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Japan trip report 3 weeks after the quake (long)


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[sorry for the delay in this being posted, hhaidar did try to post this earlier but for some reason it wasn't appearing.]

 

I would like to thank everyone on the forum who helped me out with planning my trip/giving me info about Japan, and encouraging me to come after the events of March 11th when everything at home said don't go. I also appreciate that people read what I wrote and took the time to comment on it and also to criticize. I'm hoping I can clear a few things up with this response.

To address some specific criticisms...in the line about "Fukushima being under control" all I meant there was that it no longer looked like it was going to explode or fully melt down, (which for a week or two was a real concern). Its certainly going to take many years to deal with the damage there...I just meant it didn't look like it would affect our trip.

Here in the US, the media has completely run away with the Japan radiation story, obviously sensational headlines sell. There is no conceptualization that Japan is a large country, some areas are going to be hurting for a long time, and other areas (such as where I was) are ok to travel to. This year's northern hemisphere travel season is about done, but I wanted to encourage people to consider Japan in their plans for next year.

I will be the first to admit that I was only in Japan for 9 days, and those were ALL spent in tourist areas that didn't get hit as hard (or in Niseko's case at all). I was only there for a week and a lot of forum members live there. I hope you can appreciate that I was in no way trying downplay the very real struggle and suffering that's going on in many parts of Japan.

At the same time there are many parts of Japan that are safe for travel and I would strongly recommend Hokkaido as a snow travel destination for next year. The last thing the economy needs is everyone to pull out and go elsewhere.

Thank you for reading my very long, rambling post. I have a lot of respect for the snowjapan forum and hope to stay active here... I felt I owed the Forum a response.

Thank You,

Hanna

p.s. I'm not in the travel or marketing business. I am a snowboard instructor from Warren, VT.

 

 

 

 

 

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