Amy is from our US office. Amy also lived in Sendai for several years and has a special love for Tohoku. Exactly two years on from the tsunami, Amy returned to the region to see how her Tohoku was getting on….
When I was invited to go on a business trip to Japan this March and saw that the planned itinerary would take me back to Tohoku, my home for four years, my gut reaction was twofold: I was excited, of course, but also apprehensive. Suddenly, despite the other destinations we would see, all I could think of was that weekend two years ago when the Great East Japan Earthquake changed everything.
Beauty of Hirosaki in the snow
Still, I wasn’t going to pass on the opportunity to see Japan again, and so I flew into Tokyo Narita Airport with a group of fellow agents to spend a week exploring an area of Japan that is often neglected by foreign visitors. We spent the night in Tokyo before heading off to what the famous haiku master Basho called “the Deep North.”
We visited the Nebuta Festival Museum in Aomori (the next best thing to the festival itself); saw the beauty of Hirosaki in snowfall; soaked in the hot springs of Hanamaki; and cooked the regional speciality of Akita, kiritanpo.
Kiritanpo
But most poignant of all was seeing the areas near Sendai where the 2011 tsunami swept away almost everything in its path. Our local guide was a man who had, in the days and weeks after the tsunami, secured food and other supplies for the people who had taken shelter at his community center. We met a woman who tried to flee with her family—including her month-old grandson—and had her car taken up and deposited on another house; they had to scramble through an upstairs window to safety. But the landscape was the hardest to bear. In most cases, nothing remained of a building but the foundation, or those that had been built solidly like schools—but the two that we saw are understandably slated for demolition later this year. After all, who would want to return to the site of so much grief, terror, and despair?
And yet some do. Before we headed to the hotel, our guide pointed out a pole with strings of yellow flags fastened to the ground, one of several around us but something of an afterthought amid the barrenness. Then he told us that they were put up by residents who vowed to return even though the government has forbidden rebuilding until further notice. Much has been said about the resilience and fortitude of the Japanese after the triple disaster of 2011, but nothing has convinced me of their strength so much as what those yellow flags represent: a yearning for home, no matter the danger, and the hope that one day, life will be normal again.
However, life in Tohoku, away from the tsunami affected coast is normal. This region is still the most beautiful in Japan as far as I’m concerned. Although we shouldn’t forget those people that are still affected by an ongoing struggle, I urge people to visit this beautiful part of Japan- the hot springs, the countryside and the rich rural culture of “the Deep North”.
The beauty of Tohoku
Perhaps one of the most atractive aspects of Tohoku is the strength of its culture and traditions and the all round warmth of the people but as this footage from the ‘A Northern Soul‘ tour from 2012 shows, Tohoku is beautiful. I’m sure that if Bassho were alive today, he would have a few more words to say about the place….well…about 17 syllables worth actually…
Tourism to Japan is virtually back up to pre-tsunami levels, the exchange rate against the yen means that you will get great value for money at the moment and there are a million reasons as to why you should discover Japan for yourself. If you want more reasons as to why you should travel beyond the likes of Tokyo and Kyoto, have a read of a previous post with five excellent reasons as to why you should try a bit of the north.
If you would like to donate to our chosen charity, Its Not Just Mud who are still working hard in Ishinomaki, please follow this link – http://itsnotjustmud.com/donate/
