An extra holiday

When I went to pick up my son from school today, I made sure to memorize a new phrase "ashita kesseki shimasu."  I wanted to let the teacher know my son would be absent from school tomorrow.  When I told her this, she laughed and told me everyone would be absent tomorrow because the school would be closed.  I stared at her for a moment in complete confusion and then sought out my English speaking friend.

She laughed when I inquired what was going on, because she completely understood my confusion.  It turns out that Tokyo has a special holiday that isn't celebrated in other parts of the country.  Simply called "Citizen's Day" or "Tomin-no-hi," October first is a special day when many public parks, museums, galleries, and other facilities offer free entry. 

Though not a public holiday (meaning government offices are still open), when October first falls on a weekday most public school children in Tokyo have the day off.  For some reason, I didn't know this and it wasn't in my personal calendar.  So, I wasn't aware my son didn't have school tomorrow!  I was just planning to keep him home from school to spend time with our out of town guests. 

Since many museums are free and some places offering special Citizen's Day events, it’s a great opportunity for a family day out.  If we're here next year, we will go all out in taking advantage of this great concept of a holiday.  But for this year, we'll stick with our original plan of playing with our friends.