U-turn

[thomas]

New Year, Golden Week and O-bon: not the best time to travel in Japan...

Airports jammed as holiday travelers return

=> http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content...at=1&id=244779

All aboard: a nation in motion

Monday is the first business day of the new year, so on Sunday the nation's airports, highways and rail lines will be crammed to overcapacity by a mass migration known as the "U-turn."

This phenomenon occurs thrice yearly, at the conclusion of the year's three major vacation periods: in early January, at the end of the Golden Week holiday in early May and following the Bon break in mid-August. At each of these times, tens of millions of urban dwellers who returned to their hometowns or headed off on domestic or overseas vacations pack up their souvenirs and return to the teeming cities.

=> http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/...20030105a1.htm