Real Fukushima

Ten years on: what is the situation with Fukushima’s fisheries?

Real Fukushima — Mon, 15 Mar 2021 07:14:54 +0000

I have been visiting the coastal area of Fukushima Prefecture regularly since 2014, to research the revitalisation of fisheries and coastal communities following the 2011 triple disaster. During my fieldwork in 2019, I got to know the Real Fukushima Tour team and was very impressed with their ongoing efforts to facilitate understanding of the current situation in Fukushima. Indeed, it was while on their tour that, from the top of a hill in Okuma Town, I first saw the storage tanks for treated water stretching out around the Fukushima Dai’ichi nuclear plant and realised the scale and extent of the challenge to be resolved. With that in mind, whilst not directly related to the tour, on the 10^th anniversary of the 2011 disasters I would like to share some wider insights from my research into how the revitalisation of fisheries and fishing communities has progressed, and what the question are that still lie ahead.

As well has having a serious effect on land, the Fukushima Dai’ichi nuclear accident also had major implications for Fukushima’s seas. Scientists estimate that 70-80% of the radioactive material released from Fukushima Dai’ichi ended up in the north-west Pacific Ocean [🔗Sciense]. Immediately after the accident, fisheries in Fukushima were voluntary suspended due to the radiation situation and infrastructural damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami. But what has happened since, and what is the status of Fukushima fisheries ten years on from the events of 2011?

In 2021, fishing boats are once again operating out of each and every one of the small inshore fishing ports on the Fukushima coast. Fukushima fish is back on the menu in local bars and restaurants, and seafood caught in Fukushima waters is on sale in fishmongers and supermarkets. If we think back to the situation in the days immediately following the disaster in March 2011, then this looks like a remarkable recovery. The fact that so many fish are now back on the menu and so many ports are open again is testimony to the hard work and cooperation of many people, from scientists to local government officials to fisheries cooperative managers, and of course the fishers themselves.

Soon after the nuclear accident, Fukushima Prefectural Government began sampling fish, seawater and seafloor sediment to monitor radioactivity, supported with data collected by Japanese government agencies and by Fukushima Dai’ichi operator Tokyo Electric Power Company. In spring 2012, trial fishing operations resumed in Fukushima out of a small number of fishing ports and on a limited number of fish species in which radioactive caesium had not been detected during monitoring operations. Fish landed in trial operations can be sold to brokers, and then on to the public, after being screened for radioactive caesium in labs at the quayside. You can even go online and view the screening data, which is updated two or three times weekly after each trial fishing activity [🔗Trial Fishing]. Produce landed in Fukushima ports is screened to a standard of 50 Becquerels of radioactive caesium per kilogram (with additional screening for more than 25 becquerels per kilogram), compared to a standard of 1,250 Becquerels per kilogram in the European Union. What these numbers mean is that the screening process for Fukushima seafood is much stricter, and much more transparent, than for many other parts of the world.

Since 2012, these trial fisheries have continued to expand as knowledge of marine radioactivity increases, more and more species are released for consumption, and port and coastal infrastructure is rehabilitated. However, trials have been limited to less than 20% of the pre-disaster capacity of coastal fisheries in Fukushima. With that in mind, the Soma-Futaba Fisheries Cooperative – which operates in the waters in the north of Fukushima Prefecture – will switch to ‘expanded operations’ from April 2021, with a vision to expand at least some types of fishing activity in Soma to around 60% of the capacity they were operating at before 2011.

The benefits to rehabilitating fisheries are not purely economic, though. In autumn 2019, my colleagues and I ran a workshop with fishers in Haragama Fishing Port in Soma, to find out how fishers felt the revitalisation of fisheries was going and what their remaining concerns were. One of the key messages we heard was that the fishers continue to be extremely proud of their work. We were told that being back out on the water not only contributes to a sense of pride and identity for the Soma fishers by allowing them to continue doing ‘their’ work, but also affords the fishers a chance to interact with their peers and colleagues, helping to support wellbeing and maintain good relations with each other. Residents in coastal communities were similarly pleased to be able to eat locally-landed fish again, and saw the return of local seafood as symbolising the wider recovery of the area [🔗ScienceDirect].

