Signs of summer absent as radiation fears grip Fukushima (JAPAN)

Many children used to play in the park's fountain in Shinhamacho, Fukushima, on hot summer days but now the park is empty of children. (Kengo Hiyoshi)

FUKUSHIMA-- Certain scenes seem synonymous with summer, such as beer gardens and children playing in fountains.

But this year, such scenes are hard to find on the streets of Fukushima city, the capital of Fukushima Prefecture, some 60 kilometers from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, as concerns over radiation increasingly grip the city's 290,000 citizens.

Next to the prefectural office lies the Sugitama Kaikan, a hall for prefectural employees. The hall has a beer garden, complete with a beer dispenser in one corner and posters of draft beer and "edamame" soybeans. In normal years the garden would have already opened a month ago, but this year its doors remain shut.

Some 4,200 people visited during last year's fiercely hot summer, 800 more than the average year. However, a measurement taken at the garden last month recorded radiation levels of 1.65 microsieverts per hour.

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