When I stepped out of the Ishinomaki Station on the Ishinomaki Line, everything appeared normal local station square with several unique local features to Ishinomaki. As I headed to south, soon I reached to a foot of a hill with very steep road and stairs going up on the hill. In the middle of the inclining path, I started seeing Kitakami River to the east over the bluff, which runs through the city and enters into Ishinomaki Bay. There was a small park and a stone monument on which Tanka Poem was inscribed. It was reading the scene of Ishinomaki as a port city in the Spring. I could imagined the echo of shipbuilding and people enjoying the spring season in the rain-like of cherry blossom falling from the trees which flame the vista of the port and the river over the hill.
Finally I came to the hilltop park called Hiyoriyama Park, which name implies a beautiful day. But the day was cloudy and the sky was entirely overcast. The park was on the south edge of the hill top and you could see 180 degree of the city of Ishinomaki with Kitakami River, the national road bridge over the mouth of the river, and Ishinomaki Bay. I walked up to the edge of the terraced park by the hand railing and saw what the tsunami did to the city. There was a shrine called Kashima-Miko Jinja and I saw strings of one thousand origami cranes. In the park, there was also the statue of Kawamura Magobei Jukichi, who was born in 1575 and lead the flood control works from 1616 through 1626, which became the basis of following prosperity of Ishinomaki as a port city.
From the park, you can climb down to the neighborhood of Ishinomaki with very steep stone stairs on the south face of the hill. The step is almost double the height of a regular step. At the bottom of the stair, I could see all the way to the dikes of the Ishinomaki Bay. I've never been to the place before and don't know what it looked like, but I imagined the place with local houses and narrow passage between them, for sure not being able to see all the way to the bay. Today, except for a few building, no vertical element stands on the plane. I walked to the east on the national road which was already repaved and encountered the remnant of what it used to be an elementary school. On the back of the hill was Ishinomaki Municipal Kadowaki Elementary School. Everything of the school was destroyed except the concrete structure of the building. The surviving students are studying now in the 3rd floor of the High School on top of the hill.
There were many trucks and some construction vehicles working on something. The national road which runs in the spine of the city was already repaved much higher than surrounding area, but there is no side walk or where I could walk safely yet. Whenever a truck is passing by I stepped out of the road which is surrounding area of mud. Near the Ishinomaki Bay by the national road was used be the Hibarino Park. What used to be a neighborhood park was now the mountain of rubble. On the other side of national road was piles of automobiles. By the concrete dike at the edge of bay, some of concrete foundation was failed presumably by the force tsunami. On the dike there was wall painting done by the local children 6 years ago. Across the Kitakami River, a washed fishing boat was still sitting on the land.
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| 日和山公園 View from Hiyoriyama Park |
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| Stone stair on the south side of the hill leading to the neighborhood of Ishinomaki |
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| Ishinomaki and Manga |
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| 石巻市立門脇小学校 Ishinomaki Municipal Elementary School |
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| 日和山公園 Hiyoriyama Park, Ishinomaki |
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| 石巻を通る国道 National Road runs through a spine of Ishinomaki |
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| A hilltop residential, Ishinomaki |
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| 雲雀野公園 Hibarino Park, Ishinomaki |
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| 北上川 Kitakami River, Ishinomaki |
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| 石巻市立門脇小学校 Ishinomaki Munisipal Kadowaki Elementary School |
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| 石巻を通る国道 National Road runs thorough Ishinomaki neigh |
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| A steep road climbing up on a hill of Ishinomaki |
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| 川村孫兵衛重吉 Kawamura Magobei Jukichi |
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| Stair climbing up on a hill, Ishinomaki |
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| 北上川 Kitakami River, Ishinomaki |
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| 北上川 Kitakami RIver, Ishinomaki |
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| 石巻駅 Ishinomaki Station |
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| Piles of automobiles |
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| Dike of Ishinomaki Bay |
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| 日和山公園 Hiyoriyama Park, Ishinomaki |
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| 鹿島御児神社 Kashima-Miko Shrine |
