Friday, May 1, 2015

Showa No Hi

Showa Day (April 29th) is a national holiday in Japan.  It is the birthday of the previous emperor who died in 1989 and the first of the golden week holidays.  Since Ted and I both had the day off we decided to go to the flea market in Nakajima Koen.  We went to another flea market there and found it interesting, so we decided to go again.



Normally I think Japanese people to be very polite, but not at the flea market! Little old ladies barely as tall as my waist were elbowing their way under my arms to get in front of me.  Children were pushing me. It was unbelievable.
I did buy some Japanese fabric pieces for 50 or 100 yen each and a tin of buttons for only 10 yen!

 
The park was beautiful and many people were out enjoying the holiday.



 
After the shopping, we rode the street car instead of taking the subway.  It was a beautiful day, so we wanted to stay above ground.



 
We bought a lunch and ate it outside, then walked around Odori Park.





 
Next we walked around the City Hall Garden.



 

After that, we visited the Former Government Building.  I’d been outside this building many times, but this was the first time we went inside.



After our inside tour, we came outside and heard a commotion at the street.  We don’t know what this was about.

 
 

 
We walked around the pond and took more pictures, then headed for home.




4 comments:

Beth in IL said...

Good deal on the fabric. Thanks for sharing all the pictures.

Queeniepatch said...

What a perfect day to spend outside! Sapporo in bloom is wonderful! Were the old ladies trying to beat you to the good fabric deal by elbowing their way past?

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful day. Love the red street car!

D1-D2 said...

Beautiful pictures. Especially the cherry blossoms.