Dodging disasters in Korea and Japan

[offshore171]

Ah Myoko Kogen! I've been twice despite not being a skier at all
Akakura Kanko Hotel is worth all the trouble in the world!

I can recommend a local Ryokan in the middle of the village that is also excellent: Oyada Furuya.

Natural onsens in the rooms, and they do an epic banquet dinner.

 

[rbjhan]

I can recommend a local Ryokan in the middle of the village that is also excellent: Oyada Furuya.

Natural onsens in the rooms, and they do an epic banquet dinner.

It's in the village isn't it?
Think I saw it when going to the snow shoe tour.

 

[offshore171]

It's in the village isn't it?
Think I saw it when going to the snow shoe tour.

Yes, a few doors up from the convenience store in the middle of the village.

 

[fly2earth]

That was when news filtered in of dodged disaster #3. The Haneda airport collision between an A350 and a Dash 8. We were supposed to fly into Haneda a couple of days later.

2024 Haneda Airport runway collision - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Many readers would be aware of this incident which made the news around the world, but briefly, the Dash 8 was a JP Coastguard aircraft, doing disaster relief operations for the previous day's quake.

I fired up FlightRadar 24 and there was almost nothing coming or going into Haneda.

Planes were being diverted all over the place. Interesting times.

Sadly, several crew members on the Dash8 were killed, however, every single passenger on the A350 survived despite a full destruction of the aircraft. This must be the most successful evacuation of a wide body airliner ever?

Talk about close call..
I was planning to book a ticket out of Tokyo with no avail (prices were either really expensive and points bookings weren't available for any reward flights). Luckily I found a JAL flight that leaves same day I booked it booked it in Odaiba around 3pm and rushed to the airport to make the flight at 7:45PM since there were no reasonable flights for the upcoming few days (Dec 29 also during the night as the Haneda incident which happened exactly 4 days after my flight took off). Luckily that award flight was open otherwise I would have been stuck in HND until T minus 0 and we all know how that went. Also narrowly avoided the quake as well by 3 days. Still a "tiny bit" of wiggle room for error but too close a call to the likings for the insurance company (thank god for them I do not have travel insurance because Woolworths did not have the travel insurance promotion back then)

 

[fly2earth]

Talk about close call..

So by this point we had just missed:

1st Jan New Year's Day Earthquake

Ishikawa quake triggered by faults that were dormant for 4,000 years

Through ground uplift, the total land area of the Noto Peninsula has expanded by 4.4 square kilometers.

www.japantimes.co.jp

2nd Jan Political Assassination Attempt in Busan

South Korea's Oppn leader Lee Jae-myung survives assassination attempt in Busan

South Korea's opposition leader, Lee Jae-myung, narrowly survived a vicious assassination attempt in Busan, sustaining a neck injury during a public appearance. The assailant, feigning a request for an autograph, attacked Lee with an 18cm knife, sparking nationwide condemnation. Lee's advocacy...

economictimes.indiatimes.com

2nd Jan Plane Crash at Haneda

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/fire-breaks-out-plane-runway-japans-tokyo-haneda-airport-nhk-2024-01-02/

5th Jan North Korea shelling South Korean territory the day after we visited the DMZ!

North Korea fires artillery shells towards South's border island

South Korea had afterwards issued an evacuation warning to its civilians on the island.

www.bbc.com

And finally we experienced an earthquake.

At this point I was wondering if we would have a Godzilla encounter!

Fortunately there was no major damage in town, other than things like shelves and furniture falling over. Still, quite an experience.

And I had narrowly missed all the events you mentioned in your post (I was located near the centre of action minus the Busan since I was never at Busan). Oh the irony...

 

[fly2earth]

After the museum we jump on the metro back to City Hall.

At this time I managed to do one of the dumbest things I can recall while travelling.

I tapped on to the metro and entered the station. This station had no turnstile to enter - just tap and walk through. The machine made a different beep to what I was expecting. As I was boarding the train, I worked out that I had tapped on with my hotel room keycard, instead of the Tmoney transit card.

And of course at the destination station (City Hall) there were turnstiles to exit and my Tmoney card wouldn't let me out because I hadn't tapped on in the first place. I ended up crawling under the turnstile. Living the dream.

At city hall, an ice rink was set up for new years eve


View attachment 369446

I was here around Christmas (then flew to Japan for 3 days on OZ J (not the OZ OZ but the Korean Asiana OZ, which was really tired and underwhelming and find the lettuce beef bimibop portion to be quite small. Compare that to the JAL J "suite" and how fancy everything is even though it is only a 2.5hr regional flight makes OZ zeem economy class in comparison (minus the wide OZ seats although the JAL J "suite" beats it by a mile). However redeemed it as part of my continuing trip from AUS->ICN->TYO so can't complain since the segment is nearly free). It really feels like Christmas in Korea (versus Japan where everything is dead).

 

[fly2earth]

And I had narrowly missed all the events you mentioned in your post (I was located near the centre of action minus the Busan since I was never at Busan). Oh the irony...

And not like I have any reason to be there (only first time visiting both SK, second time visiting Japan). Both considered extremely safe countries. And the fact that HND and NRT are one of the safest in the world (after all it is Japan).
Reminds me of the meme: I don't visit Japan and South Korea, but when I do...