I’m leaving Japan!

…for a few days….

Last Friday, my company asked me if I would take a few days off this week, because they didn’t have enough work for me. On the one hand, I was glad to have the time off. On the other hand, I was a bit annoyed that they waited until the last minute to let me know.

They say Japan is a group-oriented society. Well, that is a rather trite “truism,” and one that really doesn’t offer much in the way of deep or meaningful understanding of another country. But, when it comes to breaks, they do seem to all group them together.

It is amazing how many people take a lunch break at the same time: 12pm. Wouldn’t it be more efficient to stagger your lunches? After all, most of the restaurants and convenience stores where everyone converges simultaneously are too small to handle so many people!

And vacations seem to follow the same basic pattern. Everyone takes the same three weeks off every year (New Years, Golden Week in spring, and August). So the prices are higher, everything is crowded, and most people just try to escape to another country for a week. Indeed, traveling to another country is almost always cheaper!

At any rate, I wish I could have had more notice, so I could have planned a vacation of some kind. But in a completely spontaneous and last-minute moment of inspiration, I walked into a travel agency and bought a plane ticket for Hong Kong. I will leave for Hong Kong later today (Wednesday, 8/16), and return to Tokyo on Saturday, 8/19.