Left Behinds

From Sendai to Nagoya

ellachau — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 21:18:00 +0900

During our one night in Sendai, we stayed in his nice minimalistic cube shaped hostel.

The owner of the hostel brought in her Akita dog, but the story was that the dog was found alone after the tsunami in the affected zones, and now adopted by the new owner, she is a bit distressed from the traumatic experience. We were warn not to go near her because she might bite. Poor puppy…

From Sendai to Kobe, instead of the train or a bus, we found an more creative and economical option of taking a cruise to Nagoya. It was another interesting experience for us, though it took me a while to get use the subtle floating movement of the ship. We were wary that we had to past by Fukushima out in the ocean, but the distance is suppose to be much further away then we past through in-land last time, so we didn’t care about it too much. The amazing scenery and the feeling of being surround by water made it a very enjoyable trip.

Our mix sleepers room -

Pachinko room -

Vending machine room -

Launch room -

Sendai port -

Amazing sunset -

The next day, we arrived in the port of Nagoya.

From Otsuchi to Sendai

ellachau — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 06:47:32 +0900

Leaving from Otsuchi, we headed down to Sendai. With the arrangement by Professor Moriko, our mission was to find Tohoku University’s Department of Architecture and meet with architect Mr. Onoda Yasuaki, the co-founder of Archiaid.

The bus ride from Otsuchi to Sendai provided us the last opportunities to capture some beautiful country side photos of Tohoku regions.

Arrived in Sendai, greenery was never far away. In the middle of down town, we got really obsessed with this green wall.

Sendai Highstreet.

Before heading to the university, we dropped by the Sendai Mediatheque Building that Mr. Onoda designed in collaboration with architect Toyo Ito. The uniqueness of the was the slanted structural columns. They created different floor plans for each floors.

Finally, arriving to the university around 8pm, we met Mr. Onoda right after one of his meeting, and then it was kind of late in the evening, he gave an hour of lecture only for us, show casing the work of Archiaid. The content was the most inspiring, and we were impressed by Mr. Onoda’s ideas and forward thinking for the recovery work for Tohoku. At the end, we left with hope and inspirations, along with respect and admiration for Mr. Onoda, a professional that only met for an hour and more.

Life at Caritas Otsuchi Base

ellachau — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 22:59:50 +0900

Time at Otsuchi was a bit like living in an oasis; isolated but provided. In the one month and a half, we witnessed the transformation of the place. It seemed that the lost of urban establishment enhanced the presence of nature.

The 2 frightening days of annual spring storm was quite a terrific experience. The wind blew so loud that I had to stay up all night. Every time a strong gust came, the whole building shake. Lying in bed, there was also this fear that something smash the window near me.

Followed the next day was severe snow, no body was able to walk outside, and even the high speed train had to stop due to the wind. I went out just for a stroll, and the wind kept blowing my steps off track and made it difficult to walk.

On the third day, everything all of a sudden became silent again. The sun came up, as if nothing happened. From then on, spring started and the temperature stayed warm. Weeds started dominating the ruins and the cherry blossom season came.

Then there were a few days of heavy rain… Otsuchi and Kamaishi became a huge swimming pool as a result of land subsidence.

The biggest moon of the year. Too bright to sleep, so we took pictures until we were tired!

It’s a obligation to volunteer in our free time staying in the Caritas Base, and the work was diverse. We helped the setting up of a community radio station, stringing scollop for fishermen, digging trenches for temporary housing residents, planting trees on the seawall, etc. My two colleagues Tommaso and John also did extra creative work for the base.

Food was always the highlight of the days. A lady from Kamaishi were hired by the base to cook 3 meal a day for the volunteers, everything she made was just amazing. I got a photo of her cooking somewhere, but I just couldn’t find it in my massive photo folder…the story was that she was a cook for a junior high school before, and her sister past away in the tsunami. I hope that she knew how her food had been the highlight of our staying in Otsuchi Base.

Musicians staying at the base.

Kiri Kiri 吉里吉里

ellachau — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 02:10:00 +0900

Kiri Kiri is a small coastal town near Otsuchi. The word Kiri Kiri imitates the sounds when one’s foot is walking on the broken shell beach. During our time there, a group of junior school kids from Marioka, the captital of Iwate, were cleaning up the tsunami debris from the beach for a school field trip. They bought quite a lot of energy to this quiet little town.

Below is a very charming temporary ramen restaurant. I liked it because it actually has a character, not like the typical aluminum one that you can see all around, and of course the food was fantastic!

