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| Space design for the museum. |
It’s great to find a new place to explore, isn’t it? Just
over a week ago I headed with my wife and friend to Ishinomaki, a coastal city
around 70 km from Ichinoseki, and we saw a movie and had dinner. Three days ago
I returned to this city to find out a bit more about it and see a couple of
things.
In fact I thought it was a really nice place. It lies very
low, with hills appearing here and there. This part of Japan I am told dropped
something like a full metre into the ocean after March 11th 2011.
You can believe it when you visit Ishinomaki and see how high the ocean reaches
in high tide. Ishinomaki was devastated by that tsunami. The before and after
shots are horrific. Yet today, two and a
half years later, it seems to be doing ok. It’s a pretty busy, happening place.
We visited the Manga Museum. Ishinomaki is famous as the
birthplace of Ishinomori Shotaro, who was a hugely successful creator of manga,
including a story involving cyborgs numbered like British secret agents. I have
to say, their 007 isn’t as cool as James Bond. The museum is housed in what on
the outside looks like a space ship, not quite a flying saucer but flying
saucer inspired. A section underneath opens out and anime figures, rather
Inside the girls dress up in some sort of space uniform, and
on the second floor there is a display which is probably not worth the 800 Yen
admission (the rest is free) but nice all the same. One part is examples of
manga, some in English, as people continue on with his cyborg stories. The
other part is slightly more interactive, angled at kids of course. There were
lots of helmets from a TV series based on one his characters, and various other
examples of characters from his work. Unfortunately cameras were not allowed
for most of level two.
Level three had a couple of food shops and a library, and
the first floor had the entrance and gift shop. We were also able to watch a 15
minute anime short which we both enjoyed.
The museum was hit but the tsunami. It’s on a small island
in the bay, and must have born the full brunt of the thing. The island can only
be about 400-500 metres long and 100 metres wide, and we were able to see before
and after shots at the museum (in a photobook) and we could see there were a
number of buildings on the island pre-tsunami. Today I think there were three.
The museum survived, although a massive cleanup was needed and glass had to be
replaced afterwards. Elsewhere on the island a much-smaller-than-the-real-one
Statue of Liberty stands, missing part of its plastic exterior. It’s very
eerie.
There is a Spanish galley moored in the harbour, next one
along that is. It’s about 8 kilometres from the museum, and this particular
harbor is really beautiful. The water was very still, the boats hardly moved
moored in the bay. The San Juan is an immaculately maintained and restored
galley from Spain back when Europeans
were trying to convert the Japanese – about three centuries ago. It looks brand
new today, although the museum was closed and we couldn’t go on the ship,
rather take a photo from a gate 30 metres away.
Outside the San Juan museum and centre it said the opening hours were
10-4pm. To be honest I don’t know if it’s reopened since the Tsunami. People
were hard at work near the boat where they seemed to be constructing some of
shaded viewing area. I wondered how much damage was done to the ship by the
tsunami too. It’s a very strange feeling to stand next to the bay knowing what
happened there in 2011. I was happy though that life seemed to be continuing
for the locals. A lot of new houses being built, but still some people are
living in emergency accommodation that we saw.
From the outside it appeared a fair amount normalcy had
returned to Ishinomaki. But, who am I to judge that? I can’t comprehend the
effect on people’s lives the tsunami had, and still has today. I was glad
though that I was able to visit.
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