The final

The last week here in Sendai has begun. Next week around this time I´ll be back in Germany. Yeah! But also hmpf... I´ll definitely miss Sendai and all the people I got to know here.

So what happened the last days? Research! The last weekend was all about research.
We first went for two day to Minamisanriku. A city that was completely destroyed by the Tsunami.

That was Minamisanriku in the past

That was the mayor´s office. He actually survived because he climbed the antenna on the roof... yes the water was up there!

As you can see on the pictures above, not much survived the tsunami. We had an interview with the mayor (the one that survived because he climbed the antenna). Almost all debris are now cleared away from the city and you can only find foundations overtake by nature and guess what? Venting machines! They are the counterparts to pioneer plants in nature when it comes to redeveloping an area. When you drive through that city at night you only see one signal at a crossroad and vending machines. Everything else is dark. Even for me with a good sense of orientation it´s hard to find your way there.

We also spoke to some locals. So many interesting story's, to much to blog it. So ask me about it when I return if you are interested.

The next to days we spend in Iwanuma (jackpot research wise) and Yuriage; the first one was again at the temporary housing area I wrote about in the last post and the second one you may remember as well, it´s one, where we met the older man clearing his ground? We had an interview with him and his wife. Again, so many information. My colleague here has become my "hard-drive" with all the necessary information to write my thesis. The only problem? It´s encrypted in Japanese. But he will be in Bonn in the next months! Thank god! I´m looking so much forward to continue the work with him! Thanks O-san!

Noodle-slide! Build in Iwanuma. Try to catch some noodles when they are coming down... with hachi (chopsticks)!

But back to Iwanuma. We where there for a summer event. They build a slide for noodles out of bamboo and it was real fun. But cold noodles are strange to eat! After that, we had once again group interviews (the mentioned jackpot) and went to a "German" restaurant in the evening. It was actually a Japanese/Italian/German restaurant run by Japanese women who had lived in Düsseldorf. It was fun talking German in there! The night we spend on the floor of the community room, with just a towel as pillow. But it was not too bad, no back pain in the morning. This must be due to the bed in my dorm... I must have gotten used to hard beds.

So whats up next? I´ll finish some work here, pack my stuff, and in some days I´m on my way back home!

18 Days to go and an amazing day

Time´s a relative matter. When I arrived in Sendai i thought to have two long month ahead, but no, it´s just 18 days left and still so much to do!

But now about the things that happened this week. Not much, until yesterday. My Professor told me we will have an Interview with some volunteers at Yuriage Junior High school and it turned out to be a long day, full of interviews and impressions.

But let me give you some impressions:
1. BBC Documentation on Yuriage, early after the Tsunami
2. BBC Documentation on Yuriage, one year later (very much like I found it now).

Take a look at it, you might have seen many of the images before, but still it shows what was and is going on here.

We had the interview with volunteers running an information center just aside the Yuriage Junior High school in a room build by three containers. One person was a owner of a company with more than 100 employees at two sites that are very close to Sendai Airport. He was at work when the earthquake happened and ordered all workers to stay at work until 16.00 (the earthquake happened at 14:46), before they could go home (just to keep them safe), but at around 15.15 the Tsunami hit the coast and he saw how it hit the area. He said all his workers survived, but most probably he lost friends and maybe family members. You could see how much he tried to keep control of his emotions.
When hearing this kind of story's it´s actually very hard to stay focused on my studies here that have a different topic. How can I ask people with this kind of stories about ecosystems? Did the coastal protection forest help to mitigate the tsunami?  What am I expecting? My colleagues here are a great help and we still get many results. Still, I often feel very stupid.
But beside the tragedies, people live on and can laugh. It´s impressive.
After that we also had a short talk with a man clearing his land of plants (where is house once was).

We went on to Iwanuma (just south of the airport) and had lunch at a very nice Japanese noodle restaurant and a former colleague of my Professor joint us. She was a kind of guide for the rest of the day.
So we went to someones house (2.4 km from the coast, still flooded well over 1m), did our interview, looked at the destroyed part of the city and finally went to one of the temporary housings of people who lost their houses.
When we arrived there i was very astonished. Children running around, people in good mood, just as we would visit a camping site! But if that is your daily life, hm, just think of it.

But you know what? As we were just sitting at some benches and asked people passing by if we could have talk others broad us some soybeans, coffee, watermelons and cookies.
The guy on the picture is a kind of "mayor for the people there" and involved in the resettlement process. He told us stories, you would not belief it.
I have to thank these people and my team for having such an interesting experience!

Long time no see

Sorry, I have not posted for a while.
The last week was very nice but exhausting. We finally had the first research Interview, but i don´t want to bother you with that one again.
Let´s talk about the fun!
After the final exams here (for my colleagues, not me) we went out for dinner. I forgot the correct name but the deal is like all you can eat and drink within two hours. Yummy!
As the night was young we decided to go for Karaoke (originally planned for the next evening anyway) and it was great fun! The karaoke machines are quite nice and you have a huge selection, even of English songs, so I was pretty busy entertaining!

As as it was such a great fun we went there the next evening, a smaller group, but even more fun
As I came back from Tokyo Monday night, went out on Tuesday and Wednesday I was really happy to have an evening with nothing on Thursday. On Friday we had there first real interview (as mentioned above) and on Saturday we went to Matsushima bay, probably one of the most beautiful places in Japan (at least they say so). Thanks to my great brother and his camera I could take a lot of nice pictures (you might have recognized the new background image, that's Matsuhima bay).

