I visited Kami-no Ie with Mr. S
from Medi-Ken (Media Research).
The Sanriku Expressway was packed
with many cars of people returning home and visiting the affected areas as well
as local people who are allowed to take these toll roads for free. We chose
instead to take the Rifu Road that runs parallel to the Sanriku Expressway. Actually,
it had been a while since I took that road last.
Luckily cars were going smoothly
on the Rifu Road.
The Yoshida River and the Naruse
River on the Pacific coast side had been cleaned up, and debris and vehicles
had been removed from the rice fields that lead to Nobiru. When I saw this, I
realised that 5 months had already past since the disaster.
The seawall in the Nobiru coast
was temporary rebuilt and the road by the coast was opened up again. However,
it was impossible to miss the massive pool created by land subsidence and the
ever-gigantic debris collecting point built on the vast grounds of the outdoor
activity centre.
The pinewoods that were once so
beautiful, looked dreadfully thinned out and the fallen trees were withering
away.
Since the construction of
temporary housing near Kami-no Ie finished, at last, at the end of July, all 30
rooms had been occupied.
A new life had already begun.
Everyone had left the shelter in
Satohama where we once had a Jonet Salon meeting, but they all came back to the
shelter a few days later to give the place a thorough cleaning.
“After the first evacuation,
people had to move to Satohama, then they came to temporary housing here. They
had to move many times in the past 5 months, and it was quite difficult to move
from one place to another without a car. Each moving was so hard,” said
Ritsuko, the landlady of Kami-no ie.
First the
rescue corps from the Self Defence Forces left, then the public office stopped
food distribution, and now they are living in temporary housing. The problem,
however, is that they can’t really go shopping.
Even though mobile
shops visit them several times a week, they still have to go to Yamoto or
Matsushima in order to buy what they really want. “A door-to-door food delivery
service that Seikyo’s (Consumer cooperative) used to do would be nice,’ the
landlady suggested.
When I was
shown aerial photographs of the Miyato Peninsula, I realised that there were
not only shores and mountains but also about 198,340 square meters of rice
fields in the peninsula.
Kami-no Ie
used to grow not only rice but also soybeans of their own to make their
original miso (soybean paste).
The seafood,
homemade rice, miso, vegetables were what used to set up their tourist home.
However, for the seawater that flooded inland, the field can no longer be used
for farming.
Their minshuku
(tourist home) Kami-no Ie was saved from the tsunami, but their residential
house with their all belongings was completely destroyed.
“We haven’t
quite got used to the living in temporary housing, but after all, we are so
lucky to live here”, said the landlady.
The landlady
and her husband told me about their ideas for Tsukihama’s revival –the
blueprint of their future.
They wish to
transform the shore, though it has been completely destroyed by the tsunami,
into seaside parks so that children of kindergartens and elementary schools can
visit. Homey minshuku would offer tourists fresh seafood, and tourists can
enjoy a long-stay in Oku-Matsushima and Tsukishima.
There would
be seaside leisure activities, fishing, fishery experience and sea kayak for
tourists to enjoy, cultural heritages to see, and seafood for sale. They wish
many people would visit there in the future.
They have
participated in the “Let’s know more about Miyato” meetings and discussed with
scholars and people from the Civil Service. They try to look forward rather
than looking back. There has been a call for revival plan proposals, which will
be budgeted by the Agency of Cultural Affairs, and they are going to submit
their proposal. What a positive attitude.
As the sewage
disposal facilities of their tourist home was crushed under debris and
destroyed, it will be September before the reconstruction work starts. Their
outer walls and piping also need to be fixed. But they are moving on little by
little.
We gave them
the relief supplies from someone in Amami-Oshima, which were futon sheets and
yukata (somewhat informal cotton kimono) for future guests in their tourist
home.
“These will
be so helpful! Thank you so much!” said the landlady cheerfully.
In the
meanwhile, the sea of Oku-Matsushima was ever so blue.
And the
never-changing sound of the waves took me away from this reality.
An elder
friend of the landlady of Kami-no Ie
No comments:
Post a Comment