Evacuees get top accommodation at defunct hotel but worry about future(JAPAN)

Mariko Kadowaki (center), a manager at the now-defunct Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward, welcomes two sisters coming "home" from school with a smile. (Mainichi)

The Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka, which recently closed, has reopened as a temporary accommodation facility for evacuees affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant disaster, with some 800 residents currently calling it home.

The hotel, nicknamed "Aka Pri" (short for Akasaka Prince), closed on March 31, after 55 years of operation. However, it opened its doors again in early April in cooperation with the Tokyo metropolitan government, primarily to accommodate evacuees who had been forced to leave their homes due to the ongoing nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant.

Initially only 2 percent of the hotel, which has a capacity of 1,600, was filled because of a stipulation that the rooms would only be available to users until the end of June, while evacuees were looking for more long-term housing that would allow them to start rebuilding their lives. Another round of applicants was accepted in mid-April, however, bringing the number of "guests" up to 800.

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of the human side of this tragedy. I cannot imagine losing my loved ones and my home in such a way, and then having to adjust to a different life entirely. And it can be so much harder on the children. My heart goes out to them. :grouphug: :grouphug:

Kochira koso!^^"