Author: CC Posted: January 8th, 2007

Many people consider this to be the silly season time (Nematsunenshi) in Japan. Many people travel from where they are living and working back towards their home town (U-TURN).
Traffic jams on Highways are up to 30 Klm. Many train stations have lines of people up to 5 metres deep. Everywhere is busy busy busy. Especially the department stores with their after New Year lucky bag (fukubukuro)sales. It's also the time to visit shrines and temples (Hatsumoude)and pray for good luck like getting married, having children, passing high school or university exams. Some shrines have waiting lines of up to 3 hours.
It's also the time for fans, photographers and autograph hunters to wait at Narita airport trying to catch a glimpse, take a picture or get an autograph of famous Japanese celebrities returning from their overseas holidays.

Two of the most popular destinations are Hawaii and Australia.