On Leaving Fukushima in March 2011

In the parking lot of my apartment building one can find a number of vehicles with Fukushima licence plates.  The owners of those vehicles are all likely evacuees.  One in particular is my neighbour.  Up until recently both he and his wife were living in the apartment next to me but the wife succeeded in getting a job in Tokyo and she departed in early April.  The husband has remained behind whilst trying to make arrangements to relocate his business to Tokyo.

I sensed he was going to be departing soon when I saw that he had taken down his daughter's plastic sled which had been hanging outside his apartment on the grid that guards his kitchen window.  So when I heard a dolly in the hallway yesterday evening I stuck my head out my door to call on him and ask if he'd like to head out for a drink or two.

We ended up at a local bar/cafe and chatted for a few hours over a number of beers.  One short story which stuck in my mind was his retelling of how he and his family ended up in Yonezawa.

The essence of the story was that immediately after the March 11th earthquake, he had seen circulated images of what had happened to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant.  Needless to say he and his wife were skeptical of the reports from the news channels and authorities that there was no immediate danger.  When word started spreading that there had been a meltdown there was no hesitation on his part to pack up and quite literally, get out of Dodge.

So the three of them, husband, wife and daughter, undertook a passage through the snow covered Kuriko Pass Highway to arrive in Yonezawa, a city which they knew nothing of and where they had no contacts, friends or relatives.  They had no information on where to go so they stopped off at a police station to ask for assistance.  The gist of their query being "We're from Fukushima.  Can you tell us where to go?".  The police were at least minimally prepared to handle an influx of evacuees and advised them to head to the municipal gymnasium.  I can imagine that the place wasn't exactly the warmest place to be as Yonezawa is typically snowbound in March.

And so began three years of life in Yamagata.  After hearing that story I can fully appreciate his wife's exclamation of "Goodbye to our evacuee lifestyle!" in my classroom back in March after she got news that she had landed a job in Tokyo.  After all, she had been commuting to Fukushima from Yonezawa all that time.  While I'll miss their company, I'm glad that at least one family has been able to find a new home and a more stable lifestyle.  

Didn't I Just See....

I went down to Tokyo a short while ago to take care of some business at the Canadian embassy.  I could have done it via mail but I needed an excuse to go down there.  I suppose I didn't want to face the (minor) challenge of sending something by registered mail (I have no clue as to what the service is called in Japanese).  But the trip is worth it for a chance to touch base with friends and do a little shopping.
As it turned out I managed to squeeze in visits to a fair number of places: Akasaka, Shibuya, Kajigaya in northern Kawasaki city, Ginza and Ueno.  Once again I managed to get lost in Shibuya though by a much smaller degree than usual.  I suppose I'm slowly figuring out the place.  I took the Ginza subway line to Ginza so I could buy some "anpan", sweet red bean paste filled pastries, at the Kimuraya shop there.  On the subway train I noticed an ad featuring a photo of Kitano Takeshi (aka: Beat Takeshi).  I quickly scanned the other ads and read what I could read on the ones I found interesting.  After all, there's not much else one can do when riding a crowded Tokyo subway train alone.

After purchasing my ¥2500 worth of confections, I continued on the Ginza line towards Ueno.  Upon taking my seat I looked up and once again there was Takeshi looking out from the same ad I had spotted on the incoming subway train.  Then I scanned the other ads and realized they were the exact same ones as those on the train I had been on.  Not only that, they were in the exact same locations!  For me, that was a little perplexing.  After all, up in Yamagata, there hardly are any ads on the trains.  I've been on trains where there are virtually none. 

The following morning, after grabbing a morning coffee, I passed the entrance of Ueno Park.  There were a number of people gathered there who were taking photographs of the cherry trees which had begun to bloom.  I, of course, snapped some photos too using my iPhone.  There still was snow on the ground back home when I left the day before and I just had to take back some evidence that spring was on its way.

Emptiness and a Train

I don't go up to Yamagata city all that often.  Every now and then I might go up there to fill in for a teacher.  Aside from that, I've been up there a few times to catch a bus to go to the Yamagata Prefecture Traffic Safety Office (back home we'd call it the Motor Vehicle Branch) and to attend a couple of concerts.  Oh yeah, I did drop in one time after visiting Mt. Zao too.

