Golden Week in Japan in a collection of 4 national holidays within one week. It includes Showa Day (former Emperor Showa's birthday), Constitution Day, Greenery Day (similar to earth day), and Children's Day.
Though not necessarily a part of golden week, on April 28, I went to Ryogoku. While there they had the Ryogoku Nigiwai Festival. Ryogoku is known to be a sumo town. They had performances of taiko and hula. Additionally there were many stalls of food that you could try.
(left) Sumo wrestlers serving chanko-nabe
(right) a taiko performance at the festival
Sophia University didn't give us the whole week off, instead they gave us Friday and Monday off! A couple of friends and I planned an overnight trip to Yokohama from Thursday to Friday. Once getting there we headed to Chinatown. The food was delicious and there were so many different stalls you could go to get food. I got a variety of dishes like a huge fried chicken, tanghulu, dumplings, boba, and xiao long bao.
(left) Custard hedgehog dumpling and duck roll
(right) the capsule I stayed in!
We also stayed the night in a capsule hotel! This has been on my bucket-list for a long time, so I was glad I was able to finally stay there! The capsule hotel was very nice and clean to my surprise and delight! everyone had to be very quiet while in the room with all the capsules. Our capsule also didn't have a door! There was only a single blind, so you could hear everything and everyone around you if they weren't quiet. Overall the experience was really cool and I would go again!
The next day we went to the ramen museum in Yokohama. It was so cool and was my favorite part of the trip! There were a bunch of famous ramen shops that you could eat at. We ended up eating at the Ryukyu Shinmen Tondou. In 2021 they had their 20th anniversary, and they had a ramen there to celebrate (I got this one). It was so delicious, the broth was a salt base, which is unlike any other ramen I've tried before. The museum was modeled to look like an old Japanese town, and the "sky" was a beautiful mix of many different colors.
After the ramen museum we headed to Yokohama Hakkejima Sea Paradise. It's one of Japan's biggest theme parks! There were many activities to see there including, a dolphin exhibit, aquarium, fishing for your own food, and many others! We got to see one of the shows with beluga whales, which was so interesting. At one point the beluga whales raised their trainers into the air! We got the late day pass, and stayed there from 4pm to closing. After this packed day we were all very tired, and headed back to our dorm. I had so much fun, and was able to get to know my friends from my dorm better! I'm looking forward to making more memories here in Japan!