However, the recovery of Fukushima’s fisheries is far from complete – and there may be more challenges on the horizon. Since the triple meltdowns happened, it has been necessary to run water through the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Dai’ichi site to keep them cool. Although this water can be treated to remove many of the more harmful substances, not all of the radioactive material can be removed with the existing technologies on-site. The main substance left in this treated water is tritium, although marine radioactivity expert Ken Buesseler from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in the USA explains that there may be other substances in the tanks too and that a full survey of what is in each of the tanks is necessary before deciding what to do next [🔗Science] The preferred solution until now has been to store this water – along with recovered water from the ground beneath the plant – in tanks on-site. However, TEPCO claims they will run out of space to store the treated water by 2022, and on the basis of expert committee advice the Japanese Government has indicated it is going to approve a plan to release some of this treated water into the Pacific Ocean.

There is good scientific consensus that as long as the monitoring and screening protocols in place so far are maintained, then releasing treated water into the sea off Fukushima will pose very little risk to humans[🔗Headlines]. Nonetheless, the fisheries cooperatives in Fukushima are strongly opposed to any releases of treated water, on the grounds that it will undo a decade’s work of work to communicate the safety and quality of Fukushima seafood to consumers and the public. As of March 2021, no final decision on when or how the treated water releases will happen has been made.

The last ten years have made clear that fishing is not only an economic activity for the Fukushima coast, but also a socially and culturally meaningful practice that is a source of pride for fishers and coastal residents alike. As such, the revitalisation of coastal fisheries is not only about re-starting the economy of Fukushima’s fishing ports, but also about restoring a sense of identify and belonging for coastal communities in Fukushima. Whilst there are no easy answers to the question of what to do with the treated water stored on-site at Fukushima Dai’ichi, it is crucial that the decision-making process and the final outcome takes into account the significance of healthy and vibrant fisheries to local communities.

Dr Leslie Mabon

Dr Leslie Mabon is a Senior Lecturer in Social Science at the Scottish Association for Marine Science-University of the Highlands and Islands; and a Future Earth Coasts Fellow. His current research on the Fukushima coast is supported by a Scottish Government-Royal Society of Edinburgh Scotland-Asia Partnerships in Higher Education Grant. You can read more about his research at resilientcoastal.zone, and follow him on Twitter @ljmabon. Email leslie.mabon@sams.ac.uk or ljmabon@mac.com to request copies of any of his scientific papers or to ask any questions you might have!

J-Village

Real Fukushima — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 08:41:34 +0000

The newly reopened J-village is a sports complex in Naraha town, which is one of the former evacuation areas located 20 kilometres south of Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant. Soon after the nuclear disaster, this sports complex became the front line base for the anti-nuclear accidents for Japanese Government. Self Defence Force, fire fighters and thousands of clean-up workers and experts had been staying in this place and going into FDNNP to tackle on the hydrogen explosions, meltdowns of the reactors and the ongoing decommissioning and decontamination for the site until 2013. After several year cleaning and renovation works, J Village is now back in normal as the sports complex for all the people in the world who love soccer and sports as well as is reborn as the symbol of the revitalisation of Fukushima. Tokyo 2020 Olympic flame begins its journey from this place, lighting its way across Japan’s 47 prefectures. The Relay will commence on March 26th in 2020.

J Village has a hotel facility with 200 rooms as well as 11 soccer fields. It reopened on July 28th in 2018 after 7 years since the disaster and the nearby station at Joban Line called J Village Station newly opened on April 20th in 2019.

Self Defense Forces in J-Village

Workers changed their cloths in J-village and went into the FDNPP

J-Village finished the role of anti-nuclear disaster front line in November 2016 and began renovation

Before and after the renovation

J-Village fully opened in April 2019

JR J-Village Station

Rebuild a community by renewable energy

Real Fukushima — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 05:03:43 +0000

Kawabusa is a small village. It is located 15km northwest of Fukushima Daiichi NPP. Twenty kilometer radius of the Daiichi was completely shut for one year after the accident. Living restriction was cancelled in July 2016. Before the nuclear accident, Kawabusa had 73 families but now it has 12 families. Most of 20 returnees are over 60 years old. Other former villagers have already established their new life outside of the nuclear disaster area and would not return.

