Nothing Gold Can Stay

It’s true: most Japanese people work more than you do. They work every day of the week except for Sunday. They work from early in the morning until late at night. They work well into their lunch breaks in what essentially amounts to a daily staring contest with their co-workers. Overworked? Certainly. Masochistic? Perhaps. Yet, in all this toil, there is to be found a shining, golden beacon of light. In what could very well be the result of a Faustian pact, the Japanese people have somehow earned the right to enjoy spring break every single year.

Commonly called “Golden Week,” this series of four consecutive holidays during the last week of April and the first week of May allows workers of all stripes to enjoy a long holiday while using a minimum of paid vacation time. For example, utilizing the four Golden Week holidays, weekends and only four strategically placed vacation days, I was able to craft a massive 11-day holiday.

Now, as you might expect, Golden Week is also the busiest week for travel during the entire year. Hotels, flights and trains are solid booked months in advance, mysterious fees get tacked onto anything involving travel and tourist locales become a claustrophobic’s nightmare. Still, none of this was about to discourage me from grabbing Golden Week by the horns and organizing a massive journey. But to where?

Since I’ll be leaving Japan this summer, my initial plan was to do a tour of Japan’s east coast, visiting all of the major cities that I had yet to see. I found little interest in this plan at first and considered instead tacking myself onto a more exotic international jaunt. Thailand? Hong Kong? South Korea? While enticing, these plans eventually fizzled out and in the end, a coalition of the willing was assembled, a trek along Japan’s east coast plotted and an incredible journey born, replete with catchy name. Enter Gweek!

Before venturing any further, let’s meet the members of team Gweek, shall we?

Let's see, there's Greg "Foam Dome" Moore,

Megan "The Quiet One" Iguchi,

Matt "The Red Ranger" Cosnett,

Antonise "Prances With Deer" Golabek,

and, of course, your humble narrator.

Then there was the unofficial sixth Gweek member, that guy who none of us wanted to be seen with in public for fear of looking too pedestrian: the Lonely Planet guide to Japan.
On the topic of being concerned about how cool we looked, it was decided that five foreigners of various shapes and sizes traveling together through Japan just wouldn’t look strange enough to the locals. Thus was the Gweek team uniform born! A yellow shirt onto which various patches signifying rank, skills and preferred cute character were attached. In addition to looking awesome, the shirts helped us identify each other in crowds using the same technology employed by elementary school field trip leaders the world over.

So kick back and relax, crack open a beer or ten and get in the Gweek spirit! We’ve got a long and disorienting journey ahead of us.