I had to uy a hat due to the sun and i forgot to bring a cap with me... tourists...

As this might not have been enough of entertainment we went to the movies on the evening in "the MALL": The Dark Knight Rises. Awesome!
So Sunday was all about relaxing! I sleeped really long... which is 11.00 due to the light and temperature in my cell, ähm room. I did some washing, shoping, watched some episodes of DS9 (I know... freak) and then joined everyone on the roof of our Dormitory. Why? No, no one was about to jump! (What are you thinking? Pffff...) It was Hanabi (fireworks) time! It went on for 1 1/2 hours (with breaks) and was easy to watch from our roof as it was fired just on the other side of the bridge that crosses the river (kawa:川, one of the most easy Kanji´s I know) that runs near our place.
It was a nice show and if one of the biggest events taking place here in Sendai. Many people came in Jukata (the summer kimono, male and female) and it was beatiful to watch!

 

See the Heartshape? (Upside down)

Long shutter time picture ofter the river to the park (firework was to the right)

That was the fun week! Exhausting, but fun!
Hope to see you soon!

Tokyo!

So, here I am again.
I was in Tokyo for the weekend to visit some good friends (my Japanese sisters). It was soooo good to see them once again.
The cheapest way to get to Tokyo is actually not by JR (Japanese Railways) but by Bus. I took the Willer Express and only payed approx. 79€ for Sendai, Tokyo Sendai. So if you have enough time that's the way to travel here! If you don´t have time but money.... go for the Shinkansen.
While I was waiting for the Bus to arrive at the pick up point in Sendai a Japanese guy talked to me cause he saw that I was reading the German National Geographic (thx Mirko). He told me that he is going to Germany next month and I recommended an umbrella and a jacket. I hope he will not need it.
The bus travel was interesting as I had a window place and could see the beatiful landscape here in Japan, we also passed by Fukushima city, a really nice area. I finally arrived in Shinjuku and was picked up by one one my "sisters". Just as six years ago I got a bit shocked when we entered Shinjuku Station to go to Shibuya, but when I remembered how the system works I was fine again. I could remember lots of places and that was a really nice feeling.

View from Enoshima to Fujisawa

Just as Spot +6kg!

 

After a very nice evening at the new house of my friends (and their lovely children!) I could sleep on a bed with a real mattress, what a relieve after one month on the plank!The next day we went to Enoshima. It was a super sunny day, but the wind made it very comfortable! Sometime you can see the Fujisan from here, but I think he was on summer vacation... at least he was not visible.

 The Monday I spend in Tokyo itself and visited some places I remembered from my last visit.

 Wtf? What is a Happy Room?

UNU HQ

Meiji Shrine

Again, the Meiji Shrine

Third week done, two updates 2/2

Welcome back for part 2, the "Zoo". In did not want to criticize anything in Japan, but that one... come on!
So we went to the Yagiyama Zoological Park. As Sendai has a similar size to cologne I was expecting something similar for the Zoo... I was soooo wrong.

So let´s go through the Zoo:

There are three major area: left (with the entrance on the top), the middle (a hilltop) and the right area.

We started at the entrance, went through the left area, made a break on the hilltop (middle) and went on  into the right area. After that we went back to the entrance.

The Zoo was opened in 1965, and it still looks like that. Well, that's OK... but the standards for inmates, ahm I mean zoological subjects, have changed since then, right? Guess what, not here.... But see for yourself.

Penguins, that's the first thing you see when entering the zoo. So this extreme fast swimmers have a pool of 4m²... and not much else. Well, OK, I´m no expert,might be enough, lets go on.

Lamas

A peacock, spread you wings and.... better not fly, you might hurt yourself. Other birds hat way less space!

Japanese Panda, super cute. Lets put a tree in there... and a plastic cover that they don´t climb it.

Camels, one was totally bored and walked in circles, the whole day.

Japanese macaque actually where somewhat fine

 

 

 

Dramababy, the mother had some trouble with that one

That was the negative highlight. I love horses and that was a horror. Do you need to keep in such a bad shape in a zoo?

 

He was bagging for something at that door. His area was extremely small and parts of it with some trees even fenced by electric wire.

Same as for the peacock, better not try to fly.

Two Lions, one male, one female (not in the picture most obviously). Both dozing and bored by the little space they had to live in.

Same for the tiger... an animal that can jump 3m high... locked in a area that is smaller than many gardens.

Check out the mosaic in the background, tells you a lot about the 1960s perception about Shimpanses.

 

Reptiles (let´s not go into the revised definition here) also had very small boxes to live in.

 

That is not two times the same Hippo. They are on the two sides if the door. If they wanted to fight or were missing each other, I don´t know. But both had surely some kind of hospitalism.

The Zoo is on a hilltop and you can see the coast from here.

The Kangaroo, he seamed not as bored as many other animals in that Zoo.

So, in general I was astonished, they had a good variety of animals, but i would suggest to enhance the living conditions as there is no pleasure to see this beautiful animals living like this. Maybe I´m becoming an environmentalist and conservationist? Hell, I guess I´m already one! I think it´s good that way...