A Couple of Things

Hey. First off sorry for the long break, but it was Obon. What is Obon, you might ask? Well, I'll tell you. Obon, or festival of the dead, was originally a Buddhist holiday dating back to the early Buddhist tradition in Japan. Usually it takes place during mid-August and is accompanied by a large number of varies Matsuris (festivals) and gatherings. In a modern city like Osaka, Obon is better known as the mid-summer break in which 70% of the workforce celebrates an unofficial national holiday and does nothing while all of us in the service industry continue to work. If I had an ichi yen coin for every time this week someone asked me if it was my holiday.. The answer by the way is no! Most eikawas (English conversation schools) are open on all national holidays, even though some of the bigger ones don't pay holiday rates, and cater to the holiday demographic.

The reason I didn't have a chance to blog was, well I got stuck doing a lot of things, blah, blah, blah, you know. Anyway, the Korean Picture Contest is still in effect. I think I wasn't very clear on the instructions. Choose which pictures are of Korea and enter them by the number, in a comment in the post. There is an equal number of Japanese and Korean pictures. The winner gets a guest post on this blog! Good Luck!

Wisdom of the Day: Take a job with good holiday benefits