From end of April to beginning of May in Japan, many Japanese can take a week long holiday because April 29, May 3-5 are national holidays.  On May 5 is children 's day (boys day) and it is a custom to exhibit an armor and put up a carp streamers at home  to wish children's  health and good luck .. 

In early May, it  is one of the very best season to visit mountain side to see fresh green leaves and snow left on the mountains. In some area, cherry blossoms are still in full bloom. Birds are busy to take care of baby birds, flogs are start chorusing  in  paddy fields to invite shower and thunderstorm responds to them. After the shower, beautiful blue sky and sunshine come back again.

This year  I took annual leave on May 1-2 and enjoyed 9  days off away from office. During this vacation, I visited an old village "Sharakawagou", 8 hours drive from Tokyo. In this village, there are the houses developed by "Gassho" style, very unique style only for this area. (This name comes from  thatched roofs' resemblance to playing hands.)  In this village, 113 houses are built by "Gassho" style and the oldest house is  170 yeas old. This village is  registered to "The  world Heritage" by UNESCO in 1995.I enjoyed seeing beautiful landscape and nice food and Sake very much.

Gassho Style House	Temple in village
Under re-roofing	The same style of the house as left

Start to preparing rice planting

Cherry blossoms are in full bloom