Further up north, is the Northern Kiri Kiri village. We accidentally found out that some students from Qinghua University, China, was doing a workshop with a Japanese University on a urban proposal of Otsuchi, so we decided to pop in to have look. When we were there, they were having a lecture about the potential of using bio-energy in this region. It was quite an interesting, but technical lecture.

The students were staying in this community hall in Kiri Kiri (which was super difficult for us to find) for two weeks doing this project for Otsuchi. Meanwhile, we were staying in Otsuchi doing a project for Kamaishi. A kind of funny situation.

The north Kiri Kiri village was a real charming place to explore. I was almost looking for the trails of Totoro!

Wonders of Iwate Prefecture 岩手県

ellachau — Fri, 25 May 2012 19:05:00 +0900

Our last few days spent in the Iwate Prefecture were full of wonders. One of the staff at our Caritas base, Nozomi, had a day off, so together, we ventured into the magnificent wonderland.

All along the back roads, we could still see some late cherries blossom. Together with the small country villages formed the most charming scenes that could exist. It makes you wonder how life would be living there.

Stopping by in Tono, we had to try the featured wasabi ice-cream at the station. It was surprisingly good!

An hour later, towards the Iwate Mountain direction was where the stunning scenery was revealed to us.

After the kilometer of cherry trees, we found ourselves in front of the famous Iwate Dairy Farm, so of course, we decided to drop in and check it out. Meanwhile, straight from their cows they say, I had my 2nd ice-cream of the day! Confirming that it was the king of all soft-creams in Japan.

This milking shed below is apparently more then 100 years old.

The main entrance into the Iwate Farm Park.

We left the farm toward the next ‘viewing’ hot spot, where this ancient cherry tree stands alone in front of the mountain. Doesn’t this reminds you of version of Windows 97? But better.

Iwate Mountain!

Our next destination was supposed to be the fields of snow-statue-trees, but unfortunately there wasn’t enough time for us to cross the huge mountain, so we ended up going to the nearest onsen right where we saw the sulphur smoke come up. The pool water was really hot and milky in colour.

Dinner in Morioka - The Myagi Prefecture’s free range chicken restaurant - is a must to mention, as I would rate this as one of the 3 most amazing meals that we had in Japan!

Decorated to make you feel like being in a chicken farm, this restaurant makes the best chicken all of us have ever tasted! Oh, I wish I could own these chickens!…

The ultimate - smoked black pepper lemon lean chicken on hot plate! It’s texture was almost like beef!

Quiet contentment with the year’s biggest full moon.

Thanks to Nozomi for making this the best day trip ever! We will never forget!

Rain on Jinya Festival

ellachau — Sat, 12 May 2012 02:29:00 +0900

Unfortunately for us, the rain decided to take part in the Kamaishi’s Jinya Festival. As to our cardboard structure, we managed to put it together under a big shelter.

(above 2 photos by Ken)

After being wet, we dropped in for a traditional green tea and homemade sweets from the lovely ladies in pink kimonos, it made us felt warm and fuzzy inside.

(above 2 photos by Ken)

Despite the disappointment with the weather, we ended up enjoying the event none the less. Although our cardboard structure did not really get fully used in this occasion, Mr. Katakura will later donate the structure to a local kindergarten. So in order for him to be able to rebuild the structure after we leave, our colleague Ting made a manual for them to follow - photo manual/3D manual

Tree Planting Ceremony in Otsuchi

ellachau — Sun, 06 May 2012 16:48:00 +0900

With so much debris left over from the tsunami, it’s a challenge for the local government in the affected areas to think of solutions to deal with them. At the moment in Otsuchi, one of the project that they are pushing forward is to bury some of the non-toxic biodegradable debris into the ground and create a ‘great wall of greenery’ on top. The “wall” will function as a protection from the future tsunami, have a positive impact in the natural environment in addressing climate change, and the grown trees can protect the residents from the gusty wind in this area.

In this project, it seemed that the Yokohama rubber tire company sponsored in some way. I don’t know how tires and the environment can actually be friends together, but from their website, they have been developing eco-friendly tires that are fuel and speed efficient on vehicles. However, other then that, I suppose tires are still tires.

The chief of this re-planation is Professor Akira Miyawaki, who is a physiognomist, and an expert in restoring forests. Prof. Miyawaki has a special method in replantation of forests that named after him. The idea was to plant different types of native trees closely and randomly together so that diversity and resistance can be nourish by itself. In his method, weeding and other human support are not needed after the first 3 years of planting. More details of the Miyawaki Method is worthwhile to check out.

