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Rush of travelers returning from Golden Week holiday intensifies

23 Comments

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Looking forward to the yearly aerial shots of the 2 lane "express way"? at a complete stop for hours.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

I like Zichi just stayed home, but had a great time meeting old friends, and old students. Eating, drinking, walking, cycling, relaxing. One of the best holidays I've had in a long time. But I am glad it is over and we can stop hearing about all the problems that 10 days off caused for people. But come Tuesday we are going to hear reports of "gogatsu byo", May sickness. Many students won't want to return to school and I'm sure a lot of workers are not keen to return to the rat race. Hopefully they can look back on some great memories and forget about their stress and worries.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Had a great week at my house in the mountains without leaving. Who on earth would choose to travel at this time of year?!

13 ( +13 / -0 )

Rush of travelers returning from Golden Week holiday intensifies

You're kidding.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Glad I stayed home. I’m going away next weekend. Everywhere will be empty of tourists coz they have all run out of money and have to do excessive overtime to compensate for the extended holiday.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

Looking forward to the yearly aerial shots of the 2 lane "express way"? at a complete stop for hours.

when I do have to travel during peak season I make sure Im not going the same way as everybody else. It always fun driving the opposite way on the express way giving the gridlocked commuters a nice wave every couple km. LOL

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Before marriage and kids, I would have probably spent all 10 days overseas on some beach somewhere. Now the only water I see is the morning shower.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

In prophetic news, the expressways will be backed up for 70 km at the obon U-turn.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

All of this could be solved, if Japan learned how to spread out their workers' holidays. It isn't that difficult to do.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

We don't even go shopping on weekends, or even go out to lunch between 12 and 1pm, in order to avoid the crowds. We certainly never vacation on national holidays. Nope nope nope.

It still never ceases to amaze me how everybody does the same thing at the same time, all the time, in Japan. Will it ever change?

7 ( +7 / -0 )

In Geneva Switzerland by law you have to take at least once a year 2 full weeks of vacations.

I believe it is good for both the employees and the company.

Employees need to plan the leave, i.e. ensure high priority stuff done and minimum coworkers back up. Basically forced time management even for the ones struggling with that. No company paid courses will achieve this.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

And next year there will be golden week and the summer olympics.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

We have stayed at home for ten days with walks around the countryside or down to the beach to watch all the people picking shell foods. I didn't spend a single yen during the time. Same cash in my pocket at the end as what I had at the start.

10 days living without spending a single yen? No wonder the economy is moribund.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Nippori Nick, there are lots of people still working and spending. I have been working 14 hour days. Just think of all of the Airline, Bus, Hotel, Train, personnel etc. Then think about who keeps the power running , food arriving and gasoline flowing.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

They should turn golden week into a regular 10 day break like this every year. Good for family bonding and good for the economy.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

I traveled domestically to a "less" popular area of Japan and it was fine after we cleared Haneda. However, even then, the planes were fully booked each way, and we had to skip a few sightseeing options due to the crowds (there was nowhere to park). Fortunately our plan was mostly just to hang out in the countryside and that part worked well.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

left early (not traffic) returned Friday (not traffic) now a lazy weekend, thats a holiday.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Just another point on the graph, but we went camping for five nights, one in Niigata, two in Yamagata, and two in Akita. My missus booked autocamp sites no more than two days in advance and each booking took one or two phone calls. We did 1300km in all, but the roads were not busy. The only real crowd we encountered was at the jellyfish aquarium in Yamagata, where there was a two-hour queue. We turned around and didn't go in. We hit a traffic jam for an hour or so coming back on Route 7 in Akita, but it was caused by accidents on that and the alternate coast road. We got light to medium rain four of the five nights and it got down to 3C on the other, but our cheapo tent (a US Coleman "Red Canyon" 15000 yen delivered off Ebay) kept us dry and we had a great time. My first time in Yamagata and Akita, but I'd happily go back.

If you like anecdotal observations, the camp sites were full of people with very expensive setups, suggesting a hollowing out of this activity, leaving mostly rich people doing mobile glamping. My van is 14 years old, but I didn't see many cars of the same vintage either.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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