First Trip Together: Fukushima
- Katie Johnson
- Sep 27, 2021
- 10 min read
During Bryan's deployment, I started planning our first trip around our new country. We weren't sure where we wanted to go first, but we knew our plans had to be flexible. Due to COVID outbreaks in Japan, the base commander sends out weekly maps of the country showing the travel restrictions for all SOFA members. The green, yellow and red state of emergencies map is crucial for knowing where we are allowed to go and the information changes constantly. With this in mind, I looked at the past several months' worth of maps and started planning a trip to explore the northern part of Honshu, the main island of Japan. The last few travel restriction maps seemed to keep this area in the green and yellow zones, so I figured this was the safest option for a week-long trip. So back in August, I spent 3 long days researching the top sights to see in Northern Honshu, as none of our friends had traveled that far north! I figured if we were going to see this country, we were going to dive right in and go where nobody (we knew) had gone before!
Then, at the beginning of September, almost all of Japan went red, including Nagasaki prefecture, where we live. We were told the current state of emergencies would be reevaluated on September 12...so we said a lot of prayers and kept our fingers crossed that Northern Honshu would clear back up so we could continue with our plans. Luckily on the 15th, the base commander released a new map and we were cleared to travel! Whew! That was a close call!
Saturday, September 18
At 8:30am, we took the "blue bus" to Fukuoka airport! We were happy to catch a ride on the free base bus, considering tolls to the airport equaled about $70 one way, plus parking for the week! During the 2-hour bus ride, I enjoyed reading a new children's book (gotta prep for this new job!) while Bryan dozed off for a quick nap.
Once at the airport, we had a few hours before our flight would take off, so we grabbed a bite to eat at a little burger bar outside of gate security. Luckily the menu had pictures, so we were able to point, smile and nod our heads to order our meal! We also had a chuckle- the drink options included green tea, some other green tea option, apple juice or Coke. Bet you can guess what we chose- coke for the win!
Our flight left for Sendai at 1:35pm, and after two hours in the air, we landed and hit the ground running! There was a train station right outside the airport and the ticket machines had an "English" button, so we were able to purchase our first tickets quickly and jump on the leaving train just in time! Now, I knew we were going to take the train down to Fukushima, but I will admit I didn't pay attention to how long it would take.... or how many train changes we would have to make... three hours and two train changes later, we finally made it to Odaka Station. By the time we got off our train, the town was pitch black. No street lamps. Nobody walking about. Completely dead. So with the help of Google maps, we wandered down the main street and waltzed into what we thought was our hotel for the night. Luckily we guessed the right building! We made it to our hotel: Futabaya Ryokan!
Ryokans are traditional Japanese-styled hotels with small, private sleeping rooms and are known for their shared common areas, communal bathrooms and traditional Japanese shared meals. Our tour guide, Karin, recommended Futabaya Ryokan when I reached out about the Real Fukushima tour, and I jumped at the chance to have a "real" Japanese experience. (Keep in mind, I didn't think anything of the "communal bathrooms" at the time of booking!) Bryan was pretty stoked when we made it up to our room and he saw the tatami mats, floor beds and a low-sitting table. He wasn't as excited when we explored the communal bathrooms and noticed the shower consisted of an open area with four shower heads....
Here's Bryan's quick tour of the Ryokan:
After a quick exploration of the ryokan, we headed back out into the dark city to find dinner. Not knowing when we would arrive, I booked our stay with breakfast the next morning rather than dinner, so Karin sent me two restaurant suggestions for our stay. We ended up finding Sarasa, a tiny hole-in-the-wall bar that cooked us the most amazing meal! The menu was in Japanese and had no pictures, but the wait staff and a customer who spoke some broken English were sweet enough to help us pick something from the menu! With the quasi state of emergency still in effect for Fukushima Prefecture, restaurants were asked to close at 8pm and to stop serving alcohol by 7pm, so while we weren't able to enjoy a well-deserved beverage, we did eat some of the best chicken and sticky rice we have ever tasted! (And I say that not just because we were starving!) When we left, the waiter even gave us several local candies to take with us to try! We left Sarasa with full bellies, huge smiles and looking forward to interacting with more locals throughout our week adventure!
