Obon holiday exodus begins at Narita airport

Glad I've got work to do the next few days...

Glad im not taking a flight. Gonna be a good week according to the weather forecast. Now just need to find a nice place at the river to cool down. opens up a cold one

glad im not one of the sheeple, took my holidays offpeak cheap flights/hotels deserted beaches minimal traffic, absolute bliss. LOL

The airports will be like zoos. This is one of the worst times to travel... long check-in lines, long baggage check lines, long passport control lines, packed waiting areas and the bonus of having paid a premium to have these thrills added to your day. Oh, don't forget the summer heat!

We took our holiday three weeks ago and the airport was nice and empty, as were the places we visited. Next week I will enjoy a bit of peace and quiet whilst too many others are sitting in 50 km traffic jams, or paying three times the price for the same flights we took. Why do they do it?

Obon, no thanks, glad I have to work this time every Aug

Time to kick back and relax, no roads or planes. Maybe go to a beach or river, bbq or izakaya... as long as it in NOT full of people!

Yeah - I sometimes don't believe the Japanese really have a holiday because they want to. It's more like they feel obliged to (because everyone else is) and they understand that it's a time to boost the economy of tourist areas by emptying their pockets and work bonuses on overpriced tat and hotels.

Alternatively, they go to the US or Europe for 4 days, which involves being jetlagged for two, and running round visiting ten museums and art galleries a day while taking way too many photos of walls and pavements. It'll be alright though, with what Abe and co. have in store, they'll be working 360+ days a year and marching/singing Kimigayo on their days off fairly soon.

How much is a 5-day/4-night excursion to, say, Guam, leaving today? I'm guessing around 2-3 times what I paid when I went not during Obon, GW or Oshogatsu.

glad im not one of the sheeple, took my holidays offpeak cheap flights/hotels deserted beaches minimal traffic, absolute bliss. LOL

Wtfjapan- Fantastic. You make it sound like millions of Japanese who have no choice of vacation dates never thought of doing exactly that.

(On a side note, why did you feel the need to laugh hysterically at your very bland statement?)

I would not mind leaving Tokyo to be up were Foxie loves and lives, Hokkaido!

@hoser i wouldnt say hysterically!? just a litte giggle that so many poor suckers have no choice but to go on vacation when theyre told not when they want. or worse still like going on vacation with millions of others. there is nothing worse than visiting the same place with 1000s of people all crammed into a small space, especially in summer. its more like a slow torture than a vacation.

It's great, who would want to Holiday with massive feelings of guilt that your co-workers are still working. That's as much fun as kicking over an ant hill?

Cricky, I am gonna try and kick over an ant hill next time, now that sounds like good fun, rather than going out to Narita and wasting my time drinking beer pool side over in Guam, Thailand, Cebu, Hawaii etc...now where to find a good ant hill!!