We are determined that 3.11 (11th March 2011) will not be forgotten!

05. 02. 2013 From Ofunato-shi & Rikuzentakata-shi of Iwate Pref. Kisennuma-shi, Minamisannriku-shi & Ishinomaki-shi of Miyagi pref.

Ofunato-shi Iwate pref.

This day, it was not possible to take photos as the Kosodate-ship: Home visiting team was being documented.

Compared to last year, we could see that there were temporary shops and works being done to build shops. It is now possible to buy a minimum amount of everyday essentials from the grocery stores and pharmacies. A good thing that we noticed that the cost of the goods were very cheap (for example, liquid Attack (a brand of laundry detergent) was around 168 yen. Other things, though the choices are limited, felt cheaper than Tokyo). Maybe due to our driver's guide (a Husband of Ito, who is a representative of Kosodate-ship), our impression was that there were lots of Ramen shops! (Ramen is a Chinese style egg noodle soup that is part of Japanese food culture).

The waste incineration site is one of the only locations that escaped the damage from the disaster in the coastal area and all the rubbles are gathered here. There are many ships carrying rubbles seen at Ofunato bay. A part of the Ofunato bay is being filled with rubbles and diggers and bulldozers which were busy working to flatten the waste material in the newly made landfill.

Suburb of Rikuzentakata-shi, Iwate pref.

The site where we have photographed used to have a large shopping complex prior to the disaster. Nothing much has changed since last year, there is still rubbles being pilled up high on the site. There are no buildings around here so the wind was blowing very strong.

There are two blocks of apartments remaining but their plan is to leave one block as it is. Rikuzentakata-shi is thinking of leaving a "Foot print" of the disaster in order for it to not to be forgotten but the city has no money for planning right now so the council worker told us that the realisation of it will most likely to be quite a long time away.

Around Shishiori-Karakuwa Station are, Kisennuma, Miyagi pref.

This area has become a sort of "Tourist attraction (!?)" attracting tour buses full of tourists (coming to see the damage). Minami Kisennnuma is very bad (the damage) but here, the impact is greater as there is a large ship, which has been washed ashore. Last year, there was another smaller ship, perched on land sideways but that seems to have been tidied away. Rubbles in the vicinity were gone and it was just the foundation of the houses that were left to be seen. The monument that was in front of the station was also tidied away.

Around Minami Kisennuma Station, Kisennuma, Miyagi pref.

We have visited here for the first time. Photos below are the 360 degrees surrounding of the station area. We could not see any stations or railways and we got an impression that it will remain in this state for a while. It is very clear when you look at the map that the entire area here are like a sandbar and no ground is above the sea level so we expect there will be a difficulty in the recovery of the area. The mountain that you can see on the last photo is Kame yama (mountain) on the "other side of the bay".

Around Minami Sanriku – cho, Miyagi pref.

This area is close to the national route 45 of Minami Sanriku-cho Shizugawa. You can see "Kami no sanryoku-chi" (Upper greenery mountain) and other than this, there is nothing as far as you can see.

Around Minamihama-cho, Miyagi pref.

This is our (my) first visit. I have seen it on TV but it is a totally different world now.

Next to the Kadonowaki elementary school, there were lines of gravestones. The entire area is covered with brown grass and there were great flocks of crows and it felt very eerie there. Near the costal area, there were lines of scrapped cars and you can imagine what it was like straight after the disaster.