Twenty-two Taiwanese tourists in Hokkaido, Japan, were rescued by the Japan Self-Defense Force on Sunday after being trapped in a tour bus for about a day by the snowstorm which has affected the country’s northeast region.
The group was scheduled to spend five days in the Hokkaido region on a trip organized by Taiwan’s Richmond Tours.
According to the tour company, the snowstorm hit when the group was on its way to a hotel in the town of Saroma, Hokkaido.
As the storm worsened, the tour bus was unable to move forward and became stuck about 1km from the hotel.
Richmond said that the Taiwanese tour leader had quickly informed the company about the situation and called Japanese police for help.
The tour leader also contacted Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau for emergency assistance, the company said.
The company said that both the Japanese police and the Japan Self-Defense Force had managed to reach the area in which the tour group was stranded on Sunday morning, adding that all the group members were safely moved to a children’s facility in the town of Tokoro to take refuge.
As the weather improved, the group continued the rest of its tour yesterday and is scheduled to return to Taiwan today, the company said.
Some of the tourists described the fear they felt when trapped on the bus in an interview with TVBS News.
“The snow was about to cover half of the tour bus,” one of the tour group said.
“We were worried that we would die here if rescuers did not come soon ... The hotel had sent a bus [to collect the tourists], but the snow clearing vehicle had also become stranded in the snow. We could only wait there in the bus and hope that there would not be an avalanche,” the tourist added.
Among the 22 Taiwanese, which comprised the tour leader and 21 tourists, two were children less than two years old.
After running out of food, the members of the group had to make do with the remaining bottled water on board the bus.
They used trash cans as toilets and turned the backseats of the bus into a temporary restroom.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has only issued a “red” alert for travelers heading to Japan’s Fukushima District, particularly the area within a 30km radius of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
The Japanese government restricted entry to the area following the nuclear accident in 2011, the ministry said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it