Photo/Illutration Passengers returning to their hometowns board a Shinkansen bound for Osaka at Tokyo Station on the morning of Dec. 28. (Nobuo Fujiwara)

Despite the spreading COVID-19 Omicron variant, many people have started returning home for the year-end and New Year's holidays, although the mood among travelers remains cautious. 

In the early morning of Dec. 28, a large number of families were at Tokyo Station, the main terminal in the central part of the capital, to board trains.

A 34-year-old company employee who lives in Toride, Ibaraki Prefecture, was going to visit his parents in Fukuoka Prefecture, accompanied by his wife and 3-year-old daughter. This is the first time in two and a half years that he has been able to see his parents.

“I’m looking forward to finally seeing them,” he said with a smile. 

He said, however, he would refrain from going out as much as possible in Fukuoka as he was concerned about the Omicron infections that are starting to pop up across Japan. 

Meanwhile, a 45-year-old woman who resides in Nagareyama, Chiba Prefecture, has decided not to return to her hometown in Wakayama Prefecture this year because of the increase in Omicron cases. Only her daughter is spending the holidays there instead.

“Medical services in my hometown are not good enough," she said. "I can’t help but be nervous that I might bring the virus with me to my hometown (if I go there).”

She adds that she has mixed feelings about not traveling back to Wakayama for the holidays.

According to Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai), as of Dec. 22, a total of 1.32 million seats on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line running during the period between Dec. 28 and Jan. 5 had been reserved.

That is about 40 percent of the available reserved seats, which is three times more than the same period in the previous year amid the COVID-19 pandemic before vaccinations started in Japan. 

(This article was written by Keita Yamaguchi and Takashi Ogawa.)

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