Hitchhike adventures since the March 11th earthquake

Mrs. Ayami who took me from Hirosaki to Namioka city in Aomori Prefecture on July 9th.

I haven’t felt it appropriate to write about my adventures meeting people hitchhiking in Japan since the catastrophe of March 11th. People are still suffering and I want to do what I can to help those who are going directly to the disaster areas to treat people with Post Tramatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

This is just to say I’m still hitchhiking, people still pick me up, and I still need to travel this way to do my job and save money at the same time. Since March 11th I hitchhiked 22 days in 75 vehicles and traveled 6400 kilometers. Some of the people I’ve met have been directly involved in the relief efforts. One man came from as far as Sasebo city in Kyushu to Soma city in Fukushima.

On July 11th I passed through Fukushima city on the Tohoku Expressway. Radiation levels in Fukushima city are higher than other places in Fukushima Prefecture where people are still allowed to live, even higher than in Soma city which is 20 kilometers closer to the damaged nuclear power-plants. This is because the wind happened to be blowing toward Fukushima city when one of the plants had a chemical explosion. The no-go zone is a 20 kilometer radius around the powerplants. The inhabitants of that area have not only lost their homes and land, but any livestock and crops they happened to have.

Merely passing though Fukushima city presents no danger from radiation. The Fukushima city people have not been reporting any radiation sickness. So far not a single person has died from radiation, not even the ones who worked close to the plant to cool down the reactors. For this reason IMHO I consider comments from so called “experts” that Fukushima is far worse than Chernobyl to be nothing but hype and fear mongering! According to world-nuclear.org 30 operators and firemen died within three months since the Chernobyl accident. It’s now been four months since the Fukushima powerplant meltdown, and not one power plant worker has died or is even ill from radiation!