Chie and I had breakfast at 8 am. Then we met Ishihara-san around 9 am to cross the road to buy some supplies for our round trip in Ishinomaki. We were going to visit people that lived in Fukukiura but that have now been forced to move to Ishinomaki due to the earthquake and the tsunami in March. Some of them have moved here so that there kids can be close to school as they family no longer have a car to drive them. Instead the husband takes a bus to Fukukiura every day to work on restarting the fishing business – a trip that takes 40 minutes by car.

We made about 4 stops at different places around Ishinomaki. It was strange to see how just living a block further up from the sea could make all the difference. At one place whole houses had been swept away or been destroyed beyond repair. The next block or so up they were intact and people went on with their “normal” life.