Smackyglamour

It's finally Golden Week, the mega public holiday that lasts for ages. Technically it started yesterday, but this being Japan, where everyone keeps the rules, nobody bunked off school today as it was not technically a holiday and thus we had three tests.

Bank holiday weekend plans mostly involve sleeping but will also, assuming we manage to get ferry tickets, involve an overnight trip to Niijima, an island south of Tokyo which has nice scenery, a faux-Grecian onsen hot spring and other assorted delights. There are three options for getting there: flying in a very small plane, which costs rather more than I want to spend; the overnight ferry, which takes nine hours and does not come with anywhere assigned to sleep unless you pay lots extra, meaning you sleep on the deck; and the jetfoil boat, which costs a bit more than the ferry but takes under three hours. I will be going for option 3, unsurprisingly for those of you who have travelled with me before.

I saw someone carrying a bag today that looked like it contained boutique-style clothes. Entertainingly, the name of the shop was 'Smackyglam' - is that a lowbrow version of heroin chic, I wondered? The internet tells me that not only is it a well-known brand in Japan, but Mischa Barton has modelled for them, thus making herself an icon of Smackyglamour. What a distinction to have!

I have also taken tentative steps towards turning a (semi) new leaf with regard to learning Japanese - I hope the start of May will be marked by a slightly more focused and rounded effort at learning the bloody language... anyway, I looked at my new exam prep kanji book, and almost got excited by the title of weeks 1 and 2, 'Going Out'. 'That will be relevant, for once', I told myself. My sense of eager anticipation fizzled abruptly out when I opened Day 1, and discovered it was about car parks. Gutted.