The Omoriya Shop

 

As we are approaching the first anniversary of 3.11 and were hoping to leave the disaster behind us, we came across this place which is still in a state of complete ruin.

 

Withered seaweed entangled in the railing of a staircase

 

 

View onto the coastline 

 

The tsunami smashed cars into this building, too.

 

 

Rubbish remains like glued to this building's back (facing inland).

 

Remnants of the rail tracks.

 

"This is already sold out in Tokyo!"

A special yoghurt said to help against influenza.

 

"I also wanted to read that," said a client to the Omoriya shop owner.

The article in demand is about "owning property vs. renting property."

 

The temporary shopping street where the Chiba Nori (dried seaweed) shop will soon open.

 

The owner of the Omoriya shop currently reads this book.

Slowly but surely

 

High school girls I saw in town.

 

 

Almost all of the temporary dwellings are painted in one colour - grey.

These buildings seem to resemble storage sheds. Gazing at them from the outside, I can't help but feel overwhelmed by pity and sadness.

 

 

A couple of weeks ago, I began to notice things I did not see before: roads have become passable again; the big items of debris have been cleared away; gutters have been repaired and covered; and the reconstruction of telephone cables and traffic lights is progressing. Children are welcoming a new school year that will be different from the past one. 

Did the changes in town draw your attention as well?

I want to retake photographs of this charming spot sometime, and introduce them here. Quite often, I take pictures from within the car, so my timing is sometimes off and I catch only half of the image. This is one of them.

The little Kamaboko Shop

 

This is "the little Kamaboko (fish paste) Shop" we introduced last October.

Mrs Kurino's second series of products has been launched! Castella Kamaboko!

You will still have to wait a little bit, though, for the popular deep-fried triangle Kamaboko.

Living circumstances

 

Work has begun in this temporary housing unit to properly pave the gravel paths surrounding the houses.

Such improvements are undertaken little by little, it appears, but there are big differences according to the district, in which a temporary housing unit is located.

For our grandchildren

We held a 'make my tote bag' workshop, using the kits put together from donations. 
Using stamps with well-liked western patterns, which we applied directly to the bags, or arranging lace, buttons, and crocheted flower motifs that could be glued on, each bag was given its own design. It is quite easy to make these bags. And it was such good fun, as we were peeking at the designs the persons next to us were creating. One should think that it was difficult to do all this work kneeling in a small tatami mat room, but it was a piece of cake, really! We made these bags imagining our grandchildren's joyful expressions on receiving their bag.
Since the bag making does not involve any needlework or sewing, anybody can join in. We already received requests from other temporary housing units to hold the 'my tote bag' workshops.

 

 

 

Reporters

 

Participants doing a report on the remnants of destroyed houses

 

 

 

 

Ice crystals 

 

 

 

 

Formerly a residential area

 

 

Documents of the fishery cooperative found in the mud

 

 

The buildings in this area have not been attended to,

but the ditches have received new covers.

 

 

The participants are writing articles based on their investigations.

All are using computers, although for many it is the first time to touch a computer. 

During today's 'Media Salon' we ventured outside for our investigations. When we talked about the stories to cover, participants voiced their concerns: one person said that to this day, she had not faced the ruins of her former home, another person said that she could not look at old photo albums, yet another was sad that the voice of a former classmate who had worked for the disaster prevention office and whose voice giving the tsunami alarm had been recorded, had turned into an object of loathing. One of the participants then acted as a guide, and we took photographs of the ruins of a large residential building as well as in its surroundings.

One woman participating in the Salon, had been an accountant with many years of work experience, but because she had no computer skills she could not find a job after the disaster made her also unemployed. So she attended our salon to learn some computer skills, and quickly began to use Word typing away on her report.

At Jonet, we proceed with lectures by employing those methods that have proven useful in practice such as this.

No matter how cold the weather

 

Heading on the Sanriku Highway towards Minamisanriku in the morning

 

A temporary housing unit without an assembly space

Café latte, kobucha (kelp tea) and other hot drinks are offered 

for free in this café.

 

Next to the temporary housing unit without assembly space, a café has been set up in a tent. To get here, one has to brave the freezing temperatures and a slope, but people gather here as soon as the café opens and spend some relaxing time before returning.

The warmth in the tent is provided by an oil stove. But even if one closes the fastener of the entrance plane tight and to the ground, it was difficult to keep the cold wind out.