Heading Home for the Holidays, Crowds Fill Shinkansen Bullet Trains in Preparation for New Year’s Celebrations

Passengers board a Shinkansen bullet train at JR Tokyo Station on Saturday as many head home for the year-end and New Year’s holidays. “I’m worried about my parents, as they experienced the powerful earthquake [on Dec. 8],” said a 45-year-old woman from Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, heading to her parents’ home in Misawa, Aomori Prefecture.