Interlude: Golden Week / 間章 ゴールデンウィーク

Time passed by and soon we were one night away from the fabled Golden Week. This year’s was exceptionally long, spanning ten consecutive days. Ten days without any classes. Also known as heaven on Earth for slackers like me. Not that I considered myself to be one. To be precise, rating it on a scale from slacker to hardworking, I’d say I stood somewhere between the middle point and slacker, closer to the former than to the latter. However, if one were to dumb down such a vast scale to either slacker or hardworking, then I guess the correct choice would indeed be to label me as a slacker, as I belonged to that half.

And, before any of us could even make the most out of it, Golden Week vanished just as quickly as it appeared.

On this blessed year, a new Emperor ascended to the Chrysanthemum Throne, creating a one-time national holiday and, consequently, two additional ones adjacent to it on April thirtieth and May second, as April twenty-ninth and May third were already holidays. Hence, this year’s iteration of the beloved Golden Week lasted from April twenty-seventh to May sixth. Wonderfully magnificent.

During those ten days, all five of us went out multiple times together, enjoying the various holidays that shaped that “week”—a one-off, unique, as of this year, Platinum Week. On those occasions, I took advantage of the opportunity to show Natsuko the best places in the city, while also forcing my friends to tag along.

Ohori Park. That was the first place we chose to show her.

On that morning, the sky was devoid of any clouds with a distant sun watching over us. Given the favorable weather, we ended up walking around the place for longer than we initially wanted, crossing the different stone bridges that connected the three small islands within the pond multiple times. We also visited the city’s very own Art Museum and the park’s Japanese Garden, which were very close by.

After a few days of underwhelming forecast, we decided to go out again, in spite of the still prevalent rain. We chose Kyushu’s largest underground mall, a prime candidate for sightseeing—if you can even call it that—on these days full of water droplets precipitation.

Tenjin Underground Shopping Mall. Twelve European-inspired corridors brimming with different breeds of stores and restaurants.

On Greenery Day, we picked the only possible destination for such a day as that one. I left the best for last. And that was none other than Uminonakamichi Seaside Park. There was no better place in all of Fukuoka where one could enjoy Nature’s fascinating beauty. Vast playgrounds and sports fields, stunning flower gardens, and even a zoo. Several squared kilometers of pure lush green freedom.

Since we went there, we decided to end the day with our visit to the peninsula’s aquarium—Marine World Uminonakamichi.

We all enjoyed ourselves during these times, especially Natsuko, who was discovering new places every day. With those fun days over, we resumed our first term.