Returnee

Seimei Sasaki is one of the 20 returnees. The 93 years old man lived with his first son’s family before the accident. Now the younger family members resumed their flower shop near Tokyo and will not return. He was covered by the Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/10/fukushima-eight-years-on-evacuees-come-home

Contaminated soil bags occupy the village

Ministry of Environment cut the top soil of the village and stored it on rice fields in the village. The temporary soil storage has been occupying the farmland since 2014. The bags will be transported into the soil storage area near Fukushima Daiichi probably in a couple of years.

Solar power to rebuild the village

The villagers introduced a big solar park for raising fund to rebuild the village in 2014. They establish a committee with 5 villagers to maintain the farmland and living environment using the money from the solar park.

Rebuilding the village

Now the price of rice from Fukushima is 20% rower than the average in the market. Resuming rice field is not practical. The committee plans to reuse the rice field for grass farming for cows or flower park. The committee will maintain the village clean by cutting weed and cleaning up the irrigation channels.

The doctors at Fukushima

Real Fukushima — Tue, 09 Jul 2019 14:41:21 +0000

In the wake of the 2011 nuclear disaster, doctors in Fukushima were faced with difficulties in dealing with radiation – their preparations against nuclear incidents were scarce due to the overtrust in the safety of nuclear power.

To assist their emergency rescues at hospitals and evacuation centres in a very chaotic situation, many experts from Hiroshima, Nagasaki and other parts of Japan were dispatched to Fukushima to help and teach them how to deal with radiation without panic.

These doctors made crucial decisions on how to deal with radiation and to what levels of radiation exposure that were acceptable during the initial stages of the emergency, e.g. decontaminating the surface of the thousands of the evacuees from the evacuated area; treating the injured who were transported by helicopter from the power plant due to the hydrogen explosions, and who were thus considered seriously contaminated.

Their decision-making, determination and courage was based on the knowledge, experience, and scientific data acquired through two atomic bombs in World War 2 as well as the Tokaimura JCO nuclear incident in 1999.

Our world can learn from the experiences that Japan has been through, and the wisdom gained from these tragic nuclear incidents as well as the negative factors such as bureaucratic miscommunication hampered the response to the disaster in a timely and efficient manner.

There is much that was learned from the things that did not go well during the nuclear disaster mitigation efforts and rescue operations.

Tragedy, Hope, and the Fukushima Nuclear Meme

Real Fukushima — Sat, 19 Jan 2019 06:02:38 +0000

The tragedy of the 2011 Tohuko earthquake should never be forgotten for the people who lost their lives, for the people who were displaced, and for the long-lived consequences at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The communities on the coast of Fukushima Prefecture have experienced unbelievable hardships from tsunami destruction, nuclear contamination, and afterwards, from devastation to their communities. Some people are returning to towns in the area such as Namie and Odaka – where radiation levels have dropped to background levels. But social challenges persist due to the low population and lack of infrastructure. Despair could be a first reaction to arriving in Odaka for noticing the vacant lots of destroyed buildings. But the Real Fukushima experience leads to hope from hearing people’s stories as well as seeing the massive decontamination effort and measuring its effectiveness. If you travel to the coast of Fukushima Prefecture, people may ask you, “Why would you go there?” It’s a place of truly global significance where we can learn something about people and our values.

Any global observer might be shocked, like I was, that people would want to return to their homes in Fukushima. This is the first teaching moment I encountered on my Real Fukushima journey – people love their homes and will go to great lengths to protect and cherish them. Walking through a main street in Odaka, or seeing a massive flood plain occupied by one single relic of a building, I felt a simmering terror and sorrow from imagining what it would be like to run from the tsunami and be unable to return for 5 years because of nuclear contamination. Numerous homes were lost to nature because people could not be allowed to return to clean up the tsunami damage. They were left to be ruined by mold and rot and were even occupied by local forest animals. In one town, we saw the home of our guide’s father. His father lives a ways away from his home in a temporary shelter. Even though the radiation level is relatively safe at 0.39 microsieverts per hour, he cannot stay there for lack of electricity and water services. Still, he makes it a priority at age 93 to return to his home in the quiet and sparse village to spend time and care for the premise. Seeing homes covered in tarps, frames rebuilt from the ground up, and almost as many destroyed plots as developed ones, any traveler can experience the commonality of our human condition through the love of our homes and our families. Due to our natural “fellow feeling” – as Adam Smith called it in the 1700s – we imagine the hardships of other people happening to us and build fellowships based on that.