Yesterday was a sunny day and I wasn't in the mood to stay home all day.  So I decided to head up to Yamagata to check out a store I've been thinking of going to.  I did briefly consider driving but decided to take the train instead.  It was simply a case of saving gas.  As I made my way up there on the train I realized that I also had the liberty of taking my time without having to worry about finding or paying for parking.

Once there I did a quick tour of the department store at the station and then grabbed a bite to eat at a local Mos Burger restaurant.  After that I dropped in on the shop I had my eye one, made a mental shopping list and then wandered over to the Yamagata City Art Museum.  The museum is located quite close the inner moat of the Yamagata castle.  There's no much left of the castle other that its walls and moat.  The grounds of the castle are now home to a park and some athletic facilities.  The eastern entrance, close to the museum, is dominated by a reconstruction of its gate and guard house.  I indulged myself by taking a few photos of the structure and some passing trains (the Ou line tracks are laid outside the castle walls and moat).

The museum is a modern looking structure which functions as both an exhibit and meeting facility.  Not all of the galleries are in use.  The permanent collection seems to consist of French paintings (Impressionist, landscape and modern), bronze sculptures and some Japanese screens and scrolls.  The French paintings were an interesting bunch with representative works by Monet, Manet, Picasso, Renoir and their contemporaries.  As for the sculptures, I noticed that about half of them were made prior to World War II.  Which of course had me thinking about how the larger pieces managed to escape being melted down for the war effort.  I suppose they weren't large enough or of a usable metal composition.  Or perhaps just lucky.

The trip home was uneventful but not without a touch of the peculiar.  I had taken my iPod with me to help me pass the time.  I had picked The Tragically Hip's "Yer Favourites" to listen to.  It's a two CD set so there would be enough tunes to listen to for the duration of the trip back to Yonezawa.  At first the setting wasn't so odd.  It was dusk and I wasn't paying too much attention to what was passing outside.  But once it was dark then I noticed something different.  I was listening to songs which made me cast my mind to the vast emptiness of Canada.  Once we were passing through the mountain valleys and fields then the setting was complete.  One couldn't see much other than the banks of snow lining the side of the tracks.  I looked out and felt like I was on a train traversing a snow covered empty expanse of the Canadian prairies.  That was not withstanding the conductor's announcements in Japanese and decidedly Japanese looking stations.  The effect gave out once the train got past Nanyo.  There were more visible signs of civilization and human habitation then.  And so, alas, that little bit of magic evaporated...

Happy New Year!

年越しそば, a photo by dtk_guy on Flickr.

The photograph I've picked is one of a dish called 年越しそば (Toshikoshi soba). There are no hard rules on what ought to be in or not be in this dish. It's pretty well anything goes. Some people have it hot, some have it cold. Some don't even use soba to make it (though that is more likely to happen outside of Japan). Nonetheless, this dish is traditionally what one eats to mark the passing of the old year and the arrival of the new year. It ought to be consumed prior to midnight on New Year's Eve but this year there was a bit of a delay in its preparation so it was consumed a few minutes late.

Anyways, all the best in 2014!

At the Movies, 2013 - Part I

I've been trying to organize my thoughts about the latest movie I went to see: "Eien no Zero" (The Eternal Zero).  So far, no success.  My initial rating of the movie right after I finished viewing it was "so-so".  Overall, the movie may still hold that rating from me but there are a number of details which have kept my mind spinning.  More on that later.

In the meantime, here are some quick thoughts from me about other movies I watched this year.

"Wara no Tate" (Straw Shield).  Directed by Miike Takeshi.
A student of mine told me she had gone to see a movie and found herself the only person in the theatre.  I asked which movie and went to see it myself.  I also was the only person in the theatre.  Part of that coincidence came from the fact that we both had gone to the late screening of the film and the other was that the film had been in the theatres for a few weeks.  The movie in question was the above named offering from Miike Takeshi.  We both agreed that the film started off well but fizzled out as it reached its end.

"Kaze Tachinu" (The Wind Rises).  Directed by Miyazaki Hayao.
I didn't get the theatre to see this film the weekend it was released as I was out of town then.  Though I didn't really wait too long to see it.  I think I caught it at a late show screening the following Monday.  No, I was not the only person in the theatre.  All in all, I enjoyed this film.  I was captivated by the film's depiction of life in prewar Japan.  The story, a mixture of fact, fiction and pure fancy, was not as contentious as I thought it could have been but it wasn't lighthearted fluff either.