So, for Otsuchi’s great wall of greenery, 16 types of tree will be planted.

After a series of happy photos for the press, we gathered by the D section to get ready for some real action.

You can see that the trees are actually being planted really close together, plus the great amount of volunteers, it is really difficult to move around.

After planting, we used straws to cover the bare soil around the trees.

Then, we tied them down with ropes.

After the planting 3000 small trees, our reward was a neat Japanese lunch box and some live music entertainment from the local high school. They were both fantastic.

Cardboard structure for Kamaishi's Jinya Festival

ellachau — Sat, 05 May 2012 17:48:00 +0900

Our presentation to the Kamaishi Small Business Association is done, but it was definitely not the end of our “work” here! May 3rd is the local festival for kids called ‘Jinya’, and we were asked to design and build a hut for the kids using the existing cardboard that they have, as they got them for free from a NPO during the emergency shelter days for privacy divisions in their cramped living conditions.

So in a week beforehand, on the first sunny day in Kamaishi, we started cutting and building the structure. Then of course, there is a photo moment for cherries before we start work!

They were so nice to serve us hot tea!

(below) On the right is Mr. Katakura, the leader of the Small Business Association/our ‘boss’. He lost this business during the tsunami, and now this shop is opened temporarily in this temporary ‘shopping street’.

Cherry break!

After a hard working day, we were invited to a private whisky club in which they named it Roha!

Japanese whiskey is really good, and so I was drunk by dinner…and the next morning, we were on the prefecture’s newspaper!!

Happy memories :)

Road Trip to Kitakami 北上市

ellachau — Fri, 04 May 2012 19:28:00 +0900

Oh yes, we can’t get enough of cherries! After checking the cherry blossom calendar, where the Japanese maps the best time and location for cherry blossom viewing each year, we borrowed a car from the amazing Caritas and took off for our first road trip to Kitakami. The place is around 2 hours in land from where we are, and one third of the way, we stopped at a caving area for some adventure, but as soon as we found out that it’s under maintenance, some of us took an alternative for the adventure in stead - climb up a cement wall beside a railway, and they even found a huge snake under a rock at the top!

Seemed like every person who had a car was going to the same park that we were going on the day. So we suffered a bit to get to the Kitakami river side park, but it is of cause completely worthwhile at the end.

Right by the park is a mixture of residential area and urban farms. Actually, I really can’t tell if I were in a rural or a urban area being there, which made me felt a bit confused and intrigued.

To prove that we were huge fans, we came back at night to check out the cherry trees being lit up. It was a different sort of cherry experience.

Just a stroll into the hills of Otsuchi 大槌町...

ellachau — Wed, 02 May 2012 17:51:00 +0900

Cherry blossom season marks the end of the long harsh winter of Japan, and to be able to see the dream like pink-white colours floating on the elegantly posed branches made every minute of winter actually worth while! Yes, I said these words.

It happened to be the most perfect day that we decided to take a stroll in the hill right behind our door step and in search of our first ‘cherry blossom experience’. As we went further up the hill, we discovered the un-mentioned mountain top park. Astonished by the fact that no body actually mentioned to us about this secret garden, I was just stoked that we stumbled upon it! The unexpected scenery really had a stunned effect on me!

These photos below are in sequence of our afternoon’s exploration, so please enjoy.

Feeling drunk and dazed is the effect that cherry flowers have on me if I stare at them for too long!

Being there felt like being in a garden in the sky. Just look down past the trees you can see the view of the whole city below your feet.

Hands down one of the best nature experience I have had in Japan, and in my humble opinion, as my colleague would say, in terms of cherry blossom viewing, I consider this one of the region’s best kept secret, as it was not listed on any websites as a destination point. However, don’t take every word I say ;)

Proposing for Kamaishi 釜石市

ellachau — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:27:00 +0900

Kamaishi is the town where we spent 3 weeks doing an urban proposal for the Small Business Organisation on their ‘shopping street’. Kamaishi is an industrial based town, and after March 11, the city center was almost completely destroyed.

Nippon Steel, was the major reason that this industrial town exists over 20 years ago, however, with the declined industry and population, it would be interesting to what Kamaishi will be come in the future years. The future is open, however, the news of the arrival of a shopping mall definitely gave us not a very easy feeling about this beginning. We definitely have a very different view on how the shopping environment of Kamaishi can be revitalized. Other then our full presentation, you’re encouraged to see an intro (Japanese/English) about our proposal first.

