Golden week

Last week was golden week in Japan which meant there was 3 national holidays and I only worked 2 days in the whole week. I went on a couple of trips, one to Kanazawa and the other to Fuji five lakes.
Kanazawa is a big city on the east coast of Japan. I took a five hour bus to get there (very economical). It is most famous for Kenrokuen, an old Japanese garden that is supposed to be one of the 3 most beautiful gardens in Japan. It was indeed very beautiful and having seen it I don't need to visit any other Japanese gardens. Kanazawa also boasts a very nice castle and a fine Modern Art Museum. I saw a special exhibition by Grayson Perry, a cross-dressing Englishman with a very funny sense of humour. He manages the rare feet of making pottery interesting.
After a couple of days at work I had the rest of the week off and I went to Fuji five lakes. It is an area in the foothills of Mt Fuji where you can see the most specatucalar views (Mt Fuji itself is not as scenic). I went camping with Noriko and we stayed at lake Kawaguchi. It was the first time she had been camping and she enjoyed it inspite of all the inconveniences associated with camping. I found a campsite in about the best viewing spot in the whole of the lake. Cars kept stopping by the road next to us to get a picture of the view. While we were there we went to Fuji Q Highland, a theme park nearby with some monster rollercoasters. Both of us are wimps when it comes to rollercoasters so we only went on the very tame rides but it was fun. I feel the temptation to climb Mt Fuji in the summer now.
Last year I had to work through Golden week (boo the NOVA English school) so I really appreciated the time off and have great memories from my travels. Regular readers will be aware I go on an excessive number of trips for someone with a full time job and a fairly limited budget. You've got to have a hobby I guess.