Here's a little-known Zen puzzle for numskulls: Which vacation would you choose?

A trip to Guam at 50,000 yen per person, including the 3 1/2-hour round-trip flight, four nights at a beachfront hotel and free breakfasts?

Or a two-hour train ride from Tokyo for one night in a resort hotel that provides a free breakfast AND dinner . . . for the very same price?

Tests have shown that -- yes -- even numskulls prefer option one. However, my wife and I recently picked option two. How we rate brainpower-wise is thus clear. But I will say this: We were not alone on our journey.

For Japanese love to travel. Even with a plethora of cut-rate tours to sun-kissed overseas destinations, domestic roads and railways are still jammed during holidays.

Some people stay because they cannot pry themselves from their jobs for more than a few deep breaths, others because they prefer the coziness of a home vacation over struggles with foreign language, customs and cuisine, and still others because no worthwhile tourist spot in Japan would be complete without throbbing hordes of people. Filling such spots is a matter of national pride.

A journey into crowds of thousands may begin with a single push, but the trip should include the following.

Though many travel by car -- in order to revel in the pure joy of bumper-to-bumper traffic -- the quintessential Japanese journey must be made by train. This is true not because of the nanosecond precision of departures, nor the airplane-smoothness of the shinkansen, but rather to pig out on food.

Most people ride the trains in order to eat, a moveable feast that begins the minute they sit down. Munchies, rice balls and mikan disappear in bulk, but the ultimate train treat is a boxed lunch, the renowned "bento bako," which will contain delicacies of the local area. Devouring these goodies begins with the bliss of picking away the stray grains of rice from inside the lid. Train amusement at its very best.

Until, that is, the train girl rolls her cart down the aisle to sell even more food . . . and to shove standing passengers onto people's laps. Even wilder train fun!

Continued here