Tohoku, Japan 3

Ishinomaki City    March 28

After I said good bye to the lady who gave me a ride to Ishinomaki,
I spent 5 hours walking around the town trying to photograph.
Then...... I was overwhelmed by the sight before my eyes...so badly.
My mission was to talk to the people there and photograph them, but I couldn't.
All I could do was shut my mouth and take pictures. I was speech less.

For today's post, I just attach photos of Ishinomaki briefly.
I want you to see what's it like a city after walls of water struck.

    This building used be a kids day care center.

    Paper sign below says " to the parents of Yuika (a girl's name) and 

    Shiryu (a boy's name)They are safe with us"

    can you see the house is actually upside down?

    looks like the  house was a two story building

    but the first floor has just gone.

    all streets and alleys were covered by mud and debris.






    I was told that half of the city was just wiped out by tsunami. 

    You can see how powerful the water was,
    It could just punch through concrete walls.

  
    at the end of the day, I looked for a place to sleep.
    so I headed to one of the shelters.
    I knew I shouldn't. It is for people who lost their homes.
    but I could not help it because it was too cold out side.

    I went to talk to volunteer workers there that 

    I have my own food, water, and a sleeping bag

    so I just want a tiny space to lay myself down.

    and they said ok.

    I slipped into my sleeping bag around 8pm.
    then, someone knocked on door and opened it a little bit, just enough
    to slip in a plastic bag, then left there some bread and a bottle of green tea.
    Then I cried.
    I cried because I knew how they are short of food, water and everything else.
    Plus they have just experienced a disaster of a life time.
     and how can they be so generous to an outsider like me?
    I began to realize Tohoku people are not weak.
    even huge tsunamis can't break their spirits.