The full effects of the Tohoku Earthquake of March 11, 2011 on the Japanese tourism industry won't be known for some time. Fortunately, its effects on monster fan tourists will be minimal.
Left, "The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan" will show tourists the way to monster locations.
The damage from the quake and the resulting tsunami was mainly confined to the northeastern section of Honshu (Japan's main island) where very few monster movie locations could be found. In the Tohuku region, the biggest city is Sendai, which was the location for Gamera 2 and briefly, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II. Both of those movies primarily featured Sendai Station, which still stands.
The main locale for daikaiju eiga movies was primarily Tokyo, which suffered minimal damage. The subways and trains are still running and life is rebounding back to normalcy, with the exception of possible rolling blackouts due to the hits two nuclear power plants took.
According to Breaking Travel News.com:
While painstaking rescue and recovery efforts continue in the severely struck Tohoku region, the capital city Tokyo has been recovering from a strong shock, and western Japan is unharmed.
Both Narita and Haneda airports have been reopened, although public transportation in and around Tokyo is not running at full capacity due to power shortages. Other popular destinations such as Kyoto, Osaka, Sapporo, Kanazawa and Hiroshima, didn’t receive any impact from the earthquake.
They also add:
Hokkaido, Kansai, Chugoku, Shikoku and Kyushu are unharmed, and tourism facilities and transportation service are operating as usual.
Some potential Japan travelers may be frightened by the hysterical fear-mongering of the U.S. media over the nuclear power plants. But those, too, are far north of Tokyo and won't present a problem for tourists. Just don't go into those affected areas and you'll be fine.
Persons wanting to visit Japan in the upcoming months can feel free to do so without fear. As stated above, Tokyo came out of this okay (as did neighboring Yokohama) and such locations as Mt. Fuji-Hakone, Atami, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Sasebo, Mt. Aso and Nagasaki were untouched by the quake and tsunami.
Whether you're planning a trip to Japan on your own or with a tour, the Tohoku Earthquake won't mar your enjoyment of the country. Go in confidence!
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