Travelers crowd the departure terminal at Narita airport Saturday in this photo taken from TV.

Vacationers' exodus peaks at Narita; roads and trains jammed

Saturday 08th August, 11:43 PM JST

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maryhinge at 08:46 PM JST - 8th August

I am staying put in Tokyo. There is something gravely wrong with the Obon season, but I just cannot put my finger on it.
Pukey2 at 08:59 PM JST - 8th August

Another reason why my Obon starts in mid-September.
Sarge at 06:55 AM JST - 9th August

"Domestic flights were booked close to capacity"

"roads and trains jammed"

I see that plane fares, gas prices, highway tolls and train fares need to be raised even higher, nyuk nyuk!
NeoJamal at 07:47 AM JST - 9th August

♫Go down, Go down to Guam and back
pawatan at 09:51 AM JST - 9th August

They get about 4 times that amount of people EVERY day. That figure shoes how isolated Japan is, and how few people either travel to or from Japan.

Heathrow is the busiest airport in the world, IIRC. Not a good comparison. Plenty of people come to/fro Japan.
Pukey2 at 09:58 AM JST - 9th August

Heathrow is the busiest airport in the world, IIRC. Not a good comparison. Plenty of people come to/fro Japan.

OK, then. Why not compare Narita with its East Asian competitors - Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing and Shanghai. Somehow I don't think Narita will be anywhere near the top.
JeffLee at 10:57 AM JST - 9th August

OK, then. Why not compare Narita with its East Asian competitors

OK, Singapore, a city of 3 million, 1/10 the population of the Kanto region, has an airport that handles 100,000 passengers daily, more than double that of Narita during these insanely peak periods.

Conclusion: Tokyo and Yokohama are indeed isolated places.
smithinjapan at 11:12 AM JST - 9th August

The 'shikata ga nai' attitude in all its glory. I wish companies would start giving the Japanese a realistic amount of holidays, and allow them to actually choose to take them at any time to more evenly disperse the amount of travel year-round, lower general price-gouging at the current peak travel times, and of course lessen the congestion.

Of course, for that to work the Japanese would have to actually try and understand that you DON'T need to travel on the same day as your neighbour, and you ARE capable of travelling somewhere when everyone else is not.

On YouTube 「日本の形」used to have a pretty funny spoof of Japanese culture and Obon, but I can't find it (probably offended some, despite it being made by Japanese). Their sushi and other spoofs are still there, though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rbjdl1k7oKE

You can probably still find the Obon spoof on there. Some of it is exaggerated, of course, but they are all pretty well done.
pawatan at 11:25 AM JST - 9th August

Conclusion: Tokyo and Yokohama are indeed isolated places.

Isolated w/35 million people, yee-ok.
Anomaly_Jr at 12:49 PM JST - 9th August

maryhinge: I am staying put in Tokyo. There is something gravely wrong with the Obon season, but I just cannot put my finger on it.

I see what you did there... Very nice.
hachmike66 at 03:07 PM JST - 9th August

Smithinjapan, what is the difference between everybody in North America flying home for Christmas. Obon is a very important cultural event, and people are expected to visit their hometown. So even if they had more time off, and they could decided when to take a holiday, they would still be expected to go home for Obon. The thing that surprised me is how early everyone is holiday this year. Obon doesn't begin until next Thursday.
ThonTaddeo at 04:04 PM JST - 9th August

Smithinjapan, what is the difference between everybody in North America flying home for Christmas. Obon is a very important cultural event, and people are expected to visit their hometown. So even if they had more time off, and they could decided when to take a holiday, they would still be expected to go home for Obon.

Hachmike, the difference in North America is that people live and work in various places scattered around the country, unlike in Japan where absolutely everything is centered in Tokyo. So while in NA you've got people flying and driving in all directions, in Japan it's huge crowds heading away from Tokyo on one day and back into Tokyo on another day.

Japanese people wouldn't be forced to endure this if all the jobs weren't packed into one city.
tigerguy at 05:54 PM JST - 9th August

I'm fortunate to be able to choose when I can take my summer obon breakand I'm taking it at the end of August when all the mad rush is over.
kiwiboy at 08:00 PM JST - 9th August

Oh no! I arrive Aug 15, right when it's gonna peak! Great!!
roomtemperature at 12:00 AM JST - 15th August

"OK, Singapore, a city of 3 million, 1/10 the population of the Kanto region, has an airport that handles 100,000 passengers daily, more than double that of Narita during these insanely peak periods. Conclusion: Tokyo and Yokohama are indeed isolated places."

First of all, Singapore doesn't have 3 million people but almost 5 million. First mistake. Secondly, Changi doesn't handle double the number of passengers daily, because Narita handles about 90,000 a day.....INTERNATIONAL Jefflee!!! Learn to read and to think......that number is so low now because most of the Japanese are on domestic flights to their hometowns during Obon!! Second mistake. Conclusion: Do your homework!