Golden Week at Home: Flowers, BBQ, and Blog Reorganization

Golden Week at Home: Flowers, BBQ, and Blog Reorganization

From the end of April to the beginning of May, Japan celebrates its long holiday known as Golden Week.
I went back to my parents’ house from May 3rd to May 5th.

On the morning of May 4th, I took a walk with my mother and Lulu at the Hyogo Prefectural Flower Center.
We strolled through paths surrounded by beautiful flowers.

Lulu was busy the entire time, pulling on her leash, panting, and marking everything in sight.
My mother laughed and said, “It’s impossible to take a relaxing walk with such an impatient dog.”

At the center of the Flower Center is a large pond, and there’s a walking path that circles around it.
We took our time strolling under the gentle May sun.

When we got home around noon, my brother and his family had also arrived.
Together, we went to the local home improvement store to shop for house chores and pick up supplies for our usual family BBQ.

Every year during Golden Week, our family has a barbecue together.
It had been a while since I drank that much beer, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Lulu was wandering around, clearly trying to figure out how to get someone to give her some meat.

The barbecue ended around 7 p.m. as it started to get dark.
Everyone helped clean up, and then we each took turns taking a bath.

But I was so sleepy I couldn’t even wait for my turn—I fell asleep without changing clothes.
I guess the beer really hit me.

On May 5th, I was supposed to take my nephew to see the Minecraft movie at 10:30 a.m.
A few days earlier, I had asked my brother, “Has he already seen the Minecraft movie since he likes it so much?”
My brother replied, “He’s been watching other movies, and we had a lot of expenses this month. Can you take him?”

To be honest, I have zero interest in Minecraft, and I rarely watch movies. But I agreed to go with my nephew.

Then my brother told his son, “Uncle Jem’s going to take you to the Minecraft movie,”
to which my nephew casually replied, “Oh, really? I’m fine either way.”

And so, the plan was set for me and my nephew to go.
That morning at 8:00, my brother and I started pulling weeds and cleaning the ditch in front of our parents’ house, following instructions from our mother.
It took about an hour to finish.

If we left at 9:30, we’d arrive at the theater 30 minutes before the movie.
At 9:15, I told my nephew, “Let’s leave at 9:30.”

But then he suddenly said, “Just the two of us? Then I’m not going.”

Apparently, he didn’t want to go if his father wasn’t coming too.
Even though he watches Minecraft YouTube videos all day, he still didn’t want to go without his dad.
He’s ten years old.

If he were my child, I would’ve given him a firm warning and a proper talk.
But since he’s my brother’s kid, I held back.

Later, we decided to go to a nearby tourist spot that’s about an hour away by car.
But my nephew said he didn’t want to go either—he’d rather stay home playing games and watching YouTube.
So, it ended up being just the four of us: my brother and his wife, my mother, and me.

It was 10 a.m. My mother said, “We need to get lunch for your dad. And something for your nephew too.”
So we stopped to buy bentos for them first.

My mother is 73 years old. Among her generation, there are still families where the husband does absolutely nothing when it comes to meals.

When she handed the bento to my nephew, she said, “Eat this with Grandpa at lunchtime.”
But he replied, “I don’t want to eat lunch with Grandpa.”

In the end, he came with us to the tourist spot after all.
Inside, I was quietly thinking, “This kid is so selfish,” but I said nothing.

Takenosaka Tunnel (Meiji-Era Tunnel)

Because crossing the mountain was extremely difficult, Tadakichi Nagano of Hyōgo Prefecture’s Hikami District (now Tamba City) led the effort to dig through the mountain.
Construction began in 1880 (Meiji 13) and took 2 years and 10 months to complete.
The project involved about 67,000 workers and cost approximately 70,000 yen (an enormous amount at the time).
It was completed in 1883 (Meiji 16).

When it was completed, about 280,000 bricks were transported from Awaji Island.
At 3.3 meters wide, this is the fifth narrowest tunnel in Japan.
You can see the original stone walls and hand-carved marks inside the tunnel.

The four of us wandered around the area, relaxed, and returned home by evening.
Dinner was tempura.

After dinner, we all spent a little time together before heading to bed early.
It was only around 9 p.m., so I decided to start organizing articles on the Flower Jem blog.

Until now, I had only sorted articles into two broad categories: education and random notes.
But since I now have over 130 posts, I felt it was time to restructure them more clearly.

So I decided to organize them into four categories: