Travelers cautious of coronavirus as 4-day weekend starts

If it weren’t for being too early, I won’t be on for this. Because yes, we do need to resume our lives, including industries that were hard hit by the shutdowns. But not at the expense of being reckless, especially in regards to the timing of all this.

80% of the foreigners dont wear a mask. That is the reality!

I was physically assaulted by a guard at a Michi no eki in Fukui today for not wearing a mask. He invaded my personal 1.5m social distancing space, touched my body without washing his hands, assaulted me, and touched his mask after touching me.

he is lucky I feel sorry for old losers.

23km traffic jams heading out of Tokyo in every direction is not cautious.

Huh? How so? They are in their cars, they are not interacting with other people, and are in effect practicing social distancing.

SO what if there are traffic jams, at least they are not on trains!

Get it right, cars are OK!

When losing colleagues and friends to this pandemic, it changes my perspective.

The unexpected devastating loss for their families is hopelessness, anguish, desperation, heartache and grief.

Go to could exasperate and move this pandemic into the most venerable within society, care homes and the elderly.

Mixed messages by the jgov and media: Stay Stay Stay! Go Go Go!

@Monty

80% of the foreigners dont wear a mask. That is the reality!

It is misleading posting comments like this as you have no way of knowing who is and who is not Japanese.

Went out today to bring my brother in law his birthday cake and every 3rd vehicular was from out of the prefecture (Osaka/Kyoto/Aichi/Yokohama...) It looked like Golden Week traffic on steroids here in Shiga. Even if people are being safe, there is a risk they can be carrying the virus without knowing. I don’t even feel safe to travel around my own city now.

I still wonder why they dont just move the holidays to later in the year when people can actually go somewhere and do something.

The Tourism industry is going to fail. This is why I have never depended on others to assist me in making a living wage.

Ah, the joy and happiness of posters on Japan Today.

I have been out and about, mask donned, staying away from anywhere that looks crowded, but spending a little money as my own tiny little way to keep the economy afloat.

Right, back off out now for a beer and a bite to eat (somewhere not crowded).

@Patricia Yarrow. not really much actually, you can read it at https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/07/23/national/tokyo-coronavirus-cases-top-300/

neverawajin (Awaji-shima?)

So, what did you say?

Should be renamed Go To Nowhere”.

to help local people we booked a hotel in Fukui. Almost all beaches are closed. You can’t get the virus in the sea! Loads of lost tourists driving around with nowhere to go or even park their cars.

on another note, whoever wrote this article about yesterday should of seen the biggest traffic jam I’ve ever seen in over 10 years. All plates from different prefectures. We abandoned our day trip and retired to Netflix.

Plus there are far fewer "at risk" people in Japan. I'm thinking about the morbidly obese, drug users, high blood pressure, diabetes, and so son. 

I appreciate it compared to the knee jerk panic in the west

Interesting. You tell us that Japan has fewer ‘at risk’ people making ‘panic’ unjustified. Many countries in the west do have more ‘at risk’ people but you appear to want these countries to react in the same way.

Seems a bit strange. I thought it would be a case of horses for courses.

@Atillathehungry. You think there are fewer at risk people in Japan. Really? What about all these elderly people, or don’t they count as human beings. As for ‘drug users’, where are they recorded as an at risk demographic? As for co-morbidities, Japan has them by the spadeful - hypertension, chronic lung disease (mostly due to smoking) and increasing levels of type 2 diabetes. Poverty is also shown to be a large factor in morbidity.

I think Japanese have a certain sense of fatalism in their culture. When you live in a place where earthquakes could happen any time, typhoons are a yearly occurrence, and so on, you develop a thicker skin about these things. If they happen, they happen.

Plus there are far fewer "at risk" people in Japan. I'm thinking about the morbidly obese, drug users, high blood pressure, diabetes, and so son.

I appreciate it compared to the knee jerk panic in the west.

azayamagori* exactly. You’d think this stuff would be a no brainer! You’d think...

Today  09:30 am JST

The reason for the travel promotion is to help the towns and villages on the verge of bankruptcy. I'm not sure if it's common knowledge but many of these places cannot survive without domestic visitors. Imagine an entire village basically having to close up, the death of an entire town. While it is essential all precautions are in place to reduce the spread of the virus, some people have other things to worry about, such as their livelihood.

I am on a very small island just north of Okinawa with a population of about 5000. A local nurse had visitors from a different prefecture. They had a party. Two days later the nurse felt unwell and stayed home. After she felt better she got back to work at the hospital for 3 days before developing a fever again. She got tested the day before yesterday and was declared a positive case. Yesterday the island head office reported 11 new cases and more than 80 cases pending. Most of the people here are elderly, the hospital is very simple and you could not imagine in main land Japan. It looks rather grim here. The local post office closed after one of the staff tested positive. The local city hall is closed because 3 staff are infected. The hospital has about 80 elderly patients and 40 nurses, doctors and staff. People are worried. Yes is is important to take all precautions, but just one visitor can ruin everything. Stop the stupid Go To campaign now!!

I'm grateful that people are here because the number of customers plunged due to the heavy rain," said souvenir shop owner Koei Hino, 42.

"But I'm worried about the spread of the virus with so many people traveling during the long weekend," he added.

The flip flop policies of the government and the dire inability to communicate the message ( there ain’t one as far as I can see ) strategies, appeals and advisories by the government has people here in the usual half informed, half minded, half committed state of limbo. Had a chat with a group of lads in their early 20s the other day about your run of the mill COVID facts. How the thing is transmitted, incubation periods, who is most at risk, etc and they failed on nearly all counts. Every morning I turn on the ABC news in my home country Australia for the live updates by politicians and experts as they plead to the nation, explain the latest updated policies, strategies, challenges, warnings and any prohibitive measures that may have to be taken.

I know Japanese culture has its own way of keeping things in order but a well informed and COVID savvy populace surely must be every nations goal? I guess we shall see how it all plays out. Not pointing fingers, just a bit concerned, especially talking to my students which is always a good litmus test.

There is a difference between "careless" and "don't care". I don't wear a mask because I don't care about others all that much. The infinitesimal chance that I may have the virus, then another infinitesimal chance that someone may be around me long enough to catch it, and then maybe take it to someone else who may catch it, then may have a 1% chance of dying.... sorry, don't care. Life is full of risk. We all manage it every day and have our own levels of acceptable risk.

At present, a grand total of one person in one hundred THOUSAND in Japan have succumbed to COVID. That's a rounding error, not a pandemic.

Did anyone read this article about Koike manipulating the numbers of virus cases, saying there are 2 in Shinjuku when there are really 40?

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/8e7350772f050bc3adc2a66ca7c31251d182c9be

It is way to early to be traveling anywhere, the only cautious thing to do is stay home.

people should enjoy going out while taking precautions

That's exactly what this 'article' is trying to rub off on readers.

ZERO comments whatsoever from people who chose not to travel.

@Marcelito

Both groups should use the damn masks around others.

I 100% agree with you!

@ Jimizo

You are in Tokyo Japan?

If yes, please open your eyes.

Even my coworkers here at my work are asking me already why foreigners don't wear a mask.

But I don't want to put that Mask topic too much into the foreigner corner.

Marcelito is correct by saying: Both groups should use the damn masks around others.

Not cautious round here. Travelling into the office early yesterday morning all the motorway signs were warning about massive traffic jams on the route to Kyoto.

I'm in Tokyo and in 1 day last week I saw 3 caucasian guys on 3 seperate occassions not wearing a mask. That was in and around Yamanote Ueno / Shimbashi areas. Can see how people get the impression they are careless.

23km traffic jams heading out of Tokyo in every direction is not cautious.

80% of the foreigners don’t wear a mask

That’s not what I see in Tokyo, sport.

The premise, logic and timing of the go to campaign supported by the 1.35 trillion-yen ($12.6 billion) tax payer subsidy is untenable, flawed, ill convened and economically unsound.

Without comprehensive contact tracing the spread of the pandemic is unstoppable.

Quantifying SARS-CoV-2 transmission suggests epidemic control with digital contact tracing

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6491/eabb6936

It will take six to twelve months to develop a clunky bolt on instantaneous digital contact tracing model and a comparison model to identify different transmission routes that can be recalled by the symptomatic individual.

However, per-symptomatic transmission would prevent any viable means to suppress the spread of the pandemic.

Its a shame that the surge in Covid-19 cases is mainly due to hostess bars, night crubs, and the "rahts and fredums" US military yahoos. They're ruining it for everyone else who are following social distancing.

All the staff at work have been staying home every day off for months. Another teacher and I sewed masks for everyone when masks were nowhere to be had. Staying late because of the extra cleaning and sterilizing procedures every night. There have been three corona scares but luckily no positives.

It all seems for naught when a student comes up to me on a Monday to tell me all about their trip to Disneyland, or Kidzania or the birthday party at the beach.

The reason for the travel promotion is to help the towns and villages on the verge of bankruptcy. I'm not sure if it's common knowledge but many of these places cannot survive without domestic visitors. Imagine an entire village basically having to close up, the death of an entire town. While it is essential all precautions are in place to reduce the spread of the virus, some people have other things to worry about, such as their livelihood.