"Django Unchained".  Directed by Quentin Tarantino.
It's a Tarantino movie.  Went to see it with my co-worker Nick, who is a big Tarantino fan, and his girlfriend.  This one, for me, was all I expected from a Tarantino movie.  It got the job done and that was good enough for me.

"Lincoln".  Directed by Stephen Spielberg.
A good movie interspersed with my occasional observation of "That subtitle is not what that character said".   The political maneuvering depicted in the film had my head spinning at some points.  It was quite fascinating.  I spent a fair bit of time surfing wiki pages after viewing the film to get a better grip on the history behind the story I had had the pleasure of viewing.

"42".  Directed by Brian Helgeland.
This one I went to see more or less on a lark after spotting a poster advertising it at the shopping centre across the street from the theatre.  I had gone there to have a sundae which I had developed a sudden craving for after dropping a couple of suits off at the dry cleaners.  It wasn't a bad movie but it wasn't a great movie.  I was aware of a couple of historical inaccuracies in the film prior to viewing it thanks to a quick check of a review online.  I suspect the student of mine who went to see it after I told him about it was more impressed than I was.  The trailers shown before the film included ones for two films I figured I really did want to see, "Kaguya-hime no Monogatari" and "Eien no Zero".... I will talk about those two in my next post here.

Back in Matsushima

Bird in the shot, a photo by dtk_guy on Flickr.

I suppose I could've picked a photo featuring one of the many islands lying in the bay south of Matsushima but I opted for this one instead. I took way too many photos of little pine tree covered islands. So a photo with a seagull hogging the shot is probably a good choice to share here.

My trip to Matsushima was the second time I visited this popular tourist destination. Though the first time wasn't much of a visit. My father drove the family there from our hotel part way up Mount Zao and when we got there the traffic was terrible, it was hot, and there probably wasn't a place to park. So we just looked at the scenery from the car and headed back to Sendai (and Mt. Zao). At least that's how I think things worked out. We're talking about 40 years ago so you'll have to excuse me if my recollection of the visit is a bit hazy.

Matsushima was spared from damage by the the March 11th, 2011 tsunami by virtue of its geographical features. The numerous small islands close to the town and several larger islands lying further out took the brunt of the tsunami. There are probably a number of islands which were damaged by the earthquake but only one of them was pointed out to passengers on the boat cruise I took.

Matsushima is one of the renowned three places of scenic views in Japan. The other two are Itsukishima and Amanohashidate. I've been to Itsukishima (also known as Miyajima) in Hiroshima prefecture. I had once given a thought to visiting Amanohashidate but when planning the visit from Kyoto, where I was staying at the time, I found it to be a touch distant for a single day trip. I suppose I'll get there...some day.

A Rainy Day in Miyagi Prefecture

Kyotokumaru No. 18, a photo by dtk_guy on Flickr.

The fishing boat in the above photo is now being dismantled. Not too long after I visited Kesennuma, a vote was taken to decide the fate of the boat and the result was in favour of removing it. Unlike the pine tree of Rikuzentakata which died, was cut down, preserved and raised as a memorial, this boat will not remain to remind people of the devastation caused by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

My drive that soggy July day was sobering one. I started out in Ichinoseki, Iwate prefecture and made my way through Rikuzentakata, Kesennuma, Minamisanriku, Onagawa, Ishinomaki and on to Sendai. I took Route 45 for a good part of that trip. Along the way I passed plenty of signs which marked the upper limits of tsunami inundation, plots of land which looked like abandoned fields but were in fact foundations of houses and buildings, washed out railway bridges, and large compounds full of debris still being sorted out for removal. By the time I got to Ishinomaki I was both physically and mentally tired. Getting onto the highway was a respite of sorts. By the time I found parking and had checked into my hotel, I was pretty well exhausted.

In hindsight I'm not exactly sure why I undertook that leg of the trip. Going to Hiraizumi, Matsushima and Sendai are typical "touristy" things to do. Driving Miyagi's northeastern coastal road is not. I suppose I did it partly out of morbid curiosity, a desire to grasp the gravity of the devastation, and wanting to pay my respects to the victims. In the end I feel a small part grateful that the weather that day was bleak and wet as it intensified the emotional impact that passage along that route had on me.