Photo= Families with lots of luggage ready to board the incoming Shinkansen (August 10, JR Kyoto Station, Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto)

The rush of travelers heading for their hometowns and resorts during the Bon Festival holidays was in full swing at the main stations and roads in Kyoto and Shiga Prefectures on August 10. The Shinkansen platform in JR Kyoto Station, Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto, was crowded with families with large amounts of luggage, and many trains had a vehicle occupancy rate of greater than 100%.

According to Central Japan Railway Company and West Japan Railway Company, the vehicle occupancy rate for unreserved seats on the Hakata-bound Shinkansen "Nozomi" reached 160% in the morning on that day. On conventional lines, the vehicle occupancy rate for the Toyama-bound limited express train "Thunderbird" hit 150% at its departure from Kyoto Station.

On the Shinkansen platform at Kyoto Station, there were long lines at the entrance positions. A female student in her first year of junior high school from Muko City, Kyoto, was setting off to her grandparents' house in Tokyo with her family of three, and said with a smile, "I am looking forward to going to Tokyo Disneyland with my whole family."

According to the Japan Road Traffic Information Center, on that morning there was a 17-kilometer-long traffic jam in the eastbound lanes of the Meishin Expressway, with its head near the area between Otsu Interchange and Kyoto-Higashi Interchange, and also, in the eastbound lanes of the Keiji Bypass, there was congestion for 11 kilometers from Kasatori Interchange.