@Marcelito

That means that you were also out yesterday.

Why didnt you stay home?

@Marcelito

You are right but I never said that ALL japanese are wearing a mask.

But please, if you walk around Tokyo, and you see foreigners, check how many are wearing masks. You will be surprised!

80% of the foreigners dont wear a mask. That is the reality!

And this is proofed by many posters here, when they explained in their posts here, that they refuse to wear a mask.

They always try to find any argue just as an excuse not to wear a mask.

Please read some posts from the past. Best example is Ashley yesterday post. Since weeks she or he is complaining about the handling of the virus in japan. But yesterday she posted that she and her son dont wear a mask. Hello???

Everyone is free to do that.

But on one side people can not complain about go to travel campain or about how bad japan is handling the virus, and on the other side they are not even willing to wear a mask.

Yep, I left Kanagawa for kagoshima yesterday.

We went out last night and we're turned away from an izakaya. The lady behind the counter was like "やめとこう。やめとこう"

I don't know it was due to me being a gaijin (my partner is Japanese) or they just didn't want tourists... Or we were just unlucky.

persistent concerns over rising novel coronavirus infections in the country.

Wasn't the Go To campaign actually supposed to start in August and was brought forward due to a premature belief that Covid-19 had been suppressed? This four-day weekend itself that drove the change in the Go To date is itself the product of the Olympics, and would not have happened otherwise.

I say this because Go To being brought forward to start this weekend is the result of an unforeseen spike/second wave of cases. It would not have happened had there been "persistent concerns over rising novel coronavirus infections". Let's not rewrite history while it is still happening.

The Go To campaign may end up a disaster, but the fall in tourism that inspired it is 100% real and many in that industry will have welcomed the campaign. It's probably an inefficient and hamfisted way of throwing money at the problem, but that's par for the course with most governments, never mind Japan's.

The beach was pretty quiet yesterday.

The traffic between Kobe Osaka and Shirahama yesterday was a nightmare that I will not experience again if I can help it.

Yep. People from Osaka travelling to Awaji Shima, Okayama, Shirahama. Its not gonna end well.

Yufuin is a perfect example of the risks involved with opening up travel and tourism. Oita prefecture has had no confirmed new cases of COVID-19 for months. The odds are very, very high that travelers from elsewhere will bring the virus into the prefecture.

I realize that at some point you have to get back to "normal" business and travel but this is not the time considering the trends in other prefectures.

 Just wait.

Yup, I thought the very same thing last night watching the news. In the course of the next two to three weeks I bet there will be a spike, (over-shoot in Japanese/rolling eyes here) of infections.

I am worried as there has been a HUGE jump in the number of tourists coming down here to Okinawa. Not mentioned on the national news numbers, but there are now over 160 cases in the military alone here on Okinawa, and total of close to 180. For some reason they dont count the military, even though they live here too, as being "infected" here in Japan.

Travellers are not cautious, just selfish. If you are cautious you stay home

Travelers cautious of coronavirus as 4-day weekend starts

But, not cautious enough to stay home.

I liken it to driving. You can be as careful as you want but there those who are not, and those who don't care. So you can get infected without even knowing, go about your merry way saying that you're cautious and life is short so you should enjoy it. Your don't show any symptoms, but you inadvertently transmit it to someone on the train or maybe even at the airport or on the plane. They go home to their child who has asthma and a parent who is in their 80s. Meanwhile subject A is merrily going around with the slight sniffles and is planning where to travel to next.

Going to Disneyland or USJ at this time is just dumb. Just wait.

If travelers were truly cautious they wouldn't be going anywhere. I saw just how much people are NOT being cautious from the news last night. There was no "caution" being shown anywhere!

Dont talk about "cautious" cause they are not showing it by their actions! Talk is cheap here!

@MontyToday  06:47 am JST

I think people should enjoy going out while taking precautions

Absolutely correct! 

Like I already said in many of my posts before, do your best personal prevention! 

Wear mask, wash hands, use sanitizers and keep social distance as much as possible and you COULD BE fine! No need to talk in absolutes.

Not many are travelling. Tourism related people are saying it was too early. The government proceeded the campaign to save them though. Timing was bad. The pandemic is spreading again. Exclusion of Tokyo affected a lot.

I'd avoid tourist traps as much as possible and stick to lesser known and hidden gems instead

I think people should enjoy going out while taking precautions

Absolutely correct!

Like I already said in many of my posts before, do your best personal prevention!

Wear mask, wash hands, use sanitizers and keep social distance as much as possible and you are fine!