winter breaks in japan
 

i'm on the first day of my winter break!two weeks of fun things to do.is there a winter break for japanese schools?:rheart:

Winter break? What is that? Been working so long I forgot what a break is....:mad:

Winter break for schools is from December 23rd to January 6th.
Today is my son`s last day at kindergarten - it`s a half day dedicated only to the ceremony they do before long breaks.
For children, vacation is basically a week before and after New Years.

Work holidays are from the 29th to the 4th. (Or at least in the case of my husband`s company - I don`t know about others.) So a week with New Years in the middle.

Christmas is not a holiday and workers do not get the day off. It`s only a holiday for children as it falls in the week before New Years.

Tomorrow is the Emperors birthday public holiday which is about the only break I'll get in the next week or two (and I only get that because day care is closed and I have to look after my daughter). Otherwise this is one of the busiest times of the year for us who work in hospitality.

But on the other hand - you get more time off and have a more relaxed schedule when the rest of Japan is too busy to head off on vacation, right?

My husband`s family is the same way - they run an inn and a crab fishing business (great way to make money in an area people come to in droves to eat crab during crab season - no middleman for their crabs), so their busiest time of the year is the winter holidays. They do close the inn for the 3 days around New Years, but it doesn`t really change much as the only difference is instead of paying customers it is relatives staying.

I must admit I much prefer not having holidays when everyone else does. You're right it's nicer traveling when not everyone else is plus it's a lot cheaper! Only problem in my job currently is that there are hardly any times of the year that I am not busy :mad:

I definitely agree with how much better it is to have time off when everyone else isn`t. My husband works in a fairly standard field, so the holidays tend to be lined up with the standard national holidays... But he is generally first in line to volunteer to work during the normal national holidays in return for days off at other times. "Summer" holiday tends to be late September for us, and "Golden Week" is shifted to mid-June. Winter though - we stick with the regular set as the family only really gathers then. O-Bon is usually only about half the family.

This has worked quite well for the past few years, but I`m kind of worried about how it will go once our son is in elementary school. It`s easy to take time off in kindergarten, but it seems normal school isn`t quite as accepting to off season holidays.