The nuclear decontamination work stands out in the countryside against former neighborhoods, crop fields, and toppled cemeteries. The work has been organized according to the Ministry of Environment’s scientific findings in the region. Measurements were taken on the extent of contamination in both the soil and the groundwater, finding no groundwater contamination but significant contamination of the soil. Because of these findings, the Japanese government is implementing a process to remove incredible amounts of soil, organic matter, and tsunami debris to restore the Fukushima coastal region to background radiation levels within only a few decades. The process started with many demolitions of the old towns and neighborhoods, for which the government sought the permission of the owners. In one area, a single house still stands for the inability to find the owners. After the demolitions, contaminated forest debris were removed and a massive excavation and construction campaign began.

The soil contamination – primarily composed of the radioisotope Caesium-137 – is asymmetrically distributed around the Daiichi power plant, tracing the prevailing wind patterns for approximately 35 kilometers northwest. The Japanese government will remove nearly all Caesium from the towns, villages, and farmland in the nuclear disaster zone by excavating the top 5 centimeters of soil, storing it for a long “short term” of up to 5 years, and then disposing of it using facilities constructed on-site. Since Caesium-137 has a half-life of 30.17 years, the contamination will decay to only 10% of its initial quantity by the year 2111. All of the Caesium-contaminated debris and soil is being gathered into massive multi-layered bags and kept on fields or in freshly constructed warehouses while the excavation and construction continues for years more. There is no way of knowing how many bags of contaminated debris have been collected, but one government estimate is 16 million. Seeing the magnitude of the bag storage throughout the region, the endless warehouse from the movie Indiana Jones comes to mind. It is difficult to comprehend the scale of the Fukushima cleanup even while seeing it up close. It is clearly an industrial scale. For comparison, if each of the 16 million bags weighed 1 short ton (i.e. 2000 lbs), then it would be on par with weekly coal production in the United States (15 million tons, as of December 1, 2018).

In the eight years since the Tohuko earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster, public interest has naturally reduced but the region continues to serve a role as the ultimate meme of nuclear power globally. For example, because of this nuclear disaster, Japan and Germany shut down all of their nuclear plants immediately and almost every other country made cuts to their nuclear energy plans. Some of Japan’s nuclear plants have been restarted with the approval of the local governments. But this represents only 16% of Japan’s original reactor fleet – 9 reactors out of Japan’s total fleet of 57. Nonetheless, anybody who brings up nuclear power in a conversation is sure to experience people asking, “What about Fukushima?” Significant fear was generated and continues around the world. The famous map of radiation filling the Pacific Ocean, seen by millions online, has a lot to do with the sustained fear of Fukushima. Everyone living near the Pacific was scared even though the image was never a radiation map at all, but a map of tsunami energy traveling. Still, many people consider the ‘spread of radiation’ from this map to be the final word on Fukushima and nuclear power. The narrative that has emerged makes traveling to the coast of Japan for Real Fukushima unlike any other experience. During and after the disaster, it was easy to focus on our own fears from ‘global radiation.’ But this has distracted from the impact on Japan – especially the deaths of 18,500 people and the horrible, non-nuclear earthquake and tsunami damage to the human environment. Real Fukushima is about more than 3 nuclear meltdowns; it’s also about a devastated community, its recovery, and thousands of people who never came home to their families on March 11th, 2011. Because of my experience, I am not afraid of Fukushima. Fukushima should be mourned, hoped for, and assisted – not feared.

Sean Hernandez

Renewable Energy in Fukushima

Real Fukushima — Fri, 30 Nov 2018 06:23:23 +0000

Fukushima Prefectural Government declared 100% renewable energy one year after the nuclear accident. It means the prefecture will produce energy by the renewables more than it consumes by 2040.

Soma IHI Green Energy Center

Japanese engineering giant IHI launched the Green Energy Center in Soma City, intending to integrate solar power generation with business development. Electricity generated by the 1.6 MW solar power station at the 5.4-hectare center will be delivered to the municipal sewerge treatment plant, while surplus energy will be used for experimental projects such as hydrogen production and dehydration of sewage sludge. It is expected to create CO2-free sustainable community by taking advantages of hydrogen technologies. Developing a community-based business model, the company hopes to play a part in the economic revitalization of the 2011 disaster-hit region.

