I’m back on safe grounds. For the moment I’m glad about that, since you can’t actually say that it is safe in Japan. The main problem is the media blackout. They are holding back important information about air and food radiation levels so that you can’t actually tell if you are safe or not. With a normal Geiger counter you can’t measure small amounts of radiation in food. So even if the food is not contaminated to a degree that will kill you within a short period of time, it could be contaminated with small amounts that will present you with cancer in 20 or 30 years…

If you are wondering were all those posts about radiation levels and the radioactive soil went:

I decided to take the posts about radiation offline since the Japanese government has decided to advance the media blackout and check the internet for “false information” (probably every information thats not been filtered and whitewashed is false information for the japanese government). I guess that they are creating black lists and since I am keen on getting a visa next year,  I’m probably better off not doing anything to upset them…

For anyone who is curious about what I’m talking about: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201108116035

Since me and my wife took the opportunity to get a Japan Rail Pass (Yes even Japanese can get one when married to a foreigner), we decided to use it as much as we can. So before actually going up to Miyagi to visit my parents-in-law, we decided stay in Osaka and pay Hiroshima, Kyoto and Nara a visit (again).

Japan Rail Pass

When visiting Japan, foreigners have the opportunity to get a Japan Rail Pass that allows them to travel on JR trains (including Shinkansen) for a set amount and period. You can choose between a 7, 14 and 21 day pass, which cost 28300yen, 45100yen and 57700yen. The only downside is that every day you that you don’t use it, you have the feeling that you are losing valuable time. But even if you only travel to Osaka and back to Narita you come of cheaper using the Rail Pass.

There are also other types of rail passes available for each region. For example if you get an JR EAST PASS you can travel on all JR Lines from Tokyo up to Aomori (but for example not to Osaka) Those region limited Rail Passes are cheaper, and there are sometimes also other options like the flexible 4 day pass that allows you to choose 4 days within one month on which you would like to travel.

There are view limitations on these rail passes. For example you can’t use the Nozomi Shinkansen. Just check before starting your journey, so that you aren’t surprised.

Links:

Japan Rail Pass – http://www.japanrailpass.net/

JR EAST PASS – http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/