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!