Japan Silver Week

Yesterday was the start of 5 consecutive days of public holiday for folks in Japan. The 5 days have been labeled "Silver Week" - the name derived from "Golden Week" which are another bunch of consecutive holidays in the middle of the year. We wont get a Silver Week until 2015 - due to a public holiday falling on a weekend.
Whenever there is a public holiday, we try to avoid going out as most of the time would be spent waiting in queues of people or cars - as you can see from the video below.
This photo was taken at Mc Dees where they are selling value meals for 390 yen for the duration of Silver Week.
When I lived in the US for a short while, I was shocked at the amount of public holidays that they didn't have while we get quite a few dotted throughout the year.
Do you have a decent amount of public holidays in your kingdom?
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procrastinator
I can probably count the number of public holidays on one hand. >.<
Yeah but we get to have a two days weekend. Though more holidays wouldn't hurt.
Dirty Gentleman
http://cantstanzya.wordpress.com/
We have on average one day a month that's a holiday, and a couple of months where there is none at all. Instead, people tend to just call in sick...
What's 'M power'? *points at poster*
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
The next giveaway question?
Full-time geek/Part-time student/Part-time musician
http://randomgeekness.livejournal.com/
I guess it's McDonald's power or something and it's a special hour with a special event or something LOL.
university film student | ecchikid | the Archivist
http://www.vimeo.com/longhim
Dolphin power.
...okay, that's it, I'm staying away from you guys for a bit.
Dirty Gentleman
http://cantstanzya.wordpress.com/
Are you the chicken, or the egg?
Multimedia Technology Student
http://thehappyninjadrawn.wordpress.com
Most of our public holidays occur during the first half of the year, towards the end of the year there are less public holidays.
Office admin/Sales Rep
Queensland has no public holidays after June - untill X-Mas. Wish they were spread out a bit more...
Exploring worlds and ways of thought
I was about to shake an angry fist at google but wikipedia saves the day. So that's what Silver Week is about...
And lots of people not going to be working?
student
http://zephi-san.deviantart.com/
Most of our public holidays are on either side of the weekends.
Easter and Christmas is when we have 4 days a week (Fri-Mon).
Time Traveller/High School Student
http://thetsundere.wordpress.com/
Yeah...we actually get quite a few, let's see -
Australia Day 26th Jan
Good Friday in April
Easter Monday in April
Queens Birthday 8th June
Then Christmas...
and probably a few other's which I've forgotten. ^^
There's also the school holidays for me =D 15 weeks total in 1 year.
Student
http://www.dealbreaker.com
Is that heavy congestion by Japanese standards or were they talking about something else?
Physics Student
http://ohayoufromohio.blogspot.com
I'm never sure about holidays. I'm a home-care nurse so I work whether it's a holiday or not.
IT student, jedi, geek
There's a lot of holydays over here, some of them are more like excuses for not doing anything a few days (I mean anything productive).
Only 1 every month.
Otari Vader, Sith Lord for Hire, will fillet Makoto Itou for free
http://coffeebugg.blogspot.com/
Good lord.. Traffic backed up by 30km!.. that's nuts.. then again.. local rush traffic isn't any better here.
As for public holidays, we've got a few. a couple of them last for a week or so. I'm surprised how we get anything done here with the number of days we have off.
representative and graphic artist
we can even adjust the holidays so that we will have long weekends^^,
browsing the nets
http://otakuposts.blogspot.com/
too many holidays here. i think just june and july dont have any holidays here. rest of the months have atleast two days holiday since my country has a lot of religions in it.
???Confused???
Wish there were more holidays...most of them are scattered or most of them are like during then beginning and end of the year...
三年せいとオタク
Wish we had more holidays here in the U.S preferably ones where I can the day off from school. ^^
It's always nice to see advertisements from other countries. The creativeness of this one is quite refreshing compared to the McD ads here in the US.
I don't think there are any 5 day weekends here in the US. The longest is 4 days i think...
