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Published: January 31st 2016
Go to Kesennuma Ōshima Island Mr Shigeatsu Hatakeyama kindly gave us a lift to Aceport, Kesennuma harbour, where we would catch the ferry to Kesennuma Ōshima Island. Around the harbour we saw quite a few places where only the bases of houses remained. Building works had been carried out on the embankment around Kesennuma Bay, and it restricted the flow of the traffic. He managed to find the ways to go through the winding routes, and took us to the nearest place to the ferry’s terminal. However, owing to the building work, the ticketing office had been relocated. While it was showering, my mother managed to find the temporary ticketing office and bought tickets for us to travel to Ōshima Island.
We managed to catch the ferry which was due to depart at 16:20. At the front centre of the passengers’s cabin there was a screen showing where the ferry was. Looking outside, the shower had turned into heavy rain. The ferry went through Kesennuma Bay and brought us to Ura no Hama of Ōshima Island. Upon the arrival, we all carried suitcases. It was raining heavily. There were several taxis and shuttle buses from
the hotels. We found a couple of Kyukamura’s buses and got in one of their cars. Kyukamura Ōshima was located in the middle of the mountainous slope overlooking the sea.
Kyukamura (Holiday Village) Ōshima Kyukamura Ōshima was holiday accommodation where my mother, her fellow colleagues and students stayed for the school excursion in 2002. She told me that the staff were very helpful at that time; they helped to carry out various programmes – arranging for the room and equipment for the local fisherman Mr Shigeatsu Hatakeyama to do a lecture; arranging the azumaya, the cottage on Tanakahama beach, for students to use the kitchen facilities; and letting them do the campfire or games such as a ghost game (one of two or three groups threaten other groups making ghoul and squeaky noise in the dark night – this type of game cannot be done while living in Tokyo). It was a really wonderful experience for them. In return for that memory, soon after 11
th March 2011, my mother, her former colleagues and students set up the relief project, collected money and wrote messages for Mr Shigeatsu Hatakeyama. Then, in
2012, my mother and her former colleagues visited him and gave him these gifts. My mother, aunt and one of my mother’s old colleagues visited Mr Hatakeyama and Kyukamura in 2014.
In 2015, we stayed at Kyukamura Ōshima for 4 nights. The hotel had a large dining room and the communal baths. We were offered Japanese-style rooms next to each other, but our room didn’t have an en-suite bathroom (it had a toilet). Having known her son-in-law’s character, my mother was concerned and talked to the receptionist, and asked him if we could have the room with en-suite bathroom. Then, it was arranged for us to move to the western room with en-suite bathroom, and stay in that room from the following day.
We had decided to have dinner at 18:30. As we arrived at the table, one of the staff came to our table and took the order for drinks. Having heard that Kesennuma was home to the famous sake brewery, Otokoyama, my parents and I had Otokoyama’s sake. We found that sake was delicious and drank it every evening while we were staying at Kyukamura. As with the dinner served at Jodogahama
Park Hotel in Miyako, we were offered a buffet-style dinner with a wide variety of food: rice, porridge rice, steamed rice with scallops; miso soup, clear soup, tomato & chicken soup; salads, pickles, shellfish and fruits and desserts. As we came back to our table, we were offered meals – assorted raw fish, stewed dishes, grilled fish, which were prepared for 11
th October’s dinner – and our tables were full with those dishes and dishes we had picked up from the buffet selection. We enjoyed eating regional specialities, pacific saury and bonito, and rockfish called ‘kichiji’ which was caught at the deep sea of the north of Japan. We decided to pick up only rice and salad from the buffet selection from the next day.
Meeting with Mrs Oyama Between 7 and 8 o’clock, Mrs Yukiko Oyama, who lives in the farmhouse near Kyukamura, came to the hotel to meet us. She met up with my mother when she visited Ōshima Island and stayed at Kyukamura with her students in 2002. She was a very friendly lady, and gave us a hearty welcome to her homeland. She and
Burnt tree
This oak/pine tree was burnt - it was just 1 metre away from the Kameyama Shrine.her family live in the farmhouse overlooking Tanakahama beach and run the farmland.
The big main farmhouse withstood the earthquake and tsunami on 11
th March 2011. Having experienced a huge earthquake, Mrs Oyama felt it was necessary to evacuate somewhere, but never expected the tsunami to reach the main farmhouse and subordinate farm buildings. Unfortunately, the tsunami engulfed the property and messed up furniture, clothes, books and family’s possessions inside and outside the house. She explained to us: ‘On 12
th March 2011, rice-planting tractor and her son’s motorbike, which were placed outside, were thrown into the kitchen and the drawing room, inside the house; at the same time, the sleeping mats, blankets, clothes, which were kept inside, were thrown outside. The glass windows surrounding the corridor of the farmhouse were smashed – it took a long time to clear up the broken pieces and get the windows replaced.’
