8 months after

[yoshi]

I visited several days ago some of the areas where the tsunami attack brought devastated destruction.
After the visit I was fully convinced that I would not have survived the tsunami, had I been there on March 11th.
It must be a small luck for me that I was only in the neighbourhood of the nuke plant on that day.
Iirc, out of the 20 thousands of dead/missing people, more than 90% are due to the tsunami and the remaining due to the quake and resulting fire but none at the moment due to the radio active contamination.

Took a lot there so I might upload some more in the galleries.

yoshi

[Barr1e]

Re: 8 months after

Hi yoshi -

Hardly a day goes by when I don't think of a video I saw of cars floating along the streets with folk inside them, hopefully they all survived. With the reach of technology we see what happens in the world far more often and sooner than before.

I'm pleased you are posting these images especially as you were close by when the event took place.

Pleasing to know you have come through this trauma.

Keep well and thanks.

Regards. Barr1e

[Pol]

Re: 8 months after

Thank you for those, Yoshi. They convey the disaster and devastation in a very sobering way. Where exactly where the pictures taken - which town or village?

It's impossible to forget those dreadful events. I imagine there are many people who are still displaced or homeless too. I read about the prefabricated homes being built though I forget exactly where and who would qualify for them.

How are things progressing generally in rebuilding the communities?

Pol

[Caz]

Re: 8 months after

Hi Yoshi

Haven't seen much from you lately, but these shots really bring home the destruction caused by the accident. Is your normal home near to this area?

You were so lucky not to have been there when it all happened. Thank you for sharing, and I'll look out for your gallery shots

Carol

[Pops]

Re: 8 months after

A tragic event that will never be forgotten in our lifetime.
In view of all the media reports at the time its amazing just how much of that structure survived. While the closeups reveal the true extent of the damage the last shot shows a very solid structure.
I have no wish to lighten the gravity of the situation but I couldn't help but notice the large bird in the shot before last. Looks very much like a pigeon.
Will be watching for your gallery pics and thankyou for showing these. You must still be experiencing a lot of mixed feelings.

[Barr1e]

Re: 8 months after

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15705303

Regards. Barr1e

[Graham_of_Rainham]

Re: 8 months after

I've been following the story from the begining on NHK, but somehow Yoshi's pictures and words have a lot more meaning for me than the reports that we get from the media.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/12_20.html

Thanks Yoshi.

[Pol]

Re: 8 months after

I've been following the story from the begining on NHK, but somehow Yoshi's pictures and words have a lot more meaning for me than the reports that we get from the media.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/12_20.html

Thanks Yoshi.

I agree. It was truly a dreadful time and with Yoshi being trapped in his mountain home on the very edge of the exclusion zone made the entire disaster feel so much closer to home.

Caz - I guessing maybe Yoshi is still away from his home (which is south of Tokyo) but he also has a home about 20-30 miles west of the destroyed Fukushima plant. His mountain residence is in the Futaba district approximately between Katsurao and Kawauchi and that's where he was when the earthquake and tsunami struck. His home was better protected as it's west of a small mountain range.

Here's a link showing the location of the Futaba district, Fukushima.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futaba_District,_Fukushima

Pol

[yoshi]

Re: 8 months after

Hi yoshi -

Hardly a day goes by when I don't think of a video I saw of cars floating along the streets with folk inside them, hopefully they all survived. With the reach of technology we see what happens in the world far more often and sooner than before.

Thanks for the warm words Barr1e.
I'm afraid to say the people who tried to escape from tsunami by car is one of the typical type of victims. They were just trapped by congestion and attacked by tsunami. You cannot go forward/backward when other cars before/behind you are in trouble.

Yeah, you are right. With the good reach of technology, I'm quite sure you were much more well informed than I was at that time, although I was much near to the places where the disasters were happening.

I had only radio and internet at the time (which was my advantage though. My place was devastated by neither the quake nor the tsunami. But trapped by the nuke plant disasters .) The internet became available in this region only one month before the quake.

Internet helped. Especially the links Pol gave me. BBC news was my first video clip of the tsunami. I had never imagined that it was that big until then.

yoshi

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: 8 months after

I am so glad that you were spared from the devastation Yoshi! Thanks for sharing these images.

[yoshi]

Re: 8 months after

Thank you for those, Yoshi. They convey the disaster and devastation in a very sobering way. Where exactly where the pictures taken - which town or village?

It's impossible to forget those dreadful events. I imagine there are many people who are still displaced or homeless too. I read about the prefabricated homes being built though I forget exactly where and who would qualify for them.

How are things progressing generally in rebuilding the communities?

Pol

Hi Pol,
the posted pictures were taken at a tiny town called Tarou, now a part of Miyako city in Iwate Prefecture. This city is one of those heavily devastated ones and young volunteers are continuously working there.
A guy I met at a different place told me that he would go to the city for volunteer works.

http://maps.google.com/maps/mm?hl=en&ll=39.737422,141.976104&spn=0.008432,0.019226&t=m&z=16&vpsrc=6

In the middle of the Google map, there is a bed mark indicating a hotel. This is the building I posted. "Tarou Kanko Hotel"

Incidentally it seems to me that the satelite pics of Google Map are now replaced with the ones after the tsunami. Quick job. I wanted to have a look at those before it.

BTW better to stay on the 4th floor (or the 3rd in your counting system) or higher when you stay at a seaside hotel--- well if you can forget about fire.

Re-construction is going on everywhere but as far as I observed, only in a smaller scale. Maybe just for temporary and emergent repair/reconstruction puposes. Also some pictures are attached. Better seeing than reading my explanation.

yoshi

[yoshi]

Re: 8 months after

Hi Caz, yes, I stay longer time now in Fukushima and my place is happeded to be not that far from the nuke plant in trouble, 25km or so but fortunately there are low mountains in between. It makes a big difference in this incident. People living on the other side of the slope of this mountain are legally forbidden to live there and all of them are continuously staying outside.

Having said that I have to say that the radio acitive contamination measured at the entrance door of my place was 1.12 micro SV per hour.

Is is better to stay away from here and shorten the stay at this place?
I'm always wondering. Good place for taking pictures though.

Thanks I will upload some more later.

yoshi

[yoshi]

Re: 8 months after

It's a crow/raven,Pops.
There were many of them perching on the handrails of stairs or others.
A fishery port so before the quake they could get food easily, I guess.
But no more fishery is done there and no poeple live there.

There was only one tiny but new convenient store in that region and a few vending machines of soft drinks for the entire region of Tarou.
I guess it is mainly aimed for the construction workers.
The first pic is the vending machines and the second, when viewed from distant place toward the vending machines.

I now learned that a crow/raven is s symbol of something bad in your culture.
Here not loved either.

yoshi

[yoshi]

Re: 8 months after

Thanks for the link, Graham. I have to confess that I did not know NHK has this kind of service.
yoshi