Happy Japan Day

Here is an email from Mikio explaining today's holiday:

Hi! Anything Special? Thanks for your e-mail.
Saturday, is certainly holiday. We call 'KENKOKU KINENBI' It means to celebrate the day of our country birth! I think it looks like American's Independence day.So what will you do? I'll spend as usual Saturday. Nothing Special!
How about you? Any Plan?
See Ya!
Mikio

I went to Junko's house tonight for a home party. And nobody there (all 4 of them) knew today was even a holiday. So unlike Independence day there are no celebrations or customs. No fireworks, no parades or festivals, no throwing of legumes. Nothing. But the party was fun anyway. It was 4 girls (Junko, pictured, Mika, Hiroe and me) and poor Yuuki (Mika's ever obliging husband). Good food, fun conversation and a lot of wine. Three bottles were drank. And as Yuuki is the designated driver and I don't like wine, that means the other three girls drank a bottle each. And they were more than tipsy when I left. I wonder what, if anything, they will remember tomorrow. Like the plans they started making for us four girls to go to China someday soon. Or opening the language school in Italy (Hiroe has studied Chinese, Mika studies both English and Italian, Junko is pretty proficient in English and is interested in German, and I dabble in a little Spanish). Or teaching me katakana and kanji, which is the most far-fetched of all the plans. Oh well, it was fun to dream about. And Happy Japan Day to everyone out there.