She showed us a white blouse and bag which were damaged by the tsunami. The white blouse looked very smart; she told me she had bought for her daughter’s day out to Sendai, the capital of the Tohoku district, and kept it in the wardrobe. The
white blouse looked immaculate on the surface but there was a big stain caused by the tsunami and the fire, and she cannot get rid of the stain. She also showed us a leather bag with the zipper. Unfortunately, the bag was soaked with the seawater and it ruined the zipper. She has decided not to discard the white blouse and the bag but keep them to tell people about the tsunami disaster.
While an awful lot of items were badly damaged and the family had to decide to throw them away or not to use them, she found one of the important documents survived: the scroll document of the Oyama family’s family tree, which was apparently kept in the back of the wardrobe. This was one of the miraculous things she had experienced after the disasters: having looked at her ancestors’ names, she felt these people who built this farmhouse a long time ago let her and her family survive and encouraged her to carry on her life despite the ordeals.
On 12
th October, I woke up very early. The rain continued falling
down till midnight, but it seemed to have stopped by the dawn, and we could see a lovely blue sky.
At breakfast, we were offered a wide variety of selections of buffet breakfast – rice, bread, salad, grilled fish, soups, seasoned pickles and fish to put on the rice and fruits. The dining room was located adjacent to the pine grove. We could see a turquoise sea among the pine trees. After breakfast, we sorted out our luggage to move to the western room.
Walk around Ōshima Island We joined one of the walking tours run by the Kyukamura’s staff in the morning. We got on the shuttle bus at 9:30, and the staff headed for Kameyama Mountain, the symbol of Ōshima Island. After leaving the Kyukamura, he started driving on the mountain slope.
While he was approaching the car park, he stopped and pointed at Ōshima Shrine and explained an episode as follows:
‘On 11
th March 2011, followed by the huge tsunami, a fire ignited at Shishiori (factory) district, spread through Kameyama Mountain. Ōshima Shrine
Otokoyama Main Office
It was decided that this historic building would be restored. has been home for the god for the residents of Ōshima Island. Thus, in spite of the ravaging fire, the fire-fighters rushed to the vicinity of Ōshima Shrine, and endeavoured to extinguish the fire and protected this sacred building from the fire.’
As with the church in the Christian country, regardless of its size, the shrine/temple is used as a gathering place for the community, as well as serving as a place of worship. Also, the shrine is the property where the spirits of our ancestors live. I felt that the fire-fighters’ brave actions must have encouraged the residents in Ōshima Island.
We got off at the car park, and walked on the staircase leading to the summit of Kameyama Mountain. It was a very sunny and warm morning, and we were able to see wonderful panoramic views of Ōshima Island, which is called ‘pearl of the green’. From the summit, we could also see the harbours with some factories which had resumed recently, Kesennuma Bay with various types of ships and boats, Mōne Bay where we visited the previous day and mountains behind the former residential areas on the
main island.
The gentleman who led the morning tour who had experienced the huge earthquake and saw the giant tsunami on 11
th March 2011, talked to us about what happened on that day and how he’s been feeling about the restoration work. At the summit he showed us photos of the Ōshima Island before the disaster, rooms where the TV and sliding doors fell on to the floor, receding tides shown from the hotel’s windows, tsunami engulfing Tanakahama beach and Ura no Hama harbour, and of the next day – loads of cars and ships had been washed up.
He shows these photos only to tourists who come from outside of the northeast coast of Japan. Temporary residential houses were built on the camp site, which is owned by the Kyukamura. The people who live in the temporary houses have difficulties with the boiler systems, and come to the Kyukamura to have a bath. These photographs would remind these people of the devastating disasters and the staff don’t put out these photos in the premises.
There used to the lift facilities which visitors used to ride between the foot and the
summit of Kameyama Mountain, but it had not been restored yet. We popped in the bungalow, which used to be station for the lift users, and found photographs of the disasters and articles about the restoration project.
We rambled through the pine wood near the observatory, and looked at the pines. Many of these pine trees’ foliage looked green, but their trunks looked very thin. There were quite a few pine trees which had been ruined by the soil contaminated with the seawater and polluted air, and we found many bags containing chopped trunks and branches.
