Today marks the beginning of “Silver Week,” a rare but welcome occurrence in Japan. Monday is a holiday, Respect for the Aged Day. Wednesday is also a holiday, the Autumnal Equinox. By Japanese law, if there is only one non-holiday day between two national holidays, then that day becomes a holiday as well, called kokumin no kyūjitsu or “citizens’ holiday.” (Just for the record, if a holiday falls on a weekend, then the next non-holiday weekday becomes a kokumin no kyūjitsu so that they don’t get gypped of a day off work.) Sweet—I like the way they think! So, counting this weekend, the Japanese have five consecutive days off from work, hence the “week” part of the Silver Week nomenclature. The “silver” part comes from the fact that this holiday period is slightly inferior to the Golden Week period of late April/early May (usually seven to ten days off, depending how the holidays fall within the week, and the company’s policies about shutting down on the two non-holidays within the period). Silver Week won’t occur again until 2015—next year Respect for the Aged Day falls on Monday, but the Autumnal Equinox isn’t until Thursday, so there will be no kokumin no kyūjitsu.
What does Silver Week mean for me? Just like Golden Week, it means don’t try to go anywhere by car. The highways will be jammed with people taking advantage of not only the time off, but also the reduced toll rates in effect on national holidays. Don’t try to visit any popular sightseeing spots, including, but not limited to, shopping malls, onsen, Tokyo DisneyLand, and the countryside. It is, however, a good time to visit downtown Tokyo, as all of the city folks have made a mass exodus and there won’t be a suffocating crush of humanity on the trains or subways. It also means a better than average chance of seeing Mt. Fuji, since the humid haze of summer and the normal workday smog of Tokyo should both be dissipating.
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