It was one thing to watch the news and see the newspaper about the tsunami and earthquake but I wanted to see it with my own eyes. Yuko, and Emi, 2 friends I met about 15 years ago picked me up and took me on a tour. As a special bonus, they were going to take me to the place where Robert Hampton Gray`s plane went down in Onagawa Bay. It was great to see the 2 again and we were laughing within a matter of minutes. They have both lived in Vancouver for a year so they are used to the sense of humour of some Canadians. I gave cookies and maple butter to Emi in a nice bag and then handed Yuko a small,plastic bag filled with about 5 gummi bears. She immediately started protesting about the quality of the gift. It was exactly the reaction I was looking for! :) Then, I pulled out the real gift which was about 700 grams of gummi bears. This was a little too much and brought great peals of laughter from both of them. Actually, Yuko wanted coca cola gummis. I must remember for the next time. We headed up the coast and started to see houses that were deserted with broken windows or tarps covering the windows. This is something I had never seen before. There were also empty spots where evidently there had been houses that were washed away or taken down. We tried to visit a refugee centre and an elementary school but ended up going into the mountains. It was not my perogative to tell them that there wouldn`t be much damage up there but who was I to tell them? I thihk that the Navigation system was designed in the 1970`s. Quite funny! I`d heard that they were preventing people from building next to the oceans again and saw evidence of new developments going up in the mountains. The government had grand plans for energy efficient, futuristic towns but the progress has been painfully slow. It will take decades to get it all fixed.
We were about 35 kms from Minami Sanriku which was one of the towns on the news often because the whole town was erased. But, we were getting worried about the time so we turned around. Thirty-five kilometres does not seem like much but because roads are 2 lanes only, it takes time. The wind was blowing hard but we managed to get to Ishinomaki which was also hit hard. More damage and empty spaces are evident near the water. After Ishinomaki, the towns actually look quite clean. Emi keeps saying how clean everything is and tells me that she came up to volunteer and much of the litter has been cleaned up but houses she remembers standing have been torn down. It is quite a pleasant day and it is only when we get to a narrow valley of Onagawa that Emi and Yuko get an anxiety in their voices. One moment we are passing small houses with cars and trucks outside and the next moment all you can see is empy space, foundations, bent guardrails some 25 metres up, crumbling walls. The car suddenly becomes very quite. It is so strange to see nothing in Japan. All land is used here and these spaces are unheard of. It gets worse as we reach the main harbour. Empty space punctuated by piles of rubble and the odd skeleton of a building. Emi has done tour guiding here and cannot believe the train station is gone. Its just a series of streets with cranes and construction vehicles here and there. We head up to the new city hall and get some information on Robert Gray. The clerk is nice enough to photocopy an article for us. There`s a series of photos overlooking the city after the tsunami. A few buidings are evident but its mostly the scattered lives of 10000 people: overturned cars on top of buidings 25 metres in the air, rubble, collapsed houses, fishing vessels, etc. About 200 metres up the slope, the carnage stops and the houses still stand but everything looks as if it has been put through a food processor. Incredible. In the months after, the debris is removed until finally, it is just that few overturned buildings that are left. I see the sign that points into town and gives the distance of all the town buildings except none of that stuff is there anymore. Sad.
We were about 35 kms from Minami Sanriku which was one of the towns on the news often because the whole town was erased. But, we were getting worried about the time so we turned around. Thirty-five kilometres does not seem like much but because roads are 2 lanes only, it takes time. The wind was blowing hard but we managed to get to Ishinomaki which was also hit hard. More damage and empty spaces are evident near the water. After Ishinomaki, the towns actually look quite clean. Emi keeps saying how clean everything is and tells me that she came up to volunteer and much of the litter has been cleaned up but houses she remembers standing have been torn down. It is quite a pleasant day and it is only when we get to a narrow valley of Onagawa that Emi and Yuko get an anxiety in their voices. One moment we are passing small houses with cars and trucks outside and the next moment all you can see is empy space, foundations, bent guardrails some 25 metres up, crumbling walls. The car suddenly becomes very quite. It is so strange to see nothing in Japan. All land is used here and these spaces are unheard of. It gets worse as we reach the main harbour. Empty space punctuated by piles of rubble and the odd skeleton of a building. Emi has done tour guiding here and cannot believe the train station is gone. Its just a series of streets with cranes and construction vehicles here and there. We head up to the new city hall and get some information on Robert Gray. The clerk is nice enough to photocopy an article for us. There`s a series of photos overlooking the city after the tsunami. A few buidings are evident but its mostly the scattered lives of 10000 people: overturned cars on top of buidings 25 metres in the air, rubble, collapsed houses, fishing vessels, etc. About 200 metres up the slope, the carnage stops and the houses still stand but everything looks as if it has been put through a food processor. Incredible. In the months after, the debris is removed until finally, it is just that few overturned buildings that are left. I see the sign that points into town and gives the distance of all the town buildings except none of that stuff is there anymore. Sad.