Robert R. Gray

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got accepted to take a tour of the Fukushima disaster area. The travel company, Japan Wonder Travel, was advertising a free tour in return for sharing what you find social media. I had never heard of that kind of thing before so I was a little skeptical at first. I knew that whatever happened, it wasn’t going to be a normal kind of trip.

On the first day, we met in front of Tokyo station and were given Geiger counters. In Tokyo, the average level was 0.16 mSv/hr (millisieverts per hour).

From there, we took a bus to an area three kilometers (about 2 miles) from the Dai-ni nuclear power plant. One of the biggest surprises of the trip was that the level in that area was only 0.09 mSv/hr, significantly less than Tokyo. This is one of the main reasons they are doing these trips. The fear is overblown. Although the radiation level immediately around the power plant is still high, from three kilometers on out, the level is equal to or lower than in Tokyo. And Fukushima is a big place. There are parts of the Prefecture that are over 100 kilometers (about 62 miles) from the power plant.

This tour allows people to see the real conditions for themselves. The idea is to help revitalize the safe areas by sharing these stories and reducing the negative stigmatism that still haunts them.

I’ll be documenting each of the places I visited in Fukushima over a series of similar blog articles. If anyone is interested in taking the same tour I took, please contact me at raygray@me.com, and I can put you in touch with the person in charge. It’s an amazing opportunity to take a free tour of Fukushima (free travel and hotel, just pay for your own food), in return for sharing your honest experiences on your social media accounts.

The people who were evacuated and have now returned are struggling because the towns are empty. They want to get the truth out in order to help rebuild Fukushima. In the next article, I’ll show you what the conditions are like on the edge of the restricted zone.