Okay, so admittedly it’s pretty unlikely that this old fella participates in organised crime for a living, but while impatiently waiting for his wife to finish shopping, he arguably did have the demeanour of someone who does.
Tohoku eight months after the earthquake and tsunami
Eight months after the earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan’s Tohoku region, conditions have obviously improved, and in those locations not directly hit by the disaster, life has mostly returned to normal. Or at least a new, post-earthquake version of normal.
In those ports and towns that bore the horrible brunt of the tsunami, however, it’s a very different story altogether. The area affected is so large, and the destruction so all-encompassing, that the clean-up, while well underway, is a task that is clearly going to take an awfully long time to complete. And in Kesennuma, this aspect is painfully clear.
Along the outer areas of tsunami damage, some businesses have started to operate again, and people once more pass through on their way to work or school.
But nearer the sea, it’s still a completely different scene. A truly shocking landscape that the relative silence and stench of stagnant water pools only add to.
Temporary roads mean trucks, diggers and the like can get in and out, but the sheer scale of the damage, and the massive expanse it covers, means that despite all that’s been achieved, there’s still so much more left to do.
Yet until it is, a large part of the city remains a painful reminder of the forces that surround us, and, having spoken to several people who were caught up in the events of March 11, the random nature of what somehow survived, and what didn’t. Plus, far more disturbingly, the horrible decisions people had to make that very quickly resulted in their survival, or death.
Provided, of course, that they even had the option of a decision. Many, it is clear, did not. Without transportation, or relative youth, it’s hard to imagine how some people could have covered the ground needed to reach safety.
Especially so when considering the speed the waves came in, and the frankly astonishing force they produced.
The horror of which is also visible slightly further north in Rikuzentakata, where there is now only a sense of what was. Land that once contained a city now has practically nothing to show but a solitary, and inexplicably untouched, tree; its presence as incomprehensible as everything else that happened on that fateful day eight months ago. The sight of which, even after seeing countless videos and photographs, was no preparation for what it’s really like.
Japanese public sleeping companions
Public sleeping is a fairly common sight in Tokyo. So common, in fact, that on a soothingly warm autumn afternoon, it’s sometimes practiced with similarly lethargic companions.
Unhappy in Harajuku?
I don’t like waiting. He doesn’t like waiting. And he definitely didn’t like me, watching him, while we were both waiting.
Traditional tea ceremony in a Tokyo temple
Traditional Japanese tea ceremony is a fascinating practice. Its acute focus on aesthetics, however, along with an extremely strict adherence to specific movements and manners, probably makes the whole thing rather uncomfortable and stifling — at least for a beginner, anyway.
But to simply sit and watch it is an absolute treat.
And from a safe distance, those movements and manners are a mystifying marvel.
Sugamo, the Harajuku for old ladies
Sugamo, the so-called Harajuku for old ladies, is thankfully not an area awash with geriatric gothic lolitas, but is instead a shopping area geared up for the elderly women (and indeed men) who flock there. Jizo-dori, its main thoroughfare, is lined with shops and stalls selling the kind of clothes, food and assorted bric-a-brac that appeal to its target audience; all of whom hustle and bustle their way between them and the street’s popular Koganji Temple, or Togenuki Jizo as it’s also known.
Despite the age of those who predominate, however, there is no hanging about. Not by any stretch of the imagination. If you are in the way, you’ll be moved out of the way.
Sugamo also isn’t an area simply catering to the elderly — it’s run by them too. Many of whom should have officially retired years ago.
These old-timers and a few young bucks offer food and snacks of a much more traditional nature. The variety of which can clearly be dazzling.
Plus along with numerous medical aids and potions for sale, the temple priests do a busy one-on-one trade in health-based prayers and blessings.
Presumably after which some decidedly non-healthy food can safely be consumed.
Also, like most areas of this nature, there are plenty of characters. Both walking about.
And working.
Many of whom, like those who visit, are intent on making the most of it.