Kyoto the Trip! Part 9 - Japanese Tourism and the Earthquake

Today marks exactly one month since the Tohoku earthquake devastated northeastern Japan. One of the side effects of the tsunami that has affected the country as a whole has been its effects on the tourism industry. The Japan Times reported last week that the number of foreign visitors to Japan arriving via Narita airport, Japan's largest, was down 75% in the period from the earthquake through to the end of March. Another article further suggests that domestic tourism is down as well.

We planned our Kyoto trip in late February, before the quake hit. At the time it looked like Kyoto would be bursting to the seams with tourists. We couldn't even book a hotel for all three days as every hotel in the city (except for some exclusive ryokan charging way more than we could afford) was booked for the first day. We ended up having to stay our first night in a business hotel in Shin-Osaka. The other two nights we spent at the Kyoto Central Inn (which is a good place to stay, location wise at least).
After the quake struck, we weren't sure if we should still go on the trip. Kyoto is closer to, but still quite far from, the disaster area. More than that though, it just seemed unfair for us to be doing something enjoyable at a time when so many people are undergoing so much misery.

This is a feeling that has been noticeable all across Japan. This last week saw the height of the cherry blossom season, which is normally Hanami party time in Japan. In my discussions with people around Fukuoka and from watching the news in late March as the season approached, it became apparent that a lot of people were worried about the Hanami season this year. Should they abandon their usual party plans out of respect for the dead or should they go ahead as usual in order to buoy everyone's spirits? Quite the conundrum.

In the end, Japan's cherry blossom party-goers, at least in Western Japan, went ahead and had their parties. Kyoto's Maryuama Koen was packed with revelers while we were there, and Fukuoka's cherry blossom hot-spot, Maizuru Koen, was likewise packed this past Sunday when we went for a visit. I won't try to justify our decision to go ahead as planned with some sort of self-serving justification (a-la "we're buying a sofa to support the country" that was the rallying cry of America's monied classes after 9-11). Suffice it to say that we couldn't think of any harm in going and staying home just out of some vague sense of guilt didn't seem right either. So we went.

Anyway, back to Kyoto. At first glance, the city seemed its usual self. Loads of tourists everywhere. Kiyomizu temple, as usual, was thronged with visitors, as were the streets leading up to it. Some local people we spoke to painted a different picture, however.

For 3 of our 4 days in Kyoto we got around on rented bicycles (see future post on this excellent way of seeing the city). The rental place, located just south of Kyoto station, told us that usually during the cherry blossom season they'd be swamped, but not this year. We didn't have any reservations, but were nonetheless able to get our choice of bikes each day just by showing up. They had plenty to spare, even on the sunny Saturday and Sunday that we visited.

The Yakitori restaurant that we ate dinner at on our second day was also suffering from the effects of the tsunami. The place was more than half empty when we arrived at dinner time and the waiter told us this was partly due to their having to cut back heavily on the menu items available. This is a problem that seems to affect a lot of restaurants that depend on distribution systems that have been ravaged by the crisis for their ingredients. A lot of the stuff on their menu was simply unavailable because the stuff needed to make it couldn't be procured due to the quake.

Other than those anecdotal accounts, its a bit hard to gauge the exact effects of the quake on Kyoto's tourism industry, which might be taken as a good barometer for Japan as a whole as the city is the country's main attraction. While the main tourist district around Higashiyama was packed (as usual) some of the sites slightly off the beaten path that we went to like Ninnaji and Sanzenin were the opposite - at times we almost felt like we had the places completely to ourselves. That may have been just coincidence, though we visited both those places on nice sunny days.

Anyway, I may as well end this post by reminding everyone (yet again) that opportunities to help the victims of the quake still exist and any contributions you can make would be greatly appreciated.

To be continued...

Related Posts:
- Kyoto the Trip! Part 1 - Tofukuji and Sanjusangendo
- Kyoto the Trip! Part 2 - Kiyomizu Temple and Maruyama Koen
- Kyoto the Trip! Part 3 - Ryoanji and Ninnaji
- Kyoto the Trip! Part 4 - Shopping Arcades by Night
- Kyoto the Trip! Part 5 - Antiquing Kyoto Style
- Kyoto the Trip! Part 6 - Cute Buddhist Statues
- Kyoto the Trip! Part 7 - Ohara and the Wrath of Mount Hiei
- Kyoto the Trip! Part 8 - Kyoto Station vs. Kyoto Tower

Stuff that Disgusts Me: People Laughing about the Tsunami

Its probably better not to blog when you are upset, but I'm going to go ahead and do so anyway.

