I'm not alone in finding Japanese museums about earthquakes and tsunamis interesting and impactful; I know my friend Catherine who travelled with me in Tohoku last month is the same. This episode will test out whether it's just the two of us, or if more of you share this feeling - a yearning to understand more about these kinds of disasters, to get to know more about the human stories behind them, and a keen desire to share in the "hope tourism" equation of the scenario.

In this episode, I talk about three parts of my recent trip to Japan that fit under this idea of "hope tourism" - and not "dark tourism". As well as visiting the "Kaze no Denwa", we spent many hours at two new museums in northern Japan: the Iwate Tsunami Memorial Museum in Rikuzentakata, Iwate, and the Great East Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Disaster Memorial Museum in Futaba, Fukushima. We both found these visits so impactful, and I'm still mulling over a lot of what I saw and learnt there to this day.

Links:
“Really Long Distance” - This American Life episode about the Wind Phone - https://www.thisamericanlife.org/597/one-last-thing-before-i-go-2016/act-one
Iwate Tsunami Memorial Museum - https://iwate-tsunami-memorial.jp/en/visit.html
The Great East Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Disaster Memorial Museum - https://www.fipo.or.jp/lore/en
Hope Tourism - https://www.hopetourism.jp/en/
Walk Japan - our hike - Episode 308 - https://notaballerina.com/308
Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers
Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin
Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/310

I'm not alone in finding Japanese museums about earthquakes and tsunamis interesting and impactful; I know my friend Catherine who travelled with me in Tohoku last month is the same. This episode will test out whether it's just the two of us, or if more of you share this feeling - a yearning to understand more about these kinds of disasters, to get to know more about the human stories behind them, and a keen desire to share in the "hope tourism" equation of the scenario.
In this episode, I talk about three parts of my recent trip to Japan that fit under this idea of "hope tourism" - and not "dark tourism". As well as visiting the "Kaze no Denwa", we spent many hours at two new museums in northern Japan: the Iwate Tsunami Memorial Museum in Rikuzentakata, Iwate, and the Great East Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Disaster Memorial Museum in Futaba, Fukushima. We both found these visits so impactful, and I'm still mulling over a lot of what I saw and learnt there to this day.
Links:
<ul>
<li>“Really Long Distance” - This American Life episode about the Wind Phone - <a href="https://www.thisamericanlife.org/597/one-last-thing-before-i-go-2016/act-one">https://www.thisamericanlife.org/597/one-last-thing-before-i-go-2016/act-one</a> </li>
<li>Iwate Tsunami Memorial Museum - <a href="https://iwate-tsunami-memorial.jp/en/visit.html">https://iwate-tsunami-memorial.jp/en/visit.html</a></li>
<li>The Great East Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Disaster Memorial Museum - <a href="https://www.fipo.or.jp/lore/en">https://www.fipo.or.jp/lore/en</a> </li>
<li>Hope Tourism - <a href="https://www.hopetourism.jp/en/">https://www.hopetourism.jp/en/</a> </li>
<li>Walk Japan - our hike - Episode 308 - <a href="https://notaballerina.com/308">https://notaballerina.com/308</a> </li>
<li>Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers">https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers</a></li>
<li>Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - <a href="https://notaballerina.com/linkedin">https://notaballerina.com/linkedin</a></li>
<li>Show notes: <a href="http://notaballerina.com/310">https://notaballerina.com/310</a></li>
</ul>

The Thoughtful Travel Podcast with Amanda Kendle is a show for travel lovers. Each episode is packed with travel stories from fellow travel addicts on topics like using foreign languages, meeting the locals, getting lost and what we learn from our travels.

Tales from travel-lovers about why we travel and what we learn from it.

The Thoughtful Travel Podcast

The Thoughtful Travel Podcast with Amanda Kendle - established 2016 - helps travellers think about how our travels can be good for us and good for the world. We talk about how to make ethical decisions on our trips, sustainable and regenerative tourism, bringing back what we learn from the people and cultures we meet to improve our lives back home, and share the most memorable stories from travelling: fun, scary, educational and more. Most episodes include extracts from conversations with three different guests, centred on a particular topic, but you'll also hear occasional deep dive interviews, recordings from the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, and Amanda's own experiences from travelling past and present.

The Thoughtful Travel Podcast with Amanda Kendle - established 2016 - helps travellers think about how our travels can be good for us and good for the world. We talk about how to make ethical decisions on our trips, sustainable and regenerative tourism, bringing back what we learn from the people and cultures we meet to improve our lives back home, and share the most memorable stories from travelling: fun, scary, educational and more. Most episodes include extracts from conversations with three different guests, centred on a particular topic, but you'll also hear occasional deep dive interviews, recordings from the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, and Amanda's own experiences from travelling past and present.

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