# Discover Fukushima 福島: Japan's luckiest island, and radiation?



## RyukyuRhymer (Sep 23, 2007)

*Fukushima​*






Fukushima Prefecture is the third largest prefecture in Japan by size, but 20th in population (right in the middle) at 1.9 million

Major cities include Fukushima City, Koriyama, and Aizu.

Fukushima is known in Japan for beautiful women, strawberries, a giant water park in Iwaki, 

*What's in a name? Radiation*
These days Fukushima is associated with radiation because of the nuclear meltdown caused by the March 11,2011 tsunami that destroyed much of the prefecture's coast line.
One of the biggest problems in coverage of the nuclear disaster is framing it as the "Fukushima disaster". Although the affected area is in the eastern coast line, and much of the controversey stems from TEPCO's mismanagement (the operator of the nuclear powerplant).. naming it the Fukushima disaster instead of the TEPCO disaster unfairly creates a negative stigma that punishes the entire prefecture rather than the people who are the ones to blame.
Secondly, while the radiation is an issue, the affected area is on the coast line, only 10% of the total area. As mentioned, Fukushima is the 3rd largest prefecture in Japan and most of the large cities are inland, away from the affected areas









*Access*
While Fukushima does have an airport in Koriyama, it is limited almost exclusively to domestic flights from/to the Kansai region. Your best bet in coming to Fukushima is on the shinkansen/bullet train. Either fly into Tokyo or Sendai, and take the bullet train to Fukushima. The bullet train stops at the following cities: Fukushima, Koriyama, and Shin-Shirakawa. If you're taking the bullet train to Yamagata Prefecture, Fukushima is your transfer point.
You can also take the slow train from Tokyo up. This is far cheaper but will take up to 4-5 hours. To do this, take the Utsunomiya line to Utsunomiya, then transfer to the Tohoku Main Line until you reach the city of your choice

R1013786 by M Murakami, on Flickr

*Pics*

DSCN3047 Aizu-Wakamatsu! Naoko's hometown. by Bill McChesney, on Flickr

Aizu by cosmic-angler, on Flickr

藤田川ふれあい桜 Fujita River by かがみ～, on Flickr

鶴ヶ城 Tsuruga Castle by かがみ～, on Flickr

Mount Bandai by cotaro70s, on Flickr

大内宿の雪景色 (Snow scene at Ouchi-juku) by Hiroaki Kaneko, on Flickr

Giant pool by jenthero, on Flickr


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## Yellow Fever (Jan 3, 2008)

A pirate ship in the pool. 

Also, the cherry blossom is awesome.


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Beautiful, very nice photos from Fukushima


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## Slovenec (Feb 7, 2016)

radioactivity? oh, i see, it is mentioned in the first post, didn´t saw


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## Peregrin Tuk (Oct 20, 2007)

Nice thread Ryu!


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