Myself and my mother traveled to Japan on 8/4/11 - 27/4/11. We found the people welcoming and really willing to help tourists with only a very basic grasp of Japanese. We flew into Kansai and traveled to Osaka, Nara, Koya-san, Kanazawa, Takayama, Nagoya, Hiroshima, Miyajima & Kyoto. I can safely say that had I not known about the chained disasters (and been watching the news and travel advisories very closely before leaving), the only indication I would have had that there was a problem within the country was the sheer lack of other tourists. We spoke to many of the hotel, ryokan and hostel staff while traveling and all mentioned the huge numbers of visitors not in attendance. One particular hotel told us that they usually would usually at that time of the year have no vacancies, but that this year we were their only visitor during that week.
 |
| Takayama |
Many of my colleagues spoke of fears before I left such as lack of food, electricity cuts, transport breakdowns and nuclear radiation. Indeed I had originally been intending to travel with a friend who chose to pull out a fortnight before departure. Once into the country however, the only example I experienced over the 20 days was 1 train not able to get through due to a signal box further up the line being hit by lightning.
Essentially, from what I was able to tell, in areas not directly affected by the quake, tsunami & malfunctioning power plant, life seems to be going on as usual. During the cherry blossom period Hanami parties were going on, in Takayama the Spring Festival was in full swing and the Kyoto markets were as amazing as I'd heard they could be. I think that many tourists have been put off by sensationalist media journalism and it's a real shame as it has really hurt the Japanese economy more than anything else.
I hope that this information has been of some use to you and your website. If you would like any further information or clarification on areas, please don't hesitate to e-mail me.
Kirsten Stroak
No comments:
Post a Comment