Chernobyl Diary 2

Entering the Chernobyl exclusion zone.

The car left the city center and there were only trees on both sides of the road.
When the guide stopped the car, a monument to Chernobyl was standing there.

Note: This article has been translated from Japanese into English using "DeepL".

Click here to read the original article.

"This is Chernobyl."

The monument is said to say Chernobyl district in Ukrainian.
Two things like the medal are missing.

What does this represent? A steel tower?　Smoke coming out of a chimney?

Chernobyl is a 30 km radius exclusion zone centered on the nuclear power plant that caused the accident.
To enter the exclusion zone, you need permission from the Ukrainian authorities, but we left the procedure to our travel agency.

After a short drive from the monument, we came to a checkpoint where we met our other guide.
The one who met us at the airport was a guide from the travel agency, and the one who met us here was a guide working in Chernobyl. He is a handsome guy.

I thought they would ask me a lot of questions at the checkpoint, but there was no such thing, the guide presented the permit and I just showed my passport and that was it.
I did not even get out of the car.

When we passed through the checkpoint and started driving again, a handsome man handed me an A4 size paper and a pen.
He asked me to read it carefully and sign it.
The content was all in English, so I didn't understand what he was saying, but in summary, it was a pledge that I would follow the precautions during my stay and that I would accept whatever happened and would not sue anyone.
Oh, this is not a sightseeing trip.

Hotel is Our Room.

The exclusion zone does not mean that there is no one there at all.
There are people working at the nuclear power plant, and there are hotels and restaurants.
First, we went to the hotel.

What was this building .......

Here is the hotel.

It is neither particularly clean nor dirty, but rather a decades-old building.
Although it is called a hotel, it is for sleeping only and does not have a front desk or lobby.

The room was large, with a small room with a chair and table, a living room, and a bedroom in the back.
As I carried my carry case into the room, the guide came in carrying some kind of large white cloth.
What?

They were bed sheets.
I make the bed myself.
It is messy .......

I came alone and my guide is making the other bed. ......?

I was about to leave the big baggage behind and head out when my guide said to me...

"Hear is Our Room."

Our Room?
What is he talking about? Hour, hour, oh, I mean we. Room, room. Hour room, it means our room. Hmm, our room?

I shared a room with a guide.

Is that something you would say when you get there?
I was not prepared for this at all. ......
I heard that even women sometimes share a room with a male guide.
I guess it means that if you want to use the room alone, you have to pay for the guide's room.

I arrived at the hotel and within a few minutes of entering the room, there was a huge mess.
How many days had I been there?

It has a bathroom, but it is indeed old.
The old bath mats are sad. ......

First meal.

It was just noon, so we headed to a restaurant for a meal.
It was not a restaurant, but rather a cafeteria for the people working in Chernobyl.
At the time of our visit in 2013, nearly 10,000 people were working in the exclusion zone of Chernobyl.
Some residents continued to live there without evacuating.

We entered the building after having completed the inspection of radioactive contamination by the machine installed at the entrance.

This photo, taken at a different location, has the look and feel of an x-ray machine you might see during a physical examination.

The dining room was clean and neat but cold.
The people in the restaurant were eating in silence without looking at us.
Guide told me to sit there, and as I waited, I looked around, It seemed to be a self-service restaurant, where you receive your food at a counter.
Guide brought me my drink and food.

...... looks bad.

I don't know what to say, but the appearance is not appetizing at first.
And when you put it in your mouth, ...... it's not good. It doesn't taste good. Is it because it tastes bad that the texture is bad, or is it because the texture is bad that it tastes bad? Anyway, it doesn't suit my palate. It makes me feel sick when I eat it. I can still manage to drink the stew, but the scrumptious bread, potatoes, and something mysterious are tough. Some people said they enjoyed the food, so it is just that it was not for my palate.
Guide and the handsome guy ate everything because they were used to it, but I never made any progress. I wonder if the food will be like this for the whole stay. ...... Anxiety.

To be continued in the next issue.