We were also shown the little shrine, Kameyama Shrine, which miraculously survived after the ravaging fire. Just one metre in front of the lanterns, steps and the shrine, there was a thick trunk of the tree covered by soot – the tree was entirely burnt – but it is many people’s belief that the wind of the God protected Kameyama Shrine from the fire. I did the pray at this little shrine thanking it for giving me the opportunity to visit Ōshima Island and wishing the very best for people who live in Ōshima Island and their future.
Tanakahama beach
Black bags contained dead pine trees' trunks and branches - died away on the soil contaminated with the seawater Afterwards, we returned to the hotel to move rooms. Cleaning had been done; it allowed us to move our luggage to the western room. We were going to visit Mr & Mrs Matsui’s house in Kesennuma in the afternoon on 12 October. We had planned to have lunch at the restaurant near Ura no Hama harbour.
Tanakahama beach As we had the time, my mother, Mark and I walked down to Tanakahama beach via the footpath, which was accessible from the ground of the Kyukamura. On the way down, we found the panel with photos of the azumaya – the facility building for outdoor activities, which was devastated by the tsunami. The photos showed how severely the building was damaged; in looking at photos, Mark could understand what was happening. Junior High School students aged 12–15 come to Kesennuma Ōshima for school excursion and they use the azumaya to cook fish and seashells that they have caught. In 2015, we found a newly built azumaya, but there weren’t any buildings and pine trees on the Tanakahama Beach – and it showed an empty
flattened space.
We looked out over the sea. We could see two uninhabited islands, Ōmaemijima and Shōmaemijima, off the southeast of Ōshima Island. Having seen bare trees from the distance, we found that a huge volume of seawater drenched Ōmaemijima on the 11
th March 2011 and it severely damaged the soil there.
We looked at the neighbourhood. We found a big farmhouse and people were working in the farmland. We could hear somebody’s voice, of whom we had heard before – it was Mrs Oyama who came to the Kyukamura the previous day.
Afterwards, we came back to the hotel, and got on the shuttle bus for Ura no Hama harbour. We popped in the noodle restaurant for our lunch. The noodle restaurant was located 150 metre away from the Ura no Hama harbour, and we guessed the building had been rebuilt recently.
There were only a couple of buildings around Ura no Hama, the main harbour of Ōshima Island – a temporary ticketing office, temporary toilet facility buildings and a convenience store with stock of locally produced food. All other shops, travel-inns and
remains of the tsunami
The ground floor of this 3 storey-building has not still been repaired. residential houses were washed away, and it showed a large empty field around the Ura no Hama harbour in October 2015.
Ōshima Kisen We caught the 13:40 ferry from Ura no Hama harbour, Ōshima Island. It was sunny and warm – we stood on the deck and looked out at the view of the Ōshima Island, the mainland, and the sea. We found Kemeyama Mountain, the symbol of Ōshima Island, on the right and food processing factories and building work on the harbour of the mainland on the left. Seagulls were flying around the ferry, and there were people who were feeding them. There were a number of floating rafts used for breeding fish in the sea. These rafts and seagulls created picturesque landscapes, and we took a number of photos while we were on the ferry.
I’ve heard a plan of a new bridge between the mainland and Ōshima Island had gone ahead and the building work will be completed in two or three years’ time, and that this will
Tanakahama beach
Tanakanama beach was seriously affected by the tsunami - only azumaya has been restored. result in the termination of the ferry service between the mainland and Ōshima Island. I thought we wouldn’t be able to see the views from the ferry the next time we come back to Kesennuma in the future. We stood on the deck and took photos as much as we could this time.
The ferry brought us to Aceport, Kesennuma harbour at 14:05.
Visit to Mr & Mrs Matsui’s house We were to visit Mr & Mrs Matsui’s house in the afternoon on 12 October. They established and have been running the pacific saury festival at Meguro Ward in Tokyo, and my mother met them at the festival. They live in Mikkamachi, the downtown of Kesennuma city. As it wasn’t far to walk from the harbour, we decided to walk to their house.
While strolling through the streets flanked by shops and residential houses, we could see how far the tsunami reached. Near the harbour we found the building the framework of which was
covered by the cloth, saying that the main office building Otokoyama sake House was severely damaged by the tsunami, but it was decided that the restoration work of this historic building would be going ahead with the funding gained by the World Fund Organisation. Only the roof with the company’s logo survived, and it appeared on top of the cloth cover. Fortunately, the sake’s brewery was located on higher ground, and it allowed the staff to resume producing sake the next day after 11
th March 2011. With local people’s hearty encouragement, they have kept producing the sake and it has helped to recover the economy for Kesennuma city.