We ended our night experiencing the ryokan's communal shower.
Positives from the shower experience:
We figured out the correct shower for guys and girls. This could have been awkward without the assistance of google translate.
There was hot water.
There were several body washes, shampoos and conditioners to choose from.
We both lucked out and had the entire shower to ourselves (no sharing with strangers! Yes!)
Not so positives:
We both took the quickest showers of our lives.
The four robes left for us in the room were not different patterned so you had choices. One pattern was for adults, the other for children. Who chose to be "different" and choose the "fun pattern?" Me. Who didn't unfold the robe until she was already showered? Me. Who had to run up to the room with half her ass hanging out of a children's bathrobe in a foreign Japanese hotel? Also me. Bryan thought this was hilarious, I did not.
Sunday, September 19
After a restful night on our floor beds (imagine a futon mattress with a duvet), we were up, dressed and ready for our traditional Japanese breakfast with our host family by 7am. While Bryan was eager for a morning of fresh fish, I was a little more hesitant, but the meal turned out to be delicious! As we enjoyed our meal, our tour guide for the day, Karin, arrived and began by translating our conversation with our host. We were able to hear firsthand about the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster from 2011 from our host who survived the disaster and had to flee their home in 2011. Five years later, once they were permitted to return, they reopened the ryokan to promote businesses to return to the area and to accommodate tourists. And here we are!
By 8:30am, we were checked out of our hotel and in Karin's van! As we drove, Karin explained that on March 11, 2011, northern Japan experienced the largest earthquake recorded in Japan's history. The 9.0 earthquake lasted over six minutes and led to a massive tsunami that hit along the eastern coast of Japan a mere hour later. The tsunami reached heights up to 133ft as it hit land traveling at speeds up to 435mph. Waters reached 6 miles inland and took over 19,000 lives.
While Fukushima didn't get the worst of the tsunami waters, they did have bigger problems: nuclear issues. The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is located right on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. As the tsunami waters knocked out all power in the area and water damage caused the plant's backup generators to fail, the power plant lost the ability to cool down the nuclear reactors. This resulted in three nuclear meltdowns, three hydrogen explosions and the release of radioactive contamination into the air, water and soil. Within a single day, the Japanese government issued an evacuation of the surrounding area. This was when our host family said they had to leave their home and family hotel business. They wouldn't be allowed to return for over 5 years.
Karin showed us the Geiger counter that we would carry with us throughout the tour. The Geiger counter is a machine that detects the radioactive particles in the air. She explained that during the tour we would be subjected to the same amount of radiation as if we took a flight from New York to Tokyo. Karin told us that we had permission from the Japanese government to enter the "red zones," which included areas that have not been decontaminated fully and where people have not be permitted to return and live. The Geiger counter gave us a sense of security and definitely made us feel safer entering these areas during our tour.
As Karin drove, she pointed out many of the local spots that were affected by the disaster and remain untouched to this day. We saw two abandoned elementary schools: one right on the ocean that was flooded well into the second story during the tsunami, and another elementary school farther inland that will be torn down because there aren't enough families returning to the area post-disaster to justify such a large school. The one school by the ocean has a clock that has stopped at 3:39 pm, the time the waters rose to that level and flooded the clock's mechanisms. In the next picture of the school, you can see the residue on the windows, showing how high up the tsunami waters hit and stayed for days.
After hearing that I was a school librarian, Karin even drove us by an abandoned public library inside the red zone, where the bookdrop and magazine displays still showcased books from March 2011. Karin asked that we not smile in photos of the area as a way to show respect for the lives lost and the communities devastated by the disaster.
