Tohoku, Japan 7

Ishinomaki City  March 30, 2011


Random pictures in Ishinomaki.

At Minato Elementary School. Used as a shelter now. It's a Teruterubouzu doll. People hang it to wish for a sunny day.

A mountain of canned foods. There was a cannery by the ocean and after the tsunami you could find those canned food anywhere in town. 

Making phone calls. Many people were not be able to use their cell phone because they had no way to charge the batteries.  

He is off to see a doctor. He said there was a clinic near by but now he has to ride a bike for 40min to get to a hospital.
He said he lost all his family by the tsunami.

In a buddhist temple.

He came to get sea water. I asked him sea water for what, he said to wash dishes and stuff.
They only have enough fresh water to drink.

cleaning up his house. but half of the house was just destroyed.

U.S. Military is giving a big help for Japan.
Operation "Tomodachi"

 

They were watching the US Military working to help them, kept saying "they are sooo cool!!"
they said they are cousins.

Had fun with kids. They are all so friendly.

They showed me their new Pokemon cards proudly.

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Ishinomaki City      March 30, 2011

   This time I would like to talk about this couple. 

On the day I was with Mr. Takahashi, the donkey guy, we had a little time to spare before we go to next shelter so he decide to drive around the town to take me to places I have not been yet.

 We found a destroyed hardware store like a Home Depot and we went inside.

The store floor was completely wiped out covered by mud and debris.  

The building was a story building and there was parking lot on the roof top.

We found stairs to parking lot, went up stairs, and found a van in the parking lot.

We were going back and forth in parking lot to see if there is anything,

then suddenly the van's door slid open and a lady said "Are you looking for someone?"

We were bit surprised because we thought we were alone.

There are a gentleman too and they are husband and wife. I tried to ask some question to them then they started talk their stories.

They are owners of the inn and the husband is also a fisherman.

When  the earthquake struck they heard the siren of tsunami warning so they drove the van to evacuate to this roof top, looked down on the town waiting for tsunami to come hoping not to come of cause, then they found a mother and her little daughter calling for help on second floor of a house. By the time they saw tsunami was coming.

The husband jumped out the hardware store to get them out the house and tried to take them to the hardware store.

He succeeded to rescue the mother and child but he failed to rescue himself.....

The wife actually saw the husband caught by wave and dragged away.

" You know my nickname?" the husband said "people call me Kappa( a legendary monster known for good swimmer) I'm a very good swimmer. But I've learned a lesson that people are helpless in the water flow like that."

He almost got drowned but luckily he found a car tire floating and he clung on to that for his life.

He was dragged for over a half a mile and landed on an apartment building. 

He could not move his body because of hypothermia.

The wife said she was ready to admit that the husband might be gone because there were no sign from him for a day and a half.

But he was OK! He came back to the roof top parking lot then they embrace each other firmly.

　

The husband said, to get out of  hypothermic condition he used his own urine to warm up his body.

That was a method he was told by his grandfather long time ago.

 Now they are staying in a van during a day and they go to the shelter at night to get food and water.

 They said " There are not only bad things about tsunami. Fish breeding was a big industry in this Ishinomaki City and the Environmental Group was pointing out that the industry is polluting the sea by fish food and feces, it became a big problem in Ishinomaki.

But the Tsunami wiped everything away now the water and seabed is very clean.

More fish will come back eventually, Ishinomaki will be better fishing ground."

They also said  

"There are no rich and poor anymore, we all came down to zero. Now we have to rise together to reconstruct the town. It's a start over." 

At last I asked them for a photo.

Even though they had a terrible experience and they just talked about it to me, they smiled at the camera.

Tohoku people are truly strong.

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 Ishinomaki City     March 30, 2011


 On the night of March 29, I went to say thank you to the worker at the shelter again,
then I was walking back to my car to sleep.

Suddenly this guy with a donkey came out from darkness and said "where are you going with that big backpack! "
I asked him " Where ARE you going with that donkey" in my mind.
Then, we started to talk.
I thought he was a local farmer or something but he was not.


His name is Mr. Yohane Takahashi.
He is from Shonan, Kanagawa Pref.
He drove over 300miles with his 3 horses and 1 donkey on back of his truck.







The reason why he is here in disaster area........well, I'll just show you the photos.

He owns those horses and donkey and travels shelter to shelter for kids.

He had been doing this for over a week at the time I met him.

After the disaster he asked him self is there anything only he can do for people there and the only answer was this. 

As you can easily imagine the earthquake and tsunami caused severe mental trauma to some people especially to kids.

Mr. Takahashi said that he knows those animals have power to heal people's mental.

more simply, this is a very good entertainment for kids and kids forget bad things while they are having fun!

I am so sure that they had fun because I had so much fun taking picture of them. 

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Ishinomaki City      March 29th 2011


 I woke up in a shelter (actually it is an elementary school now used as a shelter)
started try talk to people to collect information around the town.

I hear a good news and a not good news.
The good news was that I might not have to worry about gas any more.
A person told me it is very hard to get gas from gas stations in towns,
but go to gas stations on Tohoku-Express Way( It's a tollway ) at night,
there would be very small lines and I don't have to be anxious about me taking away local people's gas because tankers can access those gas stations easily so they have lots of gas.
The not so good news was, some people break in to cars for steeling stuffs (it started to happen after the earthquake) so it is not a good idea to leave a car in one place for long time.
As I said on previous post, I left my car 20 miles away, I had no choice but to walk 20 miles back to get my car.
aggh..... what a wast of time.

This gentle man walked up to me and said " Oh look at my town!! look how horrible it is! I wonder how long it's gonna take to restore to how it was..."  

This is by a swimming pool in a elementary school. People use its water to wash their clothe.

Have you ever seen those charactors?
It's "Kikaida" created by one of the most famous Manga creator in Japan and this Ishinomaki is known as his home town.
Photo below is his museum.

missing person posters.















Precious 9 hours has been wasted to go back and forth to get my car.

It was already dark when I get back to Ishinomaki.

But my day was not a total waste after all because I met this great person at the end of the day!

 I will talk about this donkey guy on my next blog.

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.