Golden Week holidays might be an unique system in Japan. It's a holiday-studded week or a week with a string of holidays. In this year, it starts from Apr 29th and ends on May 7th except for May 1st and 2nd on calendar basis. In my case, I'm taking nine consecutive days off with strong will. Do you envy me? Yey! But, what I'm going to do is just adding two days off -- May 1st and 2nd, with using paid holiday. Yesterday, I had achance to talk about Golden week with a native english speaker and a few Japanese. The Japanese told that they would work on even the problematic days off. Besides, they exclaimed that they HAVE TO WORK or HAVE TO BE in their offices as if working is virtue and taking holidays is vice. It's weird to me. I hate such a "have to" notion or obligation as is often the case for Japanese. I dislike that the perspective -- No rest for the wicked, is virtue. Of course, the individual situation/case would not compromise. It might be difficult for them to take holidays. But they have paid holidays and are entitled to use them. Whether they take a holiday or not is up to their volitions. I strongly recommend that they bear in mind one proverb -- Hard work and no play make Jack a dull boy.

This morning, I met one eye disabled lady on my way to the office.When I got off the train, I noticed her walking with a white stick. She was engulfed by a wave of commuter crowd. She could narrowly walk along with the wave. But she didn't know the queuing at the ticket gate.So I assisted her to stop for a while until her turn came. After we passed the gate, she expressed her thanks to me. I was worry about another difficulty for her. I followed her without saying. She found thestair and walk up the stair on her own. When I saw her taking walkman or iPod from her bag, I thought excessive help is not necessary for her. She might be more independent than I expected.

I'm very tickled to pink to know that there is one guy who has an avant-garde idea and realize it. One enterprising young guy -- William Christophers, he sells Takoyaki(Japanese octopus dumpling) in the UK. I'd like to send hearty cheers to him. http://www.willyaki.co.uk/index.htm
Why do I have a particular fondness of him? To tell you the truth, I had a completely same idea with him. About 9 years ago, I came up with this idea. When I visited the US and the UK on business trip, I noticed one thing. There are tons of Japanese food restaurants there. But I've never seen Takoyaki. They serve Sushi or Tempura. However they don't serve Takoyaki. I thought it might become a good bussiness. Renting tenant is a little bit risky. So I thought Yatai(food stall) type would be suitable. Besides, it's easy to move. It must be a huge advantage, I believe. Mr. Christophers actually runs the business with stall. He knows a good thing when he sees it. And he named Takoyaki "Willyaki". Probably, "Willyaki" comes from his first name -- William. I wanted to name Takoyaki "Takayaki" as same manner. Taka as in Takayaki comes from my first name -- Takahide. I used to express this idea to my friends and acquaintances. Some said it's cool idea. Others vilified me. Now, I'm very pleased to know Mr. Christophers realized the idea in stead of me. I'd like to express great sympathy from the bottom of my heart. I hope for his continued success on his challenge.

These days, I'm interested in responding to some questions people studying Japanese have. There are some web pages providing free learning services to people who wish to study the Japanese language. For example, Japanese-online.comhttp://www.japanese-online.com/forum/ Bunch of questions are posted everyday and answered by native Japanese. It's very good for me to know other's way to respond or answer questions. I'm impressed by various perspectives each Japanese has. I'll keep posting anonymously. I won't use my name -- Taka(^^) Guess which messageI post.

A couple days ago, I went to Niigata prefecture -- North Japan, to offer my last respect to grand farther-in-law at a funeral service. A lot of people made a call to express their condolences. I notice one thing. The bereaved were busy like bee to serve them food, drink and so on. This kind of situation lasts for a few days. After this period, they leave the bereaved, then only sorrow is left to the bereaved. The more people pay their respect, the more the bereaved feel emptiness.