Last weekend I promised to send a package to a friend in Australia. There had been an embargo on parcel post to Australia until a month or so ago. So, on Monday I assembled the parcel's contents, packed them into the box, and prepped the parcel for mailing. I walked over to the local post office and...found the post office was closed. Oh yeah,, I had forgotten that it was a holiday.
I suppose what should have clued me in to that was the fact that the much delayed Coming of Age day ceremony was held on Monday. I think the actual holiday is on the second or third Monday in January. Yonezawa usually holds the ceremony in May (if I recall correctly) instead of January. But this year, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ceremony was delayed.
I mentioned this delay to some of my students up in Tendo but no one really seemed to be surprised by the turn of events. I suppose the ceremony was likewise delayed there. Or perhaps, it was just something too far from home to be of any concern or interest....
