We arrived in Osaka the day after the quake. We traveled through Kobe, Koyasan, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Unzen, Kurokawa and Kyoto. The disaster appeared to have no impact on most people living in the areas we traveled though, though obviously some people must have had relatives in the quake/tsunami area. We did notice that some people were traveling from the area north of Tokyo, to the southern areas, to put distance between themselves and the area of disaster, eg some ski resort areas were closed for fear of avalanche from aftershocks.
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| Osaka's castle |
Many Japanese people are concerned that the disaster will effect tourism. My daughter attended a science conference in Kobe and many people who were going to attend the conference did not come, or arrived and flew back home immediately.
The media appeared to be over-reactive with their reports. The media was claiming that there was no power, food or water in Tokyo and that radiation levels were dangerous. I don't think that was entirely true.
I am so glad we decided to go ahead with our plans. I adored Japan and the people of Japan. The food, accommodation and sights were wonderful. We felt very safe in Japan but tried not to look at the news reports. I will travel back to Japan in the future and I will promote travel to Japan to people here in Australia.
I spoke with travellers who arrived in Tokyo the day after the disaster and they said they did not feel there was an absence of food, water or electricity. They (like us) wondered why people back in our home countries were so worried about us. People at home were getting all their information from the media unfortunately.
One of the things I noticed, as a follow-on to the disaster, was that groups of corporate people as well as monks were on the streets of Kobe, pleading for donations to help the disaster victims. I admired their ccommunity spirit and gave money to as many groups as I could.
Regards, Jo-Ann Kafer
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