I may have mentioned that one of the sillier Japanese ways of doing things is that everybody has summer vacation all at the same time. That means that everybody is trying to travel at the same time. So for example the news reports the travel traffic jams everyday though August. We're talking MAJOR TRAFFIC JAMS. For example Wednesday's was 68 kilometeres long!! That's 42 miles of stop and go traffic!!! 😖 Yes it takes SEVERAL HOURS to go those 42 miles. The Japanese just see it as part of summer vacation. In fact the news reports it like they report the weather. Very matter−of−factly.

Another stat, the bullet train is 126% over sold. In other words people are standing in the aisles just like they would on a regular train. Think of people standing in the aisles on an airplane except the aisles are maybe twice as wide.