golden week

It's Golden Week in Japan. A major holiday, although there are still many, many people working. Including Brian.

We did have a relatively work-free weekend, however. Brian went in for part of the day on Saturday. On Sunday we visited Mt. Fuji aka Fuji-san thanks to a good host, Khing-san. Proto Labs U.S. employees Erick and Mark are here right now, so the six of us made the journey to the mountain / mountains. We left the hotel around 8 a.m. and returned at 8 p.m. A few hours could have been shaved off had there been less traffic, but that's the way it goes around here. I didn't really care as I was too busy enjoying the comfortable combination of English conversation, sightseeing, and Khing-san's knowledge of Japanese!

I know that I've been pretty tightly wound these past couple of weeks. There have been only two instances where I have laughed uncontrollably in Japan. The first time involved laughing at the computer, at a comment my sister made about the scoring in a word game. The second time was in the car on the way home last night. I don't even remember what started it. Maybe it was the constant joking about love hotels? All I know was that it felt great. And laughing more would be good.

At the hotel there have been signs about Golden Week dining deals: "Golden Week Family Viking". Being a Nordic soul myself, I was really confused as to the whole viking thing showing up in Japan. Khing-san explained that it means all you can eat. Eating as the vikings do? I totally get it now!