However, unfortunately, many areas in Japan have been covered by a very high level of yellow dust (黄砂) mainly from the Takla Makan Desert, the Gobi Desert and Loess Plateau in China for the last few days. Beautiful scenery in many tourist spots have become hazy because of the dust. On top of that, the yellow dust level is high to the point where people are discouraged from going out. As far as I remember, the dust is the worst it's been in the last few years. Why has such high level dust come to Japan during the time when many people are finally trying to enjoy their holidays?Thursday, May 5, 2011
The yellow has screwed up the gold !?
The week from the 29th of April is referred to as Golden Week in Japan. Around Golden Week, generally, international airports are filled with tourists. However, this year, these airports aren't very crowded. I think that you can guess why. This is because the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in March, when many people usually start making reservations for their trips during Golden Week. Since Japanese people were very shocked by what happened on the 11th of March, and felt that serious things could happen again, many of them didn't feel like they should make plans for their Golden Week holidays.Rather than this, they couldn't afford to pay attention to their holiday plans. However, since Golden Week started, there has been heavy traffic on the highways. Tourist spots in Japan have been busy contrary to expectations.
Since a week before Golden Week started, it has been frequently highlighted in the mass media that people other than the victims should try to enjoy their holidays and spend money to boost the Japanese economy, and then it will surely help to rebuild the disaster-hit areas. On top of that, strong aftershocks haven't occurred for about the last two weeks although small ones still frequently hit various areas. I think that these things have encouraged people to travel in Japan. It's been reported that two giant pandas at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo-- they came from China two and half months ago---have been busy pleasing people, especially children since Golden week started. The zoo is much more crowded than it was during the same period last year. When I passed by Tokyo Station yesterday, I was surprised by how many people were there. At the same time, I was glad to realize that some things had gotten back to normal.
However, unfortunately, many areas in Japan have been covered by a very high level of yellow dust (黄砂) mainly from the Takla Makan Desert, the Gobi Desert and Loess Plateau in China for the last few days. Beautiful scenery in many tourist spots have become hazy because of the dust. On top of that, the yellow dust level is high to the point where people are discouraged from going out. As far as I remember, the dust is the worst it's been in the last few years. Why has such high level dust come to Japan during the time when many people are finally trying to enjoy their holidays?
However, unfortunately, many areas in Japan have been covered by a very high level of yellow dust (黄砂) mainly from the Takla Makan Desert, the Gobi Desert and Loess Plateau in China for the last few days. Beautiful scenery in many tourist spots have become hazy because of the dust. On top of that, the yellow dust level is high to the point where people are discouraged from going out. As far as I remember, the dust is the worst it's been in the last few years. Why has such high level dust come to Japan during the time when many people are finally trying to enjoy their holidays?