Karin also took us to meet Seimei Sasaki, an elderly man who is a direct descendant to the village's samurai family of the 1600s. We marveled at his traditional house and the beautifully manicured Japanese garden out front. Karin translated for us as Sasaki san told us about his experiences of living in a high school gymnasium shelter for several weeks, then moving in with his brother's family in Tokyo for awhile. He told us about the horrible judgment his family received when the neighbors and schoolchildren found out that a "dirty Fukushima refugee" was living with the family. Eventually, Seimei decided to leave and rent his own place out of guilt for his niece and nephew who were being bullied at school. After 5 years he was able to return to the very house we were sitting in, where he found rats and other creatures living inside, holes in the ceiling and his garden resembled a forest. Luckily the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), paid all refugees large sums of money for rent during those years and later for home repairs due to the damage. While Seimei's story is a sad one, he was happy to share with "the Americans" and he even showed off his ancestral samurai sword, which he says is worth 500,000￥(approximately $4,500)!
Sasaki san couldn't believe that the Americans are crazy enough to have dentists on their naval ships. He kept chuckling and saying that Bryan must have a lot of downtime onboard and that Americans must have worse teeth than the Japanese. When Bryan explained that the USS America has over 1,100 sailors on board, Karin and he laughed hysterically because they were thinking Bryan was on some tiny boat! Then the conversation turned into Bryan attempting to explain the difference between an aircraft carrier and an amphibious assault ship. We all had a great laugh and couldn't help but find the humor in the language barrier!
As we continued our tour around Fukushima Prefecture, Karin drove by several temporary soil storage facilities. In order to clean up the area and make it safe for people to return, the Japanese government had to remove the topsoil from all inhabited areas. This top soil was put into large black bags and then stacked in these temporary storage facilities all over the prefecture. Eventually these soil bags will be moved to a permanent facility, where they will be stored for at least 30 years. Karin also drove us as close to Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant as was safe. You can see the remaining three towers of the power plant to the left of Bryan in the picture below:
About halfway through our tour, Karin stopped at an new shopping center to give us some time to look around. The area had some kind of community event happening in the plaza, and tons of locals shopping. Karin pointed out the local pottery shop that had to relocate to this shopping center because their original location is still inside the red zone. Of course I had to go check it out, and we learned that the pottery is made from clay near their original store location. Bryan and I bought a beautiful sake set to commemorate this trip- now we will always have some of Fukushima with us.
As we worked our way deeper into the red zone, we visited The Great East Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Disaster Memorial Museum. Located out front of the museum were several crushed cars and farming equipment, trees that are nearly dead from the lengthy time they were emerged in salty sea waters, alongside houses that are missing the entire first floor from the wreckage.
Bryan and I were both uncomfortable when we stopped in Ohkuma. In the deepest part of the red zone, residents are still not allowed to return. As we drove down the main strip of Ohkuma, all side roads were blocked off. As we peeked down these gated streets, we could see plants growing out of walls, trees breaking through sidewalks and entire storefronts abandoned and left in ruins. The little area we were able to walk through gave off an air of sadness that reminded us of the community that had to abandon their home over 10 years ago in the blink of an eye. We couldn't help but have an eerie feeling as we walked through this ghost town.
While walking around Ohkuma, Karin sat down the Geiger counter near the untouched soil, and we watched as the number crept higher and higher, proving that this area still is not safe for people to return. Before leaving, we were left with a little bit of hope. This past year, the Japanese government opened up three new train stations that travel through the red zone, reconnecting the tracks between Sendai and Tokyo that have been closed off since the accident. One of those stations is Ono Station, where Bryan is pictured below. With the reopening of this line, the locals have hope that they will one day be able to return to their home and bring life back into the area.
As we finished up our Real Fukushima tour, Karin ended on a high note by driving us through a small, safe housing community located outside the red zone. This town was built by the government and TEPCO to provide housing for locals who wanted to move back to the area. The houses all look alike, but a convenience store and a few small restaurants and shops have opened recently in the area to help the community begin again.
Around 1:00 pm Karin dropped us off at the closest train station, so we could begin our long journey back up to Sendai! Not gonna lie- we did get Karin's help to make sure we bought the right ticket this time around! Our goal for the next two days in Sendai is to get comfortable with public transportation!
Be on the lookout for our next post that will pick up here!
--
Katie
Comments