Higashi Matsushima

During day #2 of Natori and lantern making, Brother Asano took us to his hometown.  I was able to explore a bit deeper into Natori and the school we were working at, and I have more video of that for tomorrow, but I wanted to get this done first.

On the way, we passed entire villages that were still covered with water.  I pulled my camera out too late for those places, but we got a huge eye-full here at Higashi Matsushima.

The first few photos are of the roads between Natori and Higashi Matsushima.

People are working SO HARD to get life back to some semblance of normalcy.

A gas station.

Can you imagine?

Can you see it?

Yup.  It's a train.  One of those always-on-time Japanese trains....Stranded out in the middle of nowhere.

Can you imagine water so forceful that it bends metal bars?

I'm wondering what he's feeling and thinking as he drives us out here.

Here we are....Higashi Matsushima.

These machines were the constant "background music" to our trip.  The Asano's house was over in this direction.

Can't go any further than over the bridge into town.

Standing water in the roadway--5 months after the fact.

Can you see the tanker ship?

Here's some video for you to help it come alive a bit more....

When you first venture over the bridge and into town as far as you can go, which is all of about fifteen yards or so, on the left side of the bridge and road is a house with flowers painted all over it. Looks like something from the '60s. I couldn't figure it out. It looked like something some rebellious American would do. We judged that it was someone's way of flipping the finger at nature. I'm sure that's probably not it, but it was as good a reason as any. It looked so cute in this devastated area that I couldn't bring myself to take a photo of it. You'll notice it's the last thing I videotape. It was just too cheerful; too much of a contrast to its surroundings.