Travel in Japan and X-ray

[zerobuttons]

Since the extent to which I had to go through X-ray examinations with my bag was a bit surprising, when visiting China not long ago, I would like to prepare before going to Japan in May.

I see that we have a few members here who live in Japan or travel there often. Can you guys give me a hint on what to expect at the following places, when visiting Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and nearby cities?
1) Shinkansen
2) Museums and public buildings
3) Airports

Please don´t misunderstand my reasons for asking. I´m not hysterical about this, the maximum ISO film I expect to carry is 160, and with this I always accept the expected X-ray exposures at airports.
It´s just that I would like to avoid repeating the situation from China, where a few of my film cassettes went through examination 9 times. I can see exposure stripes on negatives from those film strips.

 

[jonmanjiro]

No need to worry. There's no x-ray checks at all, except at the airport 😉

 

[maddoc]

I had three films (all 400ISO, one color and two BW) with exposure stripes when traveling from Sapporo Chitose to Tokyo Haneda and back in January 2009 ... :bang: (It only happened once and I think it had to do with the enhanced security measures before the G7 at Lake Toya near Sapporo, Hokkaido)

Otherwise Japan should be fine for somebody traveling with film. 🙂

 

[zerobuttons]

Thank you, Jon and Gabor. You two were of course the ones I hoped to hear from in this regard, since you must have all the experience.
Looking forward to visit Japan.

 

[hans voralberg]

I just went through 2 airport check there, all fine!

 

[flip]

Once you're on the islands, you're cool beans. I did have problems with some rolls brought from a US vacation by plane.

FWIW/ for flights within Japan, you can usually just snap off a shot or two to verify that it is really film and camera, rather than going through a scan.

 

[Haigh]

I have not had problems with Tri x in Japan or any where else but I always put them through in their plastic containers and on their own-never with my metal cameras.

Do enjoy Japan, I love going there.

 

[Luna]

My Neopan 1600 got scanned in Tokyo and Naha, no issues what-so-ever.

 

[zerobuttons]

I have more information about the iteneraries now, and it seems that I will only pass scanners in Copenhagen and in Osaka, since I will travel with Shinkansen within Japan. I guess there will not be any need for asking for manual inspection, then.

Thank you, all, for your answers.

 

[Mister E]

My Neopan 1600 was scanned in the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan over 20 times in two weeks and it came out just fine. Why do people worry about this?

 

[pixelatedscraps]

I was curious about this, too. I had heard of horror stories in the 70s and 80s how film got exposed by x-ray scanners, but I thought it had pretty much been resolved. That said, a lot of developing and undeveloped countries still use 1970s Soviet-era machinery, so...