. Popular only in Hawaii and Tokyo and nowhere else. If you have the chance, don’t hesitate. And get it with a pineapple.
Then counter-balance it with something healthy like a radish salad. Can you guess the ingredients?
This may look like a bowl of snot to you, but it is actually filled with 鮹ワサ or Takowasa, or octopus and wasabi and some other gunky stuff. It’s a bit spicy, but a really tasty snack.
In fact, there are all sorts of snacks based off of octopus, squid, and all sorts of sea creatures that have been dried up, beef-jerky style. You’ll never find a better complement to beer (except possibly peanuts, peanuts are great). Speaking of beer…
These mini Asahi cans were too cute to miss. Also too cute to drink. Either way, they were cute.
And then enjoy a Strawberry Ice Cream Crepe for dessert (unless you’re like my dad, who doesn’t like strawberries. Which, really?! Who doesn’t like strawberries? That’s still totally odd to me, after all these years…)
What am I doing blogging? I should be out enjoying my short vacation! So I’ll leave you with this to ponder:
This is possibly the saddest book title I have ever seen. 「夢の捨て方」which pretty much translates to: How to throw away/get rid of your dreams.
I’m not sure I need a book for that.
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Mmmmm. Beef Stew bread… That’s one I never saw coming. The crepe looks fantastic though, and it’s the first time I’ve seen one you could hold in your hands like a burrito. I always enjoy reading your food adventures in Japan (but I’m a Food Network junkie anyway).
As for the book, do you think the publisher really expects to make money from it?
Hi John! I want another crepe now…
As for the book, it seems to be a pretty big seller. :/
It’s a cultural thing in Japan. From what I understand, they tend to tell everyone to drop their dreams after a certain age/period and focus on just living a normal life, which will make them much happier. It’s actually a bit logical (you’d have a lot less un-productive, unhappy people in California), but kinda disheartening compared to how westerners are always being told to *never* let go of their dreams.