JAPAN TODAY




 

TOKYO - People spending the New Year's holidays in their hometowns or elsewhere crowded train stations, airports and roads in Tokyo and other parts of Japan on Saturday.

On the Tokaido Shinkansen Line, the occupancy rate of unreserved seats hit 180 percent when the day's first train departed Tokyo for Fukuoka, southwestern Japan, at 6 a.m., according to the operator of the train.

"I look forward to seeing my cousin after a while and eating New Year dishes prepared by my grandmother," Yuina Fujita, an elementary school girl of Tokyo's Suginami Ward, said at Tokyo Station before heading for Kagawa Prefecture, western Japan.

Reserved seats on the bullet trains are almost fully booked through Tuesday morning, it said.

Similarly, domestic flights from Tokyo's Haneda airport registered high reservation rates through New Year's Eve.

The number of people traveling abroad is expected to peak on Saturday.
At Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture, there were long lines at the check-in counters.

Before taking a flight to Taiwan with her family, Miria Arima, an elementary school girl from Higashiosaka, said she can hardly wait to eat soup dumplings there.

The estimated number of people leaving the airport for overseas Saturday is around 42,300, according to the airport operator.

Major expressways in the country were also congested. Traffic is expected to be backed up for 30 kilometers on the Tomei Expressway in Hadano, Kanagawa Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, through Monday.


© KYODO