Kesennuma Shi

First thing on my to do list today was Gebikei gorge. I got there a little late because i slept way to long but luckily the trainride wasn't too long. A short walk from the trainstation and i could immediately step into one of the flatboats that would take me and about 15 japanese people through the gorge. The boat is pushed forward by a man with a large pole (definitaley no pun intended!) and although he explained everything in Japanese, it was easy to understand whith help of the english brochure. It's a absolutely beautiful gorge and since the river is slowly and calmly flowing it makes for an easy and relaxing trip. At the end you get to leave the boat and try to throw some stones into a hole in the cliff on the other side of the water. Pretty hard to do and considering and for only 100 yen per 5 stones a pretty sweet deal (for the person selling them :-)) on the way back you are treated to a wonderfull (and slightly harrowing) local folk song.
We got back to the pier and i had to make a run for the train. Normally i make it a thing not to run for public transport but since the next one would be 2,5 hours later i decided to break my own rules and make a run for it. As i got to the station, which is basically just a narrow platform with a booth on it, i could see the train coming. I got onboard al panting and sweating and sat down for about an hour until the train would arrive at Kesennuma. This place was very badly hit in march 2011 when the tsunami struck. A big part of this town, along with a lot of inhabitants were completely washed away... And although streets and buildings were being rebuilt, it was still easy to see the damage that the tsunami left behind.
Now i wasn't there to witness the destruction because i don't like to prey on other peoples misfortune. And therefore you won't see any pictures of destroyed buildings and such. But i really wanted to visit one of the "recovery markets", a place they have setup with local shop owners who lost all of their belongings (and possibly even more) and who are recovering through tourism. A wonderfull and inspiring way of recovery. After a half an hour walk from the station i found one and was initially dissapointed to see it was nearly all closed. They would open later in the evening but that was too late for Morioka. Fortunately a couple of shops were open and i struck op a conversation with the friendly locals. Almost none of them understood english so i quickly found myself surrounded by around 15 Japanese trying to make conversation. My question in Japanese if anyone spoke English or even Dutch got some laughters but we had to reside on google translate to communicate. Which i have to admit worked wonderfully well. I ordered a chocolate and whipcream pancake and got a lot of laughs trying to eat my pancake in a very messy way. :-) We spoke about my vacation and the situation in Kessennuma. Unfortunately i had to get back to the station to catch the last train and so after a quick picture we said our goodbyes and i went back to the station. I slept all the way through on the train (it was one of those shaky local trains which always make me fall asleep right away) Back in the hotel i got a small glass of the whisky i got from the Nikka distillery and fell asleep.Truly awesome day!もっと詳しく