One thing that a lot of people have been commenting on is how well people here have reacted in light of the scale of the tragedy. In a lot of countries disasters of this sort are a prelude to looting and a general "every man for himself" attitude. None of that has happened here. Even in the face of horrifying devastation and extreme scarcities of food, water, heating fuel and medical supplies for the close to half a million people who have lost their homes there have been no reports of looting, fighting or any disorder whatsoever among the survivors. The stoicism is best summed up by the elderly woman who, having spent hours trapped under the rubble, could only apologize to her rescuers for putting them to the trouble of having to save her.

Truly incredible.

I contrast this with the reaction I've been seeing from what I can only describe as truly awful individuals: Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. They actually find this massive tragedy to be a laughing matter. Literally, they are laughing about it. Like it is a joke. Thousands of people dead, thousands more missing. Funny stuff.

I stumbled onto these videos by "The Young Turks", who do some internet based political commentary pieces. The guy does an excellent job of pointing out just how awful Beck and Limbaugh are, and I recommend watching the (short) clips, which include the above mentioned incidents of them laughing about all of this.

The video about Beck is here and the video about Limbaugh is here.

I can't say much more as the Young Turks guy pretty much highlights just how much of a failure as human beings these two are. In Beck's defence I will acknowledge that he is clearly just a simpleton who is on a planet of his own and probably doesn't realize how inappropriate it is to be laughing when discussing tragedies like this.

Limbaugh though is way worse. He is actually mocking the victims of this tragedy directly. Beck is more laughing at his own bizarre religious rantings rather than the tragedy itself. Limbaugh though just finds what is happening here to be hilarious. Seriously, watch the clip. He is mocking these people:
Whose homes now look like this:
Who have lost loved ones and, as I write this, are struggling to survive in horrendous conditions without many of the basic necessities of life. These people are actually dying in these shelters it is so bad.

Hilarious stuff indeed.

Nuclear disasters, tsunamis, earthquakes and stuff

I'd like to thank everyone back in Canada, America and the UK for expressing their concern over the past few days for our safety. As the above photo, taken on Sunday, indicates, Ena and I are alive and well.

We actually took a few hours on a sunny afternoon to get away from the news of the multiple unfolding disasters going on all around here to sit quietly in a garden in town and have some tea:
We are indeed lucky to be alive and in a place where it is still possible to do this. Not everyone in this country is so lucky, as I'm sure you are all aware.

For that reason I'd like to put a good word in for some charities that are collecting donations to help the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the tsunami. I've sorted these into Japan and Canada based charities. Sorry for only putting those countries up, but that is where most readers of this blog come from and I have to economize on my time!

In Japan:

Peace Winds Japan

Japan Platform

Japanese Red Cross Society

In Canada:

CARE Canada

Oxfam Canada

Canadian Red Cross

Doctors Without Borders

Please give generously, people need your help!

Anyway, we are all quite concerned here about events going on up north. Entire towns have just been completely destroyed. I'm reminded of photos of Hiroshima after the bombing when I look at the images of towns along the coast in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures.

One of the side effects of this being reported in the press has been a run on emergency goods at stores in Tokyo. I was surprised when shopping today to discover that a bit of this had spread as far as Fukuoka. I was picking up groceries at our Jusco. Everything looked normal and there definitely hasn't been a wave of panic buying like what is going on up north, but still there was noticeably less stuff of the "emergency goods" type on the shelves.

The shelves where they keep the cheap bottled water had been stripped clean:
They still had some bottled water, but only the expensive stuff. So people are definitely stocking up on that.

The cheap toilet paper was also completely sold out:
ARGH! People, some of us actually need to be buying this stuff!

They were also out of tissue:
The cup-ramen aisle still had a fair amount left, but it was noticeably less well-stocked than usual:
At the cash register I noticed that the TVs they usually broadcast advertising on were all turned off with signs saying "turned off to conserve energy" on them. This is now a country that simply doesn't have enough electricity to go around:
Its not exactly a huge deal, but I give them credit for making an effort.

Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami

There was a big earthquake up in Touhoku today. Looks like a bad one. We couldn't even feel it down here in Fukuoka, so we are safe. Just glad that we live on a hilltop, our apartment is only a few hundred metres from the coast if a tsunami ever does hit.

Anyway, you know it is a bad earthquake if the newscaster has to wear a helmet while reporting it from the studio!

Edited to add:

I've noticed in the past couple hours that people overseas seem to be visiting this post looking for info about the quake in Fukuoka and Kyushu.

So here is what I know. There has been no damage in Fukuoka prefecture. NHK reported a tsunami warning (their lowest level one) for the Seto inland sea side of the prefecture near Kitakyushu, as well as Oita and Miyazaki prefectures. Kagoshima, Nagasaki and Kumamoto and most other areas of Kyushu also have warnings, though the quake didn't do any damage and couldn't even be felt way down here.

So if you've got friends or family in Kyushu, they are probably OK.