Shinchi tri-generation

Shinchi Station was washed away by tsunami. The town government moved it inland and is introducing tri-generation in a new town center near the station. It is a natural gas fired generator producing electricity and heat while providing green houses with CO2.

Minamisoma Solar Park

A 60MW photovoltaic park operated by Sumitomo built by Toshiba and Taisei.

Minamisoma Wind Farm

Solar Sharing

Solar Panel Factory – INFINI

Infini’s solar panels on water

Solar parks reuse nuclear power line

Fukushima prefecture had ten nuclear reactors. All were stopped and will never work again. Power lines became almost vacant. Now they are used for renewable energy.

Solar income for rebuilding the village

These renewable power plants provide the community with 1 million JPY per megawatt. The money is used for rebuilding the communities.

Batteries to store surplus renewable electricity

Japan’s largest lithium-ion battery energy storage were installed
to improve supply-demand balancing of electricity in the grid.

Hydrogen Energy Research Field

Toshiba ESS, Tohoku Electric Power Company and Iwatani Corporation have started construction of Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Field (FH2R), a large-scale hydrogen energy system in Namie Town.

FH2R will produce and store up to 900 tons of hydrogen a year, using renewable energy. It will use a new control system to coordinate overall operation of the hydrogen energy system, the power grid control system, and the hydrogen demand forecast system, so as to optimize hydrogen production, hydrogen electricity generation and hydrogen gas supply.

FH2R as of July 2018

To Viewers of Netflix’s Dark Tourist

Real Fukushima — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 02:32:31 +0000

Thank you for showing an interest in our area of Fukushima. If you are interested in visiting, please first read the following guidelines:

Our tour takes you into the reopened zone as well as the current exclusion zone within the 20km from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, where the evacuation orders were issued due to the nuclear accident. This provides a level of honest insight which is absent from Netflix’s show. Entering buildings in the way demonstrated by David Farrier on Dark Tourist is dangerous, unnecessary and largely prohibited.

You will be asked to show respect to this area throughout the tour and consider those affected by evacuation orders, the survivors of the earthquake and tsunami and the people who died as a result of this triple disaster since 2011.

Consequently, you are not allowed to take pictures in the zone which can identify personal information, such as car number plates, personal names and shop names with a close-up image. These are the property of private owners.

The radiation level on the tour is between 0.1 and 1 microsieverts per hour at the peak and your total exposure to the radiation is not more than 2 microsieverts. For context, one flight between New York and Tokyo reaches more than 50 microsieverts. We encourage all visitors to independently verify this data should they wish.

We welcome people from all around the world to join our tours, but we will not accept those who show disrespect and thoughtlessness. We aim to challenge sensationalism, be that images, fictitious experiences, or any other disrespectful behaviour towards this area.

Thank you very much for your kind cooperation and understanding. See you in Fukushima!

Best regards,
Shuzo Sasaki, Real Fukushima Team

Filming locations

Reflections on an Inspiring Visit

Real Fukushima — Sat, 09 Jun 2018 23:17:23 +0000

Last March I had the sincere privilege of touring the Fukushima exclusion zone and surrounding communities with Mr. Sasaki. He was kind enough to take time out of his very busy schedule on fairly short notice to give me a very thoughtful and candid tour of the area and for this I am deeply appreciative. I quickly came to realize how lucky I was to receive a tour from someone who was both deeply embedded in the disaster response 7 years ago but is also currently part of the difficult and inspiring efforts to revitalize the surrounding community to its former glory.

As we made our way into the exclusion zone and through the abandoned communities and countryside, Mr. Sasaki shared fascinating and moving stories as someone who was an integral part of the heroic efforts to evacuate the surrounding area and the later disaster clean up. While we walked through the abandoned streets and peered into deserted businesses I was struck with how quickly a once vibrant community can be left in shambles.

I will never forget peering into the windows of the abandoned nursing home to see rows of neatly placed shoes – unmoved from when they were set seven years ago or walking through the laundromat still strewn with empty hampers and old newspapers. I learned that much of the abandoned buildings will be demolished over the next few years, making my visit feel extra special.