More photos of Kamaishi with descriptions below:

The costal sea wall in Kamaishi surrounds the whole coastline, and since the fish industry needs to be close to the water, they created gates for daily accesses. Due to this reason, people died for trying to close the gates manually when the tsunami was on its way.

A destoryed plot in the town center (where it used to be a building), were renovated into a small Japanese garden in the middle of downtown.

(Below) A river run down on the west end of the town. We were told that salmons still swims up this river every year, and also lives a deer family. Sometimes bears come down here to hang out too. Strange to me that wild animals can live so close to an urban setting!

In Kamaishi, we definitely felt Nippon Steel’s presents all around. At the end of a main street was one of the gigantic warehouse.

This island strip of land was a urban renewal project that were in construction right before March 11. Now, restaurant owners that lost their business parks their kitchen car here. These van open only at night, and they can seat 5 people at one go!

(below) We strolled up into the higher grounds where the residential area is situated, and delighted to find it to be the more interesting part of the town. Cute traditional Japanese houses stacks up on the slope beside narrow alleys, and ornamented with small beautiful gardens.

(below) An evacuation route to one of the temples.

(below) On the other side of the hill is one of the current temporary housing area.

(below) Nippon Steel factory

(below) Kamaishi Aoba Box is an internet cafe is designed by an architect and donated by a Fukashima timber company. We saw this box open on the first day and we also did our presentation to the local business association here. So I suppose the box is somewhat special to us!

(above) photo by photographer Ken

Garden Projects for Revitalisation

ellachau — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:00:00 +0900

Japanese are quite into their gardens. These are couple of garden projects that we found in Ishinomaki, in which they really made an effort in restoring the salted and trash-barried soil. I can’t imagine how they actually did it, especially we learnt how difficult it is to pick out bits and pieces in a couple of debris clearing jobs:

I love this garden slash art installation project -

Designer Temporary Housings and Other Small Structures

ellachau — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 14:37:00 +0900

During our time in Tohoku, we had many chances to visit temporary housing. While most of them are the standard/typical aluminum module type, below are a couple that were done by designers.

遠野市仮設住宅希望之の鄉 Timber temporary house in Tono

Containar houses by Shigeru Ban in Onagawa Town, Miyagi

ZENKONゆ in Minamisanriku and now in Ishinomaki as in the below photo.

番屋プロジェクト Banya in Minamisanriku

Went by this temporary near Kamaishi, and saw this project by 山本理顕設計工場, and 2 weeks later, the outside is completely done! Japanese speed.

Before we left Nagaoka, we found this comprehensive book that documented all the temporary housings that were built after the CHU-TSUE earthquake in Niigata Prefecture. Since the book were not for sell and the only they had at the community center, our colleague Ting scanned the whole book. I believe that knowledge should be shared, so grab as you wish. Mind you that it’s all in Japanese ;)

Toni 唐丹駅

ellachau — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 16:02:00 +0900

The most jaw-dropping destroyed structure yet… How high and strong should a sea wall be in order to protect a town?

Onagawa 女川

ellachau — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 00:02:00 +0900

During our stay in Ishinomaki, we had a chance to go back to visit the horizontal buildings in Onagawa. A closer encounter of the destruction this time.

Ishinomaki Laboratory 石卷工房

ellachau — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 23:48:00 +0900

Coming back up to the north direction, we arrived back in Ishinomaki to stay for a few days. For us, even though it was one of the most heavily destroyed area, Ishinomaki is relatively alive with recovery activities. Within the last year, many new places had opened or re-opened. Without these new establishment, we probably won’t have a place to stay while we are there.

One of the places that we visited and excited us was the Ishinomaki Laboratory. It was established by designer with architect Keiji Ashizawa to support the recovery activities, education young people and ultimately create jobs.

Overall, the space is really cool with their signature timber furniture in the front space, and workshop in the back room, and it was a real nice touch that they serve cheap coffee - 100 yen a cup, and 300 yen for the whole day! I really think that such a project is key to the future of a recovering community, as they bring in people and new connections. We had already met a few young people that found jobs in the recovery support work and decided to stay in Ishinomaki. As a foreigner passing-by, we can tell that there is a lively energy in the air, it would be interesting to see what Ishinomaki will became in a few years’ time.

Break time in Karakuwa 唐桑半島

ellachau — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:53:00 +0900

Since we arrived in the Tohoku area, we have been leading a super hectic schedule. After our industrious time with Curitas in Ofunato, an full-coverage of Tohoku disaster tour and the Wakami processing session, 2 of our colleagues fell sick with food poisoning. So when we made it to Karakuwa Village, we requested it to be some what of a break. However, it was not planned because of this reason that we stayed in a place called O Shaki Sho 御崎莊, where it used to be a holiday resort maybe 5 years ago before it slowly died down.

