Obon Vacation: Buddhist "Halloween"

Obon is the week in Summer that many Japanese suppose the spirits of the departed come back to the loved ones, following Buddhist custom.  Many family and relatives gather at their hometowns, so there is a week vacation. At Sumida River near Asakusa, people buy  lanterns and write their wishes on them and let them flow down the river.

The Obon Vacation started on the 11th, but many people seemed to take a day off, so on the 10th, Chuo Highway was already with a heavy traffic jam which took us an extra hour to get to the Mount Fuji area.  Also Tokyo Sky Tree was so packed with people on the 13th that even the guests paid 1000 yen extra to skip a queue of an hour wait, we had to wait in a long queue for the elevator to go down from the 350m to 345m.  So I will tell the guests that it is unrecommendable to visit Tokyo Sky Tree during the Golden Week (at the end of April till the first week of May) and Obon Vacation unless they love to wait in long lines from now on.