We even went to the site where the disaster response was originally headquartered, now located in a newly rebuilt community center. There, Mr.Sasaki recounted the dramatic and heart wrenching decisions that were made in the subsequent days after the tsunami as people were forced to evacuate and many lives were tragically lost. Shortly after the tsunami, the disaster headquarters itself had to be evacuated and was severely damaged by the tsunami and left to the elements for three years after the disaster. At the community center, I was able to put on a VR headset and see the wreckage of the disaster response headquarters as it was found those three years later, with white boards still covered in quickly scrawled notes and a few bento lunches still sitting half-eaten among the shards of broken glass.

Equally striking for me was how much progress the community has made since those fateful days only seven short years ago. Mr.Sasaki showed me the fascinating and monumental clean up efforts underway to mitigate the dwindling surrounding radiation risk. The system developed to contain the contaminated debris was the first of its kind and quite impressive. We also walked through newly built solar energy farms and newly sprouting townships. He spoke candidly of the cities’ ongoing efforts to dispel paranoia surrounding radiation in the area and to encourage regrowth. He showed me the newly reopened school, complete with its tiny (but gradually growing) cohort of 10 students. As we drove to the memorial commemorating those lost to the tsunami, we saw teams of volunteers repairing an old cemetery that was leveled in the flood. I felt my heart swell as I saw volunteers carefully repositioning markers and sweeping gravesites – deferentially respecting the past while boldly striving onward to the future.

After the tour, I had a lovely evening staying at Karin’s very comfortable guesthouse. We talked late into the evening about the area and the people in it. She had some very thoughtful insight to what happened and how the community has recovered since. She was very generous and I had a great time talking with her. She takes an obvious pride in the community and an active role in fostering its regrowth. She even let me try on a traditional kimono! I also had a tasty dinner set at the guesthouse just next door and had some great conversation with the couple that runs it. The gentleman there is also a talented artist and showed me some of his beautiful watercolors and described a trip he took to Ukraine to meet those affected by the Chernobyl Disaster.

In these short years, the community surrounding Fukushima has been innovative and tenacious in adapting to intense hardships, showing a level of resiliency that is deeply inspiring. I feel very fortunate to be able to meet the people affected by this disaster and witness the gradual re-emergence of their community.

Sara Marquis, Seattle, USA

Humans’ achievment

Real Fukushima — Fri, 11 May 2018 08:12:37 +0000

The tour within the exclusion zone of Fukushima prefecture was a completely unique experience, put together and guided by the exceptional team of Karin and Shuzo. Staying within the exclusion zone is not allowed, but Karin operates the beautiful Lantern House located in Odaka, which was within the exclusion zone until April 2017. Odaka is located approximately 4 hours by train(s) north of Tokyo, and the Lantern House is less than a block away from the station, making traveling to Odaka very simple (especially if you are using a JR Pass).

The heavy loss that the communities located in and near the exclusion zone is palpable upon arrival into the area and tremendously humbling throughout the tour. Leaving Odaka station, you’ll notice a nearby digital display, accompanying solar panel and measuring equipment, showing the real-time dose rate information for the station. While it may seem like a somewhat unnerving sight for some, I found it quite comforting being able to know right away exactly what sort of dose rate my body was experiencing by being there. I was thankful to find out that the dose rates were in the range of 0.1 – 0.2 µSv/hr, which is comparable to natural background radiation all over the world (and is lower than many places in other countries). I slept well knowing the radiation exposure I’d receive during my time in Odaka would be the same as if I were going about my usual life at home (and because the beds at the Lantern House were extremely comfy).

The tour itself was approximately 4 hours, where Shuzo and Karin escorted me by car around the region and provided the necessary paperwork to pass through the security checkpoints. On our way to the current exclusion zone, we stopped by several farms and historical areas to discuss how these areas had coped with the tsunami and subsequent nuclear accident. When faced with difficult situations, it is almost unfathomable what humans are capable of enduring, and the people of Fukushima prefecture are as resilient as they come. Hearing their stories and learning about their transitions to new ways of life was worth the trip on its own, and that was before we had even reached a security gate!

