Should be flying to Japan on Thursday...thoughts?
 

Hi guys,

I am supposed to be flying to Osaka on Thursday, and heading to Fukuoka via Kyoto, Kobe and Hiroshima, before spending about 2 weeks in Tokyo, Yokohama and the surrounding areas. I was due to be in Japan on holiday for a month.

I have of course been reading with great sadness about the natural disasters happening in Japan in recent days. I am however struggling to decide where the obviously sensationalist, fear-mongering newspaper articles meet the reality of the situation, with particular regards to the nuclear fallout risk, food/water contamination and food shortages.

My question is, how bad is it in Tokyo? And, if in my situation, would you fly to Osaka this week? There is a possibility I could cancel my trip and reschedule to October, by which time things will hopefully have settled down...

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated as I am genuinely unsure of what to do.

Many thanks for your time :)

MidnightSun

I'll ask again, what sensationalist fear-mongering articles are you reading? Can you post links?

You'll be fine.

The people in the Kansai area and West are unaffected and it's business as usual for them.

It is safe if it is not summer. (July-September)
It is predicted that it becomes a cruel power shortage now in the summer of this year though it is a power shortage due to the earthquake now.

The radioactive concentration observed in Tokyo is a maxima and 0.361μSv/h(03/15/2011).
Usual Tokyo is 0.045μSv/h. Yesterday's Tokyo 0.045μSv/h.
Usual Rome City 0.25μSv/h.(There are a lot of buildings of granite)

Possibility that Jong-il Kim launches nuclear missile due to hysteria.
There is a possibility that all people who are doing the cooling work become Greenpeace(NGO), too.
There are various possibilities. Do not relax your guard.

I'll be heading for Japan one day after you, don't worry too much.

From what I've heard the west is doing fine, of course it's smart to keep the news close in these times, just to be sure :)

lol! well said :)
The first one still scares me... that guy is fickle and unpredictable!

@OP; I live right next to Osaka, it's as though nothing has happened to Japan here, save a few donation boxes and the news.

That's a good point. Will the full power supply of the country be restored before summer hits in force?
It could be a nasty situation for the elderly and the frail if they can't have their air conditioners running.

Present maximum output of Tokyo Electric Power Company 3550kw
Average demand in winter 5000kw
Average demand in summer 5000-6000kw
Electric energy that is scheduled to be restored by summer 600kw:(

The core of Tokyo that has been excluded from the power failure(rolling blackout) area is scheduled to enter the power failure region in summer, too.

I worry about it. Refuge people who live will become painful summer, too.

I am scheduled to stop air-conditioning, and to decrease "Meat of the belly with an intense self-insistence".

Hi everyone, thank you for your replies.

@ MMM: there were various articles in UK newspapers citing "toxic clouds" hanging above Tokyo, and the Fukushima nuclear issue being "another Chernobyl", and "spewing vast amounts of deadly radiation into the air". Unfortunately I cannot find these articles online. Such articles I believe are used to sell papers, as oppose to report the truth.

I am very glad to hear that Osaka and further west is ok.

I was also concerned by the current status of Tokyo, for example: are trains operational, are blackouts still occuring and is food scarce on shelves?

Sadly the Live BBC coverage of the Japan situation stopped 2 days ago to be replaced by the Libya crisis, and so it is now more difficult to find accurate information about the current situation.

Regards

MidnightSun

My bud in Tokyo has no rolling blackouts where he lives and there's plenty of food on the shelves in stores, don't worry.

It is a large problem that present I do not have the one's girlfriend.
The obtaining paths other than (my)one's girlfriend are normal.

I work in Tokyo but living in Kanagawa, you should be fine.

I think the reason why BBC stopped the coverage is because, the worst is finally over ( I HOPE !! ).

try getting some information in japantimes.com

the roads going up there are slowly being rebuilt. JR Buses going to Ibaraki are currently runnning.

there are still aftershocks that reaches 6.0+ ..

Come to Tokyo- it's FINE!
 

Hello there,

I am living in Makuhari, right next to Tokyo and have to say that everything is FINE! I recently took a job here (after living here for several years in the past), and had to hear it from my friends and family. I figured the American news was sensationalized and I was totally right.

1. Yes, there are aftershocks. But even on the 6th floor of a building, all they are is a little shaky shake for 10 seconds at a time.

2. Yes, there is damage. But things are getting back on track. In my area, 95% of stores/restaurants have reopened. There is PLENTY of food. So much that I think I might pop. Trains are operating on a holiday schedule which is still frequent enough to do everything. Blackouts are every day as of now, but not in hotels from what I understand. They are only 3 hours at a time. It's fine.

People freak out because that's what people do. However, people here are calm and have gotten back to daily life. There is no to delay your trip. In fact, it's probably a good time to come because there will be less tourists because of the paranoia. I am surrounded by a million people and none of us, including all my fellow expatriate teachers, are going anywhere.

Check out my blog for more details and pictures:
Tam Does Japan… Again | Take Two in Tokyo

Sincerely,
Tam

Also flying out on 13th of April
 

Hi everyone !

