Tranquil time out

Coming from Britain, where the full compass of weather conditions can sometimes be experienced in a single day, the Japanese fondness of informing foreigners that Japan has four seasons seems a little lame to say the least.

Yet that said, as winter gradually winds it way along the archipelago, autumn’s arresting colours will be sadly missed.

For a little while at least.

According to the ancient Japanese proverb, a bike in the shed is worth two in the bush.

Or is it the other way around?

Football (or even soccer) may well boast a rapidly growing fan base among Japan’s younger generation, but for the salary man who likes a spot of sport on a Sunday afternoon, it’s still baseball that’s the big draw.

For now.

The Japanese penchant for sleeping in public has been well documented, with public transport-related places being especially popular. Yet rather than just a reaction to long commutes or excessive alcohol consumption, these not so private naps are seemingly a daily need that simply can’t be denied.

This particular man’s fortitude unfortunately failed at the final hurdle, as he finally caved in and fell asleep only a few feet away from the relative comfort and quietness of the riverbank.

A teeming mishmash of the traditional and modern — Japan in just one shot?

Perhaps.

Or perhaps not.

In a first for Tokyo Times, this idyllic interlude is actually topical, with it currently being Golden Week in Japan; a collection of national holidays crammed together to give the nation’s soldiering salary men a reasonably lengthy rest. But this being Japan, the days off definitely don’t work like dog years. Quite the opposite in fact, as the week-long holiday is actually only 3 weekdays – Tuesday and Wednesday having rather ridiculously been reverted to regular working days.

However regardless of the method behind such madness, tomorrow is Boys’ Day, which is designed to celebrate the health and well being of young males, with many people honouring the event by hanging out a few Koinobori like the ones below.

Instead of just sticking to a few though, some people in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, have far more fluttering in the breeze.

A Whopping 1,200 in fact, the majority of them apparently donated by people who perhaps due to a lack of space couldn’t otherwise display them.

Which would suggest that apartment balconies are lacking in space almost as much as salary men are in regards to successive days off.