Student
We could all do with a few more public holidays I reckon.
studying comp studies, planning to look for part time job
http://bruneian-otaku.blogspot.com
err too many holiday here including public holiday TwT
Mechanical Engineering student
http://sabekujikaneda.multiply.com/
Here in the Philippines, there's at least one holiday every month. There are even holidays that last a week! :D
~Undine~
http://bluebluewave.wordpress.com
We get several public holidays here so we can't really complain about their amount. Alas as we cover different countries at work of which not all public holidays match, we often have to work during a public holiday here to service one of those other countries that doesn't have a holiday day off.
That's some long congested traffic but nothing really impressive, it's like that here every single day of the workweek you know. During peek hours it takes me over 45 minutes to travel 12 miles to work due to traffic. ^^;;
Student, Otaku, She-Geek(Sheek lol)
http://meimi132.wordpress.com/
Same here in the UK, bank holiday monday or bank holiday weekend and you dont wanna try and get out for all the holiday makers and just general people...
Teacher of English
http://www.freewebs.com/superrobots/
In the past we had much more holidays in Malta. Besides, whenever a public holiday happened on a weekend we were given another day during the week to compensate for it. Life was quite happy in sunny Malta. But a mediocre person was put in power and the situation here became very sad and gloomy as we lost 10 holidays. As usual in Malta everyone complained and grumbled but no one protested in the streets. And so the mediocre ideas of one person became law! :o(
Student
http://k625.blogspot.com/
All of the holidays are scattered throughout the year. None of them are more than a day long though. 7 Public holidays I can think of off the bat. xD
IT-Architect, SysAdmin, WebDesign and Coding, Virtualization (VMware + NetApp)
http://www.milkdrop.de/
We have a load of holidays...
Though the jams in this video don't even scare me a bit... the cars at least move!
The traffic jam i am in everrry morning doesn't move most of the time due a traffic signal making the cars stop all the time and i am stuck in that for 15-20 minutes.
Usualy i could be at work in 30 minutes but all the traffic jams make the drive 50-60mins, every day.
It's still faster then going by train though...
When going home past 4pm the traffic jam can make me take 1,5h for it... so 1h traffic jam, this is still faster then train too... 2h by train usualy, if i miss one 3h.
On those holidays most of the shops here are closed though. Amusement parks, zoos and such have open though and those are frequently used then.
Student
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dramacd/
I wish I had more plans for Silver Week...
Student
While working ofc it depends on where you are working, but I think only major one is christmas vacation and for summer you have to save your holiday days which becomes like two weeks or something. While in school we have summer, christmas, spring and fall holidays + some 1 day things.
(almost) latin teacher, viking-in-training
http://suexcelencia.wordpress.com
"If it can be holiday, it must be holiday" that's the motto here. Think we have around a month and a half of do-nothing-just-play-with-your-golden-balls, of course, not counting regional festivities (with only a limited action range, but still holidays ^w^). One nice legacy of being a super-christian country.
http://moemoekyun.wordpress.com
when the next holiday here anyway ? >_<
Game Developer Student
http://www.wolferey.net/
Not really sure how many we have, but we have quite a few in Norway.. like autumn holiday coming up at the beginning of rocktober now ;o)
I'm also taking a holiday myself tomorrow, gonna be so awesome traveling to tokyo and staying there for two weeks xD Would be cool to meet up with you Danny.. I'm probably gonna be wondering if every stormtrooper I see at Tokyo Game Show is you ;p
Student
http://cream77.deviantart.com/
Theres probably one holiday we get off of work/School a month.Thanksgiving we get a week off where I live.2-3 weeks for x-mas and new year.And Spring break is a week and Easter is the whole week end.Though this year spring break and Easter fall on each other.
