A Trip to Tohoku

I wrote this back in 2011 but never published it. The messages remain unchanged so I thought I’d post it. This note was written on 15 October, 2020 and so was the message at bottom.

This post is the first post in my blog for a while. Things have been busy around here with a new direction for design kojo in more than one way, in the coming weeks I will write more about this.

Today though I really want to post these images and talk about what happened in Japan this year and post some photos from a trip I made 1 year ago from home to Fuji Rock down the now very well known Tohoku coast in Japan.

It amazed me how beautiful Tohoku is and how far removed it is from the typical picture we get of Japan. One thing that really sticks in my mind from this trip is how well protected this place was from Tsunami. On the drive down into beautiful city bays we saw large signs that read entering tsunami inundation area in English and of course Japanese and then leaving inundation area on the way out. Also in these magnificent bays and coves walls that were built to protect were just washed over as if they never existed, the true devastation has been seen again and again.

The photos in this blog show some of the worst-hit areas. The photo that has a friend on top of a wall with a link to Google maps, the wall is all but buried by sand. I remember sleeping on this wall, what a peaceful night it was. Then there is a bay that is magnificent by this, Kesan, again this bay saw the Tsunami fall force but is now getting on with life and finally the picture of Miyazaki is a part of the coast that would have seen the Tsunami surge up against it, however, a top these cliffs you would have been very safe indeed.

Forward from that day Japan has shown us that it can stand up and survive, it has a culture of gambaru, to do your best no matter what the situation, the strength of a people, a people that respect each other and are always looking out for their fellow. Most of Japan is now living normal life, after a time where Japanese far from the Tohoku got on with life by not being extravagant a practice of self-imposed control known as jishiku. But even now people in some of the most devastated areas are starting to get on with it and possibly were right from day 1.

So even after all that has happened things are good here in Japan and in some places things have never really changed. Hope you enjoy my photos and a little story about an amazing place, you can all come here one day soon. Welcome to design kojo, follow along on a journey of tech and art and of Japan, a place we call home for now.

yoroshiku onegaishimasu. [look at me favourably please]