It’s a stressful time, and being told to stay at home as much as possible to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus isn’t fun for any of us, either the people cramped up indoors or the many businesses that are having difficulty dealing with a huge drop-off in businesses. Today Masanori Tanimoto, governor of Ishikawa Prefecture, received ire from Twitter as well as Japan’s media for promoting his rural prefecture as s good location for stressed Tokyo-ites wanting to get out of the city and enjoy tourism of his prefecture during the crisis.
Twitter immediately lit up with negative remarks about the governor’s suggestion, which would presumably result in the virus spreading from Tokyo more rural areas of Japan that have more elderly and fewer resources to deal with the virus than large cities. According to current data, there are no cases in Japan that aren’t adjacent to large cities like Tokyo, Osaka and Sapporo, and I’m sure most people in these parts of the country would like to keep it this way.
Ishikawa Prefecture is the peninsula that juts out into the Sea of Japan. It’s famous for its history, which includes the beautiful Kanazawa Castle which was built in 1592, and for the Kenroku-en Garden, said to be one of the three most beautiful traditional Japanese gardens. Going out into the Noto Penninsula you’ll find some rural fishing villages that are unlike any other place in Japan you’re likely to visit. (I had the good fortune to visit back during the days before running J-List, when I had actual free time.)
Ishikawa Prefecture is a lovely part of Japan, and hopefully we can all visit someday, just not for a while.
