Golden Week in Oki

This week is Golden Week in Japan. The week where our little island gets even more over-populated with mainlanders (it is one of the 3 busiest holidays in Japan, next to Obon and New Years). Golden Week is comprised of 4 different Japanese holidays within 7 days. It kicks off on 29 April (birthday of former Emperor Showa), **insert well-placed weekend**, then 3 May is Constitution Day (on this day in 1947, the new post war constitution was put into effect), followed by 4 May which is Greenery Day (Until 2006, this day was celebrated on 29 April - this day celebrates the environment and nature), and finally, 5 May is Cinco de Mayo ... oh wait, oops - that is what Michael and I celebrate so we can have tacos with chips and salsa for dinner ... but the Japanese have Children's Day on 5 May (the "Boy's Festival" is celebrated and families pray for the health and future successes of their sons. They celebrate by hanging carp streamers and displaying samurai dolls, which both symbolize strength, power and success in life. The "Girl's Festival is celebrated on March 3.)

Soooo ... there are carp streamers everywhere on Oki! We went and ate some delicious pancakes at Jakkepoes with friends in the morning, and then we set off to find the mass conglomeration of carp streamers.

SUCCESS!

This area is right off the road I take to work every morning:
Michael next to the streamers:

We saw these hidden stairs while walking back to the car:
Afterwards, we went up to the little secluded spot that we found on our FIRST exploratory outing on Okinawa - back in 2007! We were happy to have gotten back there before we PCS'ed back to the states:

Michael trying to pretend like he wasn't checking his crackberry ... busted!
then ... the highlight of the day ... we went to my bakery! I was told by co-workers that they have the best creme puffs in JAPAN - not just Oki, but the entire nation. Michael and I are suckers for some creme puffs ... we were NOT disappointed! Best. Creme puffs. Ever.
... oh yeah - Piglet stole the pillow from Baileycat :P