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THE ECONOMICS OF PARADISE

Forgot to mention that this is the time of Japan's year when several holidays fall near each other to make so-called Golden Week, one of the big holiday seasons when everyone (except vacation service workers who are happy on overtime) traditionally takes a chunk of time off and the salarymen and their families go on vacation everywhere, often to Hawaii, the US mainland, Europe, Okinawa, Southeast Asia etc., but this year due to Japan's economic situation and the world situation it's more like Iron Pyrite Week or maybe Leaden Week, they're not even going on vacation locally very much. Indeed, some folks I know are even working today, on the emperor's birthday (I get the day off too, even though I don't have an emperor), when back in the good old 24kt Golden Week they'd take 5 days off in a row and figuratively light their figurative cigars with figurative 1000 yen bills and the vacation traffic would choke up the highways, the beaches would be jammed and the restaurants, hotels, airports, resorts and shopping streets would be as crowded as the jet ski areas on the Lake but now it's all very quiet, I can hear only one fading cigarette boat out there and no jet skis at all, it's almost like before there were motors. Funny how a slow economy seems closer to paradise.