I figure I better start wrapping up my most meaningful trip to Japan back in November of 2010 before it fades too deeply into my memory. There are just two more posts to go on the series, this being one of them.
After spending a couple of days in fantastic Matsushima, and seeing many of my wonderful friends in Miyagi prefecture, it was time to leave Tohoku. A sad day for sure, but we needed to head back to Tokyo, and prepare for our flight home the next day. We took a nice breakfast at the Century Hotel on the edge of Matsushima Bay, packed up our suitcases, and took the hotel shuttle bus to Matsushimakaigan station.
While on the station platform waiting for our Senseki Line train to Sendai, I took a few pictures.
The air was crisp but not too cold and the trees were blooming their beautiful colors. There was a quiet peacefulness about the place. Too bad we had to leave.
I took the following photo looking forward off the station platform towards the bay. Little did we know that only four shorts months later, a historical tsunami would wash in off this bay and cause so much damage.
Immediately after the earthquake and tsunami of March 11th, 2011, I frantically searched the internet for news on my friends, and our company's nearby facilities. Then I also checked on Matsushima. I feared for it's fate, due to it's immediate proximity to the ocean and the epicenter of this massive quake. I stumbled onto a web-site of an American photographer, who shared a love of this place, who was also trying to gather news about it. He was able to find an American woman who was there during the disaster, who posted news and a large number of great photos on her Facebook page. Seeing this information was very comforting, as while Matsushima did indeed suffer much damage, it was far less than I had feared. It seems the islands acted as a barrier to the brunt of the tsunami force, and the resulting wave was not as bad as those suffered by the surrounding communities. One of the pictures on this Facebook page was taken from almost the exact spot as my picture above only a few days after the tsunami. I copied it and put it alongside mine, so you can see what it looked like.
We had a very relaxing trip back to Tokyo, with a comfortable connection time at Sendai Station that allowed us to peruse the wonderful shops there. The Shinkansen is such a wonderful way to get around Japan. So much easier than the hassles of air travel. So while we said our goodbye's to Miyagi and the Tohoku, we captured fantastic memories of our time there, and certainly do hope to visit again - together - some day. Thank you to all who made it so special.
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