I took yesterday off due to rain, and picked up again today at Mitazono Station. Finally: today was the day I got to hike past Natori Trail Center, but unfortunately it was closed today. Or so I thought! It was closed because it’s alway closed on Tuesdays but there were also people there. I’m sure there were more than a couple reasons why folks were around, but maybe one big reason was the store. I’d heard before a store was going to be set up in the center but had assumed for some reason it was a “coffee and snacks” kind of shop. In fact, it’s mainly outdoor goods like backpacks and mats for camping.
The construction in Yuriage made it a slightly frustrating endeavor to get anywhere. The detour I was told to take by a construction worker in one area then had signage indicating pedestrians couldn’t go beyond a certain point towards the center. I feel like building up a certain tolerance to going through construction barriers is the only way to get anywhere in Yuriage for now: that was what I ended up doing several times. I look forward to when that’s no longer the case anymore.
I was lucky enough to hear part of a few talks on the area. The first was when I stopped to listen to a guide explaining to a tour bus group at the memorial park just near Natori Trail Center. Many of the residents of Yuriage had died in the tsunami, and he emphasized to us that it’s always best to evacuate as soon as possible, and not to return for any reason. There’s no such thing as time wasted evacuating, or evacuating for “no reason” regardless of whether a tsunami came to a certain point or not. People who evacuate are saved, while the only thing you lose by evacuating is a trivial amount of time.
These were once neighborhoods, and now they are a flat, windy landscape of restored wetlands, grassy parks, the occasional patches of tall original pines and rows upon rows of small pine saplings planted after the disaster. I walked along a new cycling path and watched various ducks flapping around in the water of Teizan Canal.
My walk ended at Arahama, which once held 800 houses and a swimming beach. Former Arahama Elementary School was still open, so I walked through before taking a bus to the subway station. Like other tsunami memorials, it’s very much worth a visit. I especially appreciated seeing the model of all the houses, other buildings and parks that had been in Arahama, along with video of the area.
I’m so grateful to share the memory of this place, and to learn from what happened from people willing to speak to visitors about it. It can’t be easy, at all.
My Michinoku 