Once inside the exclusion zone, Shuzo and Karin took me through several evacuated towns and farms where we stopped to experience the remnants of the communities who had to stop what they were doing and leave immediately. The devastation from the tsunami is unquestionable and, despite the many plants and trees that have moved in during the 7 years since the evacuation, these towns are a preserved glimpse into life in Fukushima in March, 2011. Schools, hospitals, community centers, repair shops all comparable to how they were after the tsunami retreated back to the Pacific. There are many additional digital displays located throughout the region showing the local dose-rate information. Throughout the tour, the highest reading I observed was around 15 µSv/hr. Certainly much higher than in Odaka, but to put that in perspective, the beaches of Guarapari in Brazil naturally emit around 20 µSv/hr and is a popular tourist destination, so there’s no cause for concern due to radiation exposure during the tour.

The highlight for me was reaching a high point in the terrain where there was a clear view of Fukushima Daiichi and the on-going work at the station. It was a surreal experience being able to look upon the reactor buildings that had suffered serious accidents as the result of an unprecedented tsunami leading to the eventual evacuation of the Fukushima area. Observing the station from that vantage point, I couldn’t help marvel at what humans were capable of achieving – both technologically speaking and in times of crisis. It’s hard not to feel moved standing amongst what was a thriving community of hard working people, now only a thriving community of hard working fauna.

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station

After returning to Odaka, I was able to visit a local sushi restaurant where Karin offered her local opinion on what to try. The quality was superb and it was great to see the locals enjoying themselves as well. There’s no doubt that they’ve been through a very hard 7 years, but by the laughter in the air and the smiles on their faces, it’s clear that there was more than just overgrown trees flourishing here – a vibrant, determined and compassionate community works to rebuild itself.

Scott Read

Super Excellent Experience

Real Fukushima — Fri, 11 May 2018 00:57:36 +0000

Around the same time last year, Aizu-Wakamatsu in Fukushima was the highlight of my Japan trip so I thought that for my trip this year, I should return again to Fukushima. The Real Fukushima website popped up during my travel research and the next thing I know is that I scored myself a private tour of Fukushima’s coastal area where the nuclear disaster occurred. On the day of the tour, I took a train from Sendai to Haranomachi Station to meet up with Karin, a local guide. She handed me a map of the area and a pocket dosimeter that detects radiation. Being a medical radiation worker, I was already familiar with the gadget and numbers so anything to do with radiation didn’t bother me at all. We began the tour with a visit to the port to get a first-hand look of what was left after the tsunami before visiting the new graveyard built uphill where a memorial monument was installed with the names of those who lost their lives back then. We also stopped by Karin’s lovely AirBnb for a short break before lunchtime.

We went to Urashima Sushi Restaurant in Odaka Town for lunch and as a huge fan of Japanese sushi, I dare say that I had the best sushi during my 3-week trip around Japan there! The restaurant is currently the only sushi restaurant in that town and is managed by a father-son duo with the father being the most chatty among the two. The restaurant feels new, probably recently renovated or rebuilt with a homely atmosphere. Since the menu is in Japanese, Karin helped me order their “super excellent set” and I was not disappointed at all. Their “otoro” and “chutoro” melted in my mouth that I thought I was in sushi heaven for a bit. I couldn’t have enough of it. I almost forgot that my tour is not over yet as Mr Sasaki, a local government officer, was going to drive me to the restricted zone.

Urashima Sushi

Super Excellent Set

Otoro and Chutoro

After that awesome lunch, Mr Sasaki drove me around to visit some local homes. We tried to look for the famous bike cat but they were not home, probably out biking somewhere I guess. I was especially amused by the story of the owner of a cow farm there too. We probably drove through a lot of the evacuation zones and visited a number of abandoned places like an elderly community centre, a hospital and Okutama Town itself. The places that were abandoned felt like a scene from a zombie apocalypse video game and I saw a few wild boars run across the road but they were gone before I could snap a picture.

The tour lasted longer than I expected but it was a very unique and rewarding experience. I believe that it’s natural to fear the unknown so I’m sure more radiation awareness and education can go a long way in rebuilding the town. The Real Fukushima website is already a huge step in the right direction. I’m forever grateful to both Karin and Mr Sasaki for taking the time to show me around and I can only wish the best for them.

Probably my only regret during the tour was that I didn’t ask to go back to that sushi restaurant for dinner that evening just before I left for Sendai.

Zulliza