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Comment by rogy | Hacker News Reader

on a side note, i have a week of PTO booked in tokyo then a week in kyoto/osaka, leaving friday. do you think its safe to travel?

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Booked when? Even if booked tomorrow, you’d be there two weeks.

Consider Korea. Two weeks ago, 28 cases, same as they had has for weeks. The current outbreak in confirmed cases only began growing one week ago, on Feb 19th.

The country is now entering lockdown, and some countries are banning flights from Korea.

If your flight leaves, say, tomorrow, you risk the same happening by the time you leave.

If it leaves further in the future, you have the good fortune of being able to wait and observe. If it gets worse you maybe able to get refunds on flights/hotels. Either directly or via cc. (As flights may be cancelled)

If it gets better, you can keep it. But if you leave now you’re taking a gamble you won’t have a lockdown before the end of it. This is moving fast, and japan is reporting new cases daily.

Note: the risk profile of being in a place is different from living in a place. If you live in a place you can just stay home. If you travel you have all manner of dependencies, and none of your usual supplies.

No, the handling of the situation is worse than has been widely reported in the west. Japan is functionally doing nothing to contain it’s spread right now:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/opinion/coronavirus-japan...

Japan has very poor rankings on press freedom, reporters are routinely fired for questioning the government, and Abe has a long history of being a dishonest, self-serving, authoritarian.

https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-japan-press-freedom...

They should be responding like Korea has been, but instead are just ignoring the situation.

Yup.. because the games must go on!! /s

I just got back from a trip to Asia 2 weeks ago.

Be prepared for travel disruptions. My connecting flight was canceled when my destination country decided no more flights from not only China, but a few surrounding countries.

Had to buy alternative tickets last minute to take a detour and get where I wanted to go.

Just FYI, this evening NHK news announced that most museums, theaters, and art galleries are being asked to close. Most events such as Sumo wrestling tournament are also considering closure. PM has asked all large events to be cancelled.

In my city, not on your itinerary, all elementary and junior high schools are being requested to close. All community volunteer oriented events and classes are being cancelled for whole month of March. All government employees are being asked to wear mask. All events in government buildings being asked to close.

Things are moving rapidly since government came back from long weekend.

I don't suppose you have an (English) link to that news story? Im getting concerned about my (tourist) trip next week if stuff I want to visit is closed.

Check the websites for places you're interested in visiting. A number of museums have announced closures.

I did that, I only found the Ghibli Museum and Tokyo National Museum, the former announced last week. Hello kitty land also seems to be closed.

Sorry I don’t have a link. Check /r/japantravel on Reddit. They have a Coronavirus megathread going and lot of other fellow travelers are posting information.

Brilliant, not a reddit user so didn't think to check there. And there is so much great stuff on there aside from the bad news about closures. Thanks!

Personal anecdote as I've been in Niseko (flew in through Tokyo) for two weeks and people in the area don't seem all that concerned. All of the locals on the trains are wearing masks while foreigners don't seem to be. There is hand sanitizer literally everywhere (alcohol based) and we brought masks to be safe.

I have noticed a high number of Chinese tourists in the Niseko region on vacation though and overheard some families from Hong Kong talking about vacationing outside of China to avoid the virus. Not sure this is something to be that worried about - I'll leave it up to you.

Things are changing quickly with Hokkaido now closing down all elementary and jr high schools https://www.nippon.com/en/news/yjj2020022600658/hokkaido-to-...

Not wise, IMO. Look how quickly things blew up in Korea and Italy, and Japan seems to be in denial.

You’re probably fine? Most things are running, though big events are cancelled and a lot of companies are implementing mandatory work from home policies.

Tokyo is where it’s the worst, right now

I'm quite literally in the same position as you right now. As long as the CDC doesn't bump their warning up to a level 3, I'm going. The cost of the flight + no refund makes it difficult for some of my party to walk away from. I'm still fairly worried and my company is having me self quarantine for half a month when I get home.

Are you a member of a group with higher risk for this like the elderly or immunocompromised? If so I would avoid it.

On the other hand if you are young and fit and capable of following the standard precautions I don’t think you have too much to worry about.

I say this as I’m about to depart from Thailand for Taiwan

young, fit, have global travel, health and emergency insurance and enough savings to immediately head to the airport if we needed too..

I think people forget whilst they are themselves fit and in a low-risk category, they will still get ill just probably not severely, and importantly will be a carrier to spread the virus to others. To near-family, children, nieces & nephew and grandparents, or just to more at-risk people they meet on the bus, cafe, office, hospital, etc.

Or indirectly to other fit people who eventually down the line infects a high-risk person.

So I think it is quite selfish to expose yourself unnecessarily. I don't think we should stop everything we do, life still goes on, but just be considerate of others.

Not really to children

CDC has japan at a level 2 alert.

Why are you going to japan/what do you want to do there? If it's not essential for you to go, then it's probably an unnecessary risk. With how quickly the disease is spreading, 2 weeks is a long time for things to get worse, and there's always the risk of you becoming a vector for disease so it's more than just your own health to worry about in terms of safety.

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/alert/coronavirus-japan

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