Being there, we can see why this was once a holiday destination, as it is surrounded by breath-taking natural scenery. A stroll into the natural park is just right by our front yard, and within 100 metres, there’s a natural pool and a ideal cliff jumping spot, in which really made us wish it was already summer. When the tsunami came last year, it was used a an evacuation centre. The flood did not reach the building but only a 5 meter below. It’s a pity that the resort is not is used anymore, but the good news is that, nowadays, wonderful people like Jay Horinouchu, an US born Japanese volunteer organiser, rents it from time to time to host volunteers that supports the revival activities in Karakuwa.

I am not sure if it was because we were in a more relaxing pace then the previous days, but almost every corner of Karakuwa seemed beautiful through the lens of my camera. However, it was true that the village was isolated from the outside until very recent times. As before having road connection, the only way to visit Karakuwa were to take a boat! So that is probably why a lot of natural scenery were preserved.

Karakuwa is beautiful in its natural environment, but in the social side of things, beside the problem of having an aging population, there is a lack of social and public spaces for social nourishment. That’s why our host of our wonderful stay, Jay, have been trying to bring young volunteers into the community to get involved with the recovery process and to bring new energy in the village. Currently, a cafe called J-station is in the middle of being manifested to provide a social space solely for hang-out and flourish social connections. The choice of the location and how idea came about is another meaningful story. I believe this will be one of the most important stepping stone that for Karakuwa’s future if it were to go beyond their problems it is facing now.

Seaweed processing at Minami Sanriku 南三陸町

ellachau — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:37:00 +0900

Waking up before 7am remains the most challenging moment of my days in Japan, but in Minami Sanriku, we had to wake up at 5am to help with some Wakame seaweed processing with a local wakami co-operative! Strangely, I was actually excited about this, as I knew it was going to do be something new that I’ve never done.

This particular wakame co-operative we volunteered to help was established after the March 11 tsunami. There were 12 fishermen in this co-op, in which they all work independently before the tsunami. Some of them were their 3rd generation of their family in this wakame farming business.

At 5am sharp, the farmers arrived and started doing what they call the ‘(easy) before breakfast tasks’. This basically involves stripping and separating the salt-boiled Wakame seaweed into 4 different parts. ‘The wakame is particular tough this year!’ Mr Sasaki exclaimed a few times while clean stripping a wakame. We were not sure if it was a good thing or not, but after we asked, we learnt that it that the tougher the wakame is, the better it is for eating and hence better the price they can sell it. We also learnt that, wakame grows tougher in water that’s far away from the shore, and this bunch of wakame were the farthest that they have had planted. Hearing that, I got a bit concern about ruining the valuable wakame with my poor ‘striping’ skills, as it was not easy to strip a string of Wakame in one clean go everytime.

During our little chat, we also discussed the situation that they face in a tsunami. Mr Sasaki explained that once they received the tsunami warning, they would need to make a decision whether or not to take their boat out into the open sea or just evacuate. By doing so the boat will have a higher chance to be saved, but it is also a risky thing to do, because if they cannot reach the open sea before the tsunami arrives, they will have a slim chance to survive. In the case of March 11 tsunami, Mr Sasaki made the choice to evacuate to the highland. On the other hand, we were overthrown by the idea of a fearless fisherman taking their boat into the sea while the tsunami is coming, then through a expressionless face, Mr Sasaki softly noted, ‘(Out there,) It is scary’.

Since it was the Japan ‘tomb sweeping’ holiday, hey stopped their work at 10am and gathered the long leafy parts to put them into a pressure machine. 12 ton pressure and 1 hour was how long it takes to get the excess water out. Meanwhile, the exterior world had become warm and sunny. We sat outside and felt a bit of contentment for what we achieved before mid-day and still have the rest of the day free. However, for the fishermen, this is their actual day to day life from morning to evening. Now whenever I see a wakame in my ramen soup, other then being able to tell which part of the wakame it comes from, I also knew that it was hand striped by some hard working seaweed farmer somewhere.

Ishinomaki 石卷港

ellachau — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:59:20 +0900

and stories that humbled me…

Performance in the Kesenuma temporary ‘shopping...

ellachau — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 23:51:00 +0900

Performance in the Kesenuma temporary ‘shopping street’, it’s a beautiful scene on a average winter day.