sunrise view from the small window of a bullet train

I went to Ishinomaki. I left in Tokyo very early morning hopping on the first train of the day to get to Tokyo Station and took a bullet train to Sendai. I saw sunrise from the window of quietly moving bullet train. Last time I visited was late June. I was wondering if I could see Jocky-san who I met in my last visit. On the way to Ishinomaki, when I changed the train at Kogota Station, I bought rice balls from a small store on the platform.

steep road to Hiyoriyama Park

Hiyoriyama Park

steep staircase at Hiyoriyama Park

On the way to Hiyoriyama park, there is a small park on the hill side looking down a buddhist temple with cemetary ground. Lonely playground slide is always standing out catching my attention. Apart from the slide, there is a teeter sitting on the ground quietly. I have not seen anyone in this park during four visits since 2011. I climbed steep hill that leads to Hiyoriyama Park. From this top of the hill overlooking entire area which was swallowed by the tsunami, there is very steep stone steps descending to the ground. I still remember when I first visited in November 2011, 9 months after the incident, I could not stop thinking that somewhere in these steps was borderline between the life and death, that early morning of March 11, 2011. 

residential road surrounded by empty lots

The area that had been devastated by the tsunami was finally completely cleared of all the debris that were piled up for more than 2 years. When I visited the site in late June, lots of construction vehicles and trucks were taking debris away, and even a big hospital building left unoccupied was being demolished by the construction vehicles raising smoke of dusts. Today you don't see the hospital anymore. No vehicles were working, no construction workers were seen, leaving the site very quiet. Vast empty area was filled with tall grasses which were overgrown all over the place. 

pinwheels at Tomari no Eki

Since last time I visited, There has been a visitors area which was made for people to stop by. In Tomari no Eki (station of staying), there are some descriptions and photos of what had happened in March 11, 2011. There were several buses parked there and people were taking their time to contemplate what this place and people had to go through. Nearby, there is a small truck of yakisoba noodle shop. The owner had lost everything and his wife is still missing from the tsunami. I learned that he had reopened his business with a little truck of hope. It was very windy day. Kazaguruma (pinwheel) was spinning very fast silently.

Ishinomaki Yakisoba Ajihei

visitor's parking

In the northernmost of the tsunami affected area, which was against the hill, there is a school. The Ishinomaki Tatewaki elementary school was one of most painful things to see. The building was devastated from the crash of tsunami and its concrete wall were burned and colored dark black which I heard that the school had a fire after tsunami. When I first visited there, I saw a red sneaker of some child by the broken window. You could see the classroom through the broken windows. Classrooms tables, chairs and bookshelves all were fallen on the floor with mud that the salt water brought and left behind when it receded. The school had long been closed with construction barricades. As barricade elected, no one can get close to it anymore. The tour buses stop by the school as well. In front of the construction barricades, people were listening to what the guide had to say. Over the ocean of tall glass, I saw a man standing alone away from a group in front of the school closing his eyes contemplating the place. I wondered what was in his mind at the moment.

I walked on the road that runs in the middle of the site straight to the oceanfront road. When I first went to Ishinomaki, there was stacks of demolished cars. Now i don't see that tall wall of stacked cars. A year ago there was still demolished cars with lots of rusts and shells of shellfishes caked on those cars. They must had been under the salt water of the ocean for a while. The wall of nameless cars were built up as if a barricade. The stacked cars were standing tall as if it was going to stand for another tsunami to come. All that is gone now. By the road there are two big tree standing alone. I couldn't tell if the trees are alive. There is no leave on it as far as I remember during visits. They were standing alone as if trying to inscribe the memories of what had happened on the ground as material evidences were slowly dissappearing. 

On the road, there was a bicycle by the roadside. Curiously I took the picture. Then I noticed someone is photographing the site with a note and a pencil in his hand. I was curious. I walked to the ocean. The road is very busy now.  A lot of traffic is passing by as if nothing had happened. I decided to talked to that man who was photographing the site. I walked back on the strait road reaching to the devastated school siting against the steep hill in it's perspective background. He was still there. I walked up to him. I asked what he was doing. His name is Saito-san. He said he was a photographer of some periodicals. He said he was photographing of this area with his note that he was recording which photos were taking from where, and when each photo was taken. He said that he was taking the photos over nearly three years and kept doing since when the tsunami swallowed the town. He said he might want to publish it. I said goodbye to him and kept going. Later when I was on the west side of the coastal town, I saw him on the bicycle taking photos several times. 

Saito-san said this place is already dedicated to be a public park. The municipality had decided it. When I visited there in June, I talked to a construction worker who was removing the remaining foundation of the collapsed house, and he also said that this area was not going to be residential anymore. It was going to be a park. I asked where would those people who were living there before. He said, the government will do something.This whole area is going to be a park. I hope it will be a park that give a place for remembering the past and advancing to the future. A place that celebrate of today.

I continued walking to west side of the site. It was where I met Jocky-san and Kentaro-san who were planting the seeds of Sunflower. The pleasant memory came back to my mind. I don't know if those flowers seeds were bloomed in the summer just like the sun flowers that i saw in last September. Then I saw shadow of someone in that exact same area. He was working with a shovel in his hand. It was from the distance and I couldn't tell who he was. From that moment I couldn't move. I was watching a man from the distance. Since last time I saw Jokcy-san, I wanted to see him again. But something is anchoring my feet to the ground. 

Later I saw the man put the shovel in the back of a small truck and drove away. Now all the debris are gone and the place is waiting for reconstruction. And we know that it won't be the same as residential area with houses. It will be a park. I heard that the recovery of economic situation nowadays is acturally slowing the recovery of tsunami affected towns, because the resources are focused on big cities like Tokyo and Osaka with new developments, right now. The coastal area of Ishinomaki is now just quietly waiting for the day to be reborn as a park of memories of the past and hope for the future.