Womenality

One of the most important parts of travel planning is knowing the holidays. While many people prefer not to go along with other people during these dates, the long weekends are still their only time to relax and explore other places other than office and home. If you are wondering about the 2012 Holiday in the Philippines, then here’s the official list.

SECTION 1. The following regular holidays and special days for the year 2012 shall be observed in the country:

A. Regular Holidays
New Year’s Day – January 1 (Sunday)
Maundy Thursday – April 5
Good Friday – April 6
Araw ng Kagitingan – April 9 (Monday)
Labor Day – May 1 (Tuesday)
Independence Day – June 12 (Tuesday)
National Heroes Day – August 27 (Last Monday of August)
Bonifacio Day – November 30 (Friday)
Christmas Day – December 25 (Tuesday)
Rizal Day – December 30 (Sunday)

B. Special (Non-Working) Days
Chinese New Year – January 23 (Monday)
Ninoy Aquino Day – August 21 (Tuesday)
All Saints Day – November 1 (Thursday)
Additional special (non-working) day – November 2 (Friday)
Last Day of the Year – December 31 (Monday

C. Special Holiday (for all schools)
EDSA Revolution Anniversary – February 25 (Saturday)

SECTION 2. The proclamations declaring national holidays for the observance of Eid’l Fitr and Eidul Adha shall hereafter be issued after the approximate dates of the Islamic holidays have been determined in accordance with the Islamic calendar (Hijra) or the lunar calendar, or upon Islamic astronomical calculations, whichever is possible or convenient. To this end, the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) shall inform the Office of the President on which day the holiday shall fall.

Link to the Proclamation 295, s. 2011

I always dream of visiting Japan. Since I was 6, I knew Japan, based on my dad’s stories (because he used to work in NNN – Nippon News Network based in Japan as an assistant camera man) from his bosses as a beautiful, cold and well developed country. He is no longer connected to the company (not sure if the company still exists today) but he has a lot of Japanese guests visiting the Philippines each time. He is now running a small rent-a-car business and never got the chance to go to Japan, even once for his more than 10 years of service in NNN. Yeah, it was sad!

As I grow older and until now, he always share his stories about Japan and its people. From then on, I became so interested in Japan that I would read info about it.So when I started this blog, we planned in going but for visa reasons and high airfare, we are holding back this dream for sometime. I love to talk about Japan in my blog!

Yesterday, I read from twitter that Japan will be offering 10,00 free airfare by next year and I so love to go! This is not yet my entry but I definitely want to see the Cherry Blossoms, My Fuji, Tokyo Disneyland and eat authentic Takoyaki! My dad and I love Japanese food and it’s really nice to know such opportunity will be given to tourists like us, despite of the tragedy that happened in March 11. I can’t really wait to send my application and have my first step on the land of the rising sun!

The story is also posted here http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/10/japan-free-airfare-fukushima-nuclear-power-tsunami.html.

TOKYO (AFP) – The world’s oldest person, Japanese woman Kama Chinen, has died a week short of her 115th birthday after a life spanning three centuries, Guinness World Records said Tuesday.

Chinen lived on Okinawa in Japan’s far south, a sub-tropical island whose inhabitants are well known for their robust health into advanced age.

“Guinness World Records is saddened to learn the news of the death of the oldest living person, Kama Chinen from Japan, who died on May 2, 2010 aged 114 years 357 days,” the organisation said.

“Though confined to a wheelchair in her later years, Chinen still enjoyed the wonders of nature and being outside.”

Chinen’s death hands the title of world’s oldest person to Eugenie Blanchard, a 114-year-old French woman living on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, according to the Gerontology Research Group (GRG).

Blanchard was born on February 16, 1896, the group said.

Chinen’s reign as the oldest living person began on the death of US woman Gertrude Baines, who passed away in September 2009.

Kyodo News agency, citing Japan’s health ministry, said an unidentified 114-year-old woman had died Sunday afternoon on Okinawa after being taken to hospital from a nursing home.

The woman was using a wheelchair but still enjoyed taking a walk on sunny days, the ministry said, adding that her relatives had asked for her name and personal details to be withheld.

Kyodo said Chiyono Hasegawa, 113, in southern Japan’s Saga prefecture was now the country’s oldest person.

Japan has the world’s highest life expectancy, and Okinawa has been home to many centenarians, a fact variously attributed to the healthy diet and environment of the island.

Elderly Okinawans have among the world’s lowest mortality rates from many chronic diseases of ageing, due to both genetic and lifestyle factors, according to the Okinawa Centenarian Study, a project that began in 1975.

Read the rest of the story here.