Want to visit Japan?Want to visit all 47 prefectures?
Don't think you can afford it?
Win it!
The deal:
Some lucky person will win 100 days to visit all 47 prefectures in Japan and blog about it.
The catch:
You can't have ever lived in Japan before. Application is 5USD (100% goes to a related charity).
Travel Volunteer is offering one lucky person or couple the chance to see all 47 prefectures in 100 days, for free!
The trip starts on September 15th - December 23rd 2011, ending with a trip to Tohoku on the 24th to give Christmas presents to children displaced by the recent tsunami.
The idea is that the winner will blog about their experiences in Japan and prove to people that the whole of Japan has not been destroyed by the tsunami, and life outside of the evacuation zone continues with little or no disruption.
The closing date for applications is July 31st, so if you are interested go to http://travelvolunteer.net/ for more information and instructions on how to apply.
"... prove to people that the whole of Japan has not been destroyed by the tsunami, and life outside of the evacuation zone continues with little or no disruption."
ReplyDeleteWhat if parts of the blog indicate otherwise? It seems like the conclusion is foregone, or is the blurb just unclearly phrased?
No, it is a foregone conclusion. I live in Japan in an area that is completely and totally unaffected by the tsunami. Japan is a bigger country than most people realize... It was not completely wiped out by the tsunami. Really, only a small part of the country was devastated by the tsunami. Other areas are suffering from some effects, like monitoring electricity usage. But a lot of the country was really unaffected.
ReplyDeleteIt would be like saying that Hurricane Katrina devastated the entire US. It destroyed the local area it hit and surrounding areas felt effects from it. But for the most part, the rest of America was unaffected.
Ah. So the blogger will therefore discover this "foregone conclusion" to be true? Perhaps whoever is sponsoring this trip could write the blogger's entries to ensure that his or her experience doesn't taint this line of narrative? What, exactly, do they need a blogger for?
ReplyDeleteI don't think that "the whole of Japan has not been destroyed by the tsunami" or "life outside of the evacuation zone continues with little or no disruption" are stretching the truth at all.
ReplyDeleteWell, it seems that Sam and Dom have certainly made up their minds already! I guess they didn't eat any beef recently (or are sure that, if they did, it didn't come from Fukushima). Personally, I agree that life in Tokyo is pretty much back to normal, except for the effects of some setsuden, but the government is certainly not telling the whole story, and new titbits seem to appear on a fairly regular basis. I just have a quarrel with the whole basis of the project, namely to "prove" something. If the blogger finds out something which proves the contrary, will his/her blog be censored or will he/she be asked to pay for the trip?
ReplyDeleteIsn't the idea here more one of solidarity? To show how Japan is a strong state which will not let the entire country grind to a halt because of events in a very small area, is how I see it.
ReplyDeleteJapanese tourism and export has suffered because of a misunderstanding of the scale of the crisis, which is presumably what this project is about.