Japan, much like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has many long weekends programmed into its calendar, allowing stress to subside and giving everyone a chance to do traveling, relaxing, or additional boozing that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to do. This upcoming Monday is Culture Day (see Japan Navigator for further details), so there will be no post here. I’ve taken off the last few Monday holidays, so I thought I’d just let you know that I’m not mailing them in – they are actual holidays. And everyone knows I only mail-in the Friday posts.

The word for long vacation in Japanese is easy to remember – 連休 (れんきゅう) means “consecutive holiday/break.” It is most commonly used by itself or with a 3 in front of it – 三連休 (さんれんきゅう) – but I do remember that morning news announcers get excited when the stars align and Golden Week delivers a 4 or 5-day 連休.

Enjoy your day off.