We were walking in the direction of JR Kesennuma, inner part of the city, while approaching Mr & Mrs Matsui’s house. Even when we reached a little further away from the harbour, we still found houses where the ground floors were washed away and had still not been repaired or restored.
At the city hall, we found the sign which showed the height of the tsunami on 11
th march 2011: 160-5cm – it was higher than my height
– and I felt that if people had not evacuated higher to ground on that day they wouldn’t have survived.
Shark Museum Next, we headed for Shark Museum, which had recently been opened. Because of the disruption caused by the building work around the harbour, there weren’t very many buses running in Kesennuma city. Mrs Matsui encouraged us to walk to the museum and gave us the directions.
The Shark Museum was located at the south edge of the harbour district. Owing to the building work, the motorway lanes and the pedestrian lanes were not laid in an orderly manner; we, as pedestrians, had to cross over the roads several times to follow the pedestrian’ routes.
Located at the border of Iwate Prefecture, Kesennuma city is not only famous for bonito and pacific saury, but is also proud of the largest volume of sharks to be taken from their sea and has the Shark Museum. Unfortunately, located at very close to the sea, the museum building was severely damaged by the Tohoku earthquake of 2011. Four and a half years after the
disaster, the museum was re-opened.
We found the museum’s entrance on the first floor. All the information was written only in Japanese, but Mark could understand that there were many different species of sharks and whales which live in the sea around Japan, North America, in the south Pacific and Atlantic Ocean by looking at skulls, teeth, skeletons and torsos with varied features. We also saw photographs of rare species of sharks and whales. My mother told us that the museum houses a number of enormous skeletons and torsos of shakes displayed, and visitors could see alive sharks in the big tank downstairs in the past.
The recently re-opened museum showed a large number of exhibitions related to the Tohoku earthquake of 2011 – how the museum building was affected, how the staff have persevered during the most difficult time, how the fishing and the marine industries have been recovering since the disaster.
We glanced at the ground floor of the building – it had become a supermarket with the stock of shark’s fins, one of the local foods in Kesennuma. Lots of tourists were doing shopping at the supermarket.
Afterwards, we headed for Aceport harbour. There were several temporary buildings such as Fukko Yataimura, the temporary building which houses restaurants, and food shops Uoichiba and the fish market along the road facing to the harbour.
When we reached Aceport, I found a concrete pillar in the sea and asked my mother what it was. She said that the pillar is the remain of the Aceport harbour: there used to be the designated piers for Ōshima Kisen, the ferry for Ōshima Island – and the concrete pillars stood at the far ends of two piers. Before the 11
th March 2011, there was a u-shaped building connected to the two piers and it offered facilities and information about the ferry, but both the u-shaped building and piers were washed away. After the Tohoku earthquake of 2011, it was found that the ground sank approximately 1 metre; it made it very difficult to get the new piers restored.
We caught the ferry departing from Aceport at 16:20. As we were going to meet Mrs Oyama, my mother phoned her while we were on the ferry, but she didn’t answer. After arriving at the hotel, my mother managed to reach her and told her that we were very tired after walking around Kesennuma. It was decided that we would visit her house next day; she agreed with the plan.
Gourmet Autumn Meal The dinner on 12
th October was gorgeous. We found a container shaped like a boat containing nine different kinds of raw fish – pacific saury, prawn, salmon, swordfish and olive flounder – on the table. We were also offered a plate containing slices of beef, tofu and vegetables for sukiyaki, which we would cook with the cooking pot, egg-tofu with shark’s fin, stewed rock fish and grilled duck with matsutake mushrooms. Mark seemed astonished with the huge variety of dishes.
I told him that we wouldn’t eat sashimi, raw fish, very often in the UK and encouraged him to eat as much as he could.
He knew that the local fishermen catch a huge volume of sharks and there are factories processing shark’s fins in Kesennuma. As he had seen shark’s fin in the Chinese meals, he didn’t seem to find it too awkward to try the egg-tofu containing shark’s fin.
It’s not very difficult to buy beef in Britain, so I’ve cook sukiyaki with rice several times. I stir beef and vegetables and season them with soy sauce, sake (Japanese cooking wine) and sugar and pour the beaten egg on top of the cooked ingredients and serve it with rice. At the Kyukamura in Kesennuma Ōshima, we were offered a traditional sukiyaki dish: after the soup was boiled, we put vegetables and tofu, and then thinly sliced beef in the soup. Japanese people use beaten raw egg for the sauce for sukiyaki. As we were not used to eating raw egg, we decided not to take it, and ate the beef and vegetables as they had been cooked.
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