My sister and I are due to fly to Osaka on 13th of April, spend a night in Takayama, go to Kyoto for 5 days then to Tokyo for 5 days.

The above post is VERY comforting and I would love to hear from some more people who actually live in Tokyo on whether or not it is safe to come to Tokyo at the moment.

I know the radiation isn't really a problem, that's just media hype, but the Australian government has advised that we do not travel to Tokyo, but have not expressly stated why this is.

Thank you for your feedback!

I'm going to Japan in June for 3 weeks. I read the FDA article linked in this thread, but it only talks about exports. What sort of precautions are being taken in Japan for food intended for restaurants, noodle bars ect...? Should I be taking any precautions such as drinking only bottled water when I go near Tokyo and avoiding certain foods, or is this not worth doing?

I mean, I'm gonna go anyway, and my itinerary isn't going to change, but I have cancer genes from all sides of my family (my dad's mum having died of throat cancer, my dad's dad from breast cancer, my mum's mum currently fighting liver cancer and I think my mum's dad has had prostate cancer), I'm gonna get cancer for sure. The thing is, it might not help my life expectancy if I start eating radioactive food for 3 weeks...So, any precautions I should take?

Contaminated food is not being sold. Food is being heavily tested, and food from areas with evidence of contamination is not being put on the market. Even if it is considered safe, consumers won`t touch anything from the area - so stores aren`t even bothering to stock any.

You have nothing to worry about unless you head up to the hit areas and start harvesting and eating things you find at the side of the road without even washing them.... And even then, you`d probably have to continue eating it for months on end before there would be any chance of it having an effect on your health.

Japan actually has more stringent rules on the amount of radiation that is considered "safe" in things intended for human consumption than most first world countries. (I know that the limit is less than half what is allowed in the US.) The chance that you`ll eat something contaminated is virtually nil.

If you think that any restaurants would be serving up contaminated food you're a fool. There is no problem at all with water in Tokyo. Outside of a limited area in Fukushima itself there is absolutely nothing to worry about. I doubt you're planning on travelling within Fukushima?

That is good to know guys!

but is this really true? I heard that the ocean and the groundwater is heavily contaminated still. Or is this already gone out of the water?

How did people wash themself, when the ground water was contaminated? I mean could you even take a shower then?

Also, is it really already safe again to drink out of the tap water as well?

All this goes for Tokyo of course.

The ground and sea water around Tokyo have no contanimation. The tap water is completely safe.

There is dangerous contanimation within a very limited area surrounding the reactors. People have been evacuated from this area.

Watch it here for yourself:

http://mextrad.blob.core.windows.net..._Tokyo_en.html

http://eq.wide.ad.jp/files_en/110424water_1300_en.pdf

Monitored data on environmental radiation levels in Tokyo


To understand it better...... look here:

http://eq.wide.ad.jp/files_en/110315whatsmsv_en.pdf

http://xkcd.com/radiation/


best,

.....................john

Thanks guys really appreciate it!

It may be - if you are hanging around in the direct vicinity of the plant. Of course, if you were, I think the contamination of the ground water would be one of the least of your concerns.

They weren`t in the area that was contaminated. The area around the plant has been evacuated, and there doesn`t seem to be any significant contamination of ground water beyond it.

It was always safe to drink the tapwater... Unless you were an infant planning to drink nothing but it for a year straight. (Assuming that the levels didn`t drop at all during the year, which they did almost immediately.)

I caught a bit of news from Russia-- where they were discussing Chernobyl and the fact that their other replacement could be a danger-- so they are manufacturing a sort of Safety COVER

but they also think that the fukishuma situation is extremely serious and believe that TEPCO is not being honest or realistic with their predictions.
Please do not downplay the seriousness of the risk to the Japanese re radiation.

Please do not overestimate or fear monger about it either.
Unlike in the case of Chernobyl, the situation is being monitored by numerous entities. TEPCO is not the only group able to check radiation levels, and to monitor the situation. The government is not trying to keep it all a secret, and monitoring equipment is now cheap enough that pretty much anyone can buy it.

It is not downplaying at all to say that there is no danger to those in Tokyo, and that you`re not going to eat contaminated food unless you walk around picking things from the side of the road in the affected areas.

No one has said that there are not going to be lasting, serious issues for the immediate area around the plant. But the core was not burning in the open like Chernobyl, and did not create massive clouds of high radiation to rain down upon huge areas. That simply did not happen, however much the media would like to fear monger about things.

Please keep in mind that the foreign media loves to hype things and keep viewers watching... So have seriously stretched the facts, and have been using "what if" scenarios so far removed from reality that it is not even funny...

+1... for sure.

Multiple radiation monitoring sites on the web all seem to put the levels in similar orders of magnitude. That says that either there is a huge overarching conspiracy..... or likely the data is somewhat accurate.

Ops....what's that....... there is a big black SUV with dark tinted windows parked in front of my house....... hey..... wait a mintue... who are you? Wait!...... What ............

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