Travelers crowd stations as Japan's 5-day Silver Week holiday ends

TOKYO - Train stations across Japan were crowded Wednesday as people returned from trips and hometown visits as the five-day Silver Week autumn holiday, the first such stretch in 11 years, came to an end.

Tokyo Station was packed with travelers, with Kokoha Mieda, a 9-year-old fourth grader from Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan, saying she took her first trip with her 54-year-old grandmother without her parents.