Student
well its good to be out during public holiday cause u know the joy of festival? Just like all other cosplay/anime/games/etc festival~~
NEET part-time - Technical Support Officer - Network security engineer
http://burugureibi.blogspot.com/
i hate travelling out for 'long weekends' - traffic left, traffic right, traffic front, traffic back
only thing to keep me sane is music - all OSTS and OP/ED singles....^^;
Meteorologist
seems odd that Silver week ends in the middle of the week
university film student | ecchikid | the Archivist
http://www.vimeo.com/longhim
I think it's really just a matter of a public holiday falling on a long weekend - in other words, a 5 day weekend. The Japanese just decided to dub it a special name, what with their penchant for naming everything. Here in Canada it isn't all that uncommon and wouldn't be treated as anything but a long weekend anyway. ^^;
animetard and a writer
http://kluxorious.blogspot.com/
Oh we have plenty of public holidays in Malaysia. It's awesome.
Upcoming College Student and Otaku
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/Patches418?ref=profile
In the USA,ays that we really don't have week long holidays FOR working adults. Sure, you might get off of school for a week of two for winter/Christmas time, and a week for around Easter time, but that's about it. The main holidays that ALMOST everyone is off are Christmas, Easter, New Years Day, and Thanksgiving. However, if you work at a hospital(my motheir does ^^), then you don't work some holidyas but have to work the other ones. Basically, in the USA, if you don't have a government job or a state run job, you won't get a week off from work unless you take a vacation or are laid off >_<
Editor
http://cavalock.blogspot.com/
There is never enough public holidays! end of decision! ;)
Dental Technician, i make teeth!
http://antsizedman.blogspot.com/
Damn straight, in the UK most holiday seem to be in the colder months which is nuts.
Student, Uncle & hopfully a good husband..
Wow...sliver week...the first time i heard it...the amount of holidays in a row there is astounding...
Graphic Designer
We have lots of holidays, but I want MORE! It's never enough. This week we have 4 consecutive days of holiday from 19th Sept to 22nd Sept. Back to work on the 23rd. Enjoy the long holiday! :)
Comic Shop Owner
no holidays for me except the big ones. which is to say... the big. ONE?
Freelance Artist
http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=342435
Working as a full time artist from home you get no holidays l3 ... or make your own <<
College Student, Computer Science Major
http://www.projectsaber.com
I could use a holiday right about now...
Student or something like that
http://myanimelist.net/profile/tiberis1221
LOL
No McPower for 5 day's!!!!
ROFL
Nice, I'd like to see what would be of mexico with just as little vacation time as Nippon. ^^
Network Admin & Programmer
http://sorvai.blogspot.com
Most companies in the U.S. offer 6 base holidays to their employees.
New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day
From that base things vary widely from company to company. Other common days can include:
President's Day, Good Friday, Columbus Day, Friday after Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, and others.
NEET
http://tangerinetango.wordpress.com/
Other than the regular holidays, the current president of our country LOVES declaring holidays (especially if the holiday is actually on a weekend, then there'd be no school/work on Friday/Monday). Before, I liked that system, but now, it's just too much imo.
Artistic Freak Photographer ^^;
Same here... one or two holidays makes them feel like they did something "important" to remember in future governments...
Japanese Language Student
http://bamola.wordpress.com/
I miss Golden Week and now I want Silver Week. The US needs more holidays...tired of work work work and barely any rest.
Pseudo-Graphic Designer, 触手 wrangler, H-Man
http://lightningsabre.blogspot.com/
Wish we had something more than just 3 day weekends... oh then again I don't get the long weekends off anyway! I do get two weeks off for Christmas and New Year though ^.^
Student
http://johndiew0107.wordpress.com/
We have loads of holidays in Malaysia because it is a multi-races society
Student
I was surprised when I lived in the US at how many Holidays they had! Here there are very few, but i guess for that we get longer breaks! Do I hear Ski break?!! (^_^)
Student
actually, in the US it depends where you live :]
I live in NY and we get a lot of holidays where I live in particular because there's a high population of jewish people in my area :D so we get all the jewish holidays off and often lots of shops are closed :]
Screenwriter Wannabe
5 days in a row?? lol, i get 6 days in the whole year!