Day 60 , Fukushima to Minami Soma

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We Left Fukushima and were off to Minami Soma which is about 25-30kms from the nuclear plant that isn’t going to well at the moment. We did 52kms today and there was a bit of up hill before i got to cruise my way into Minami Soma. It was a beautiful place to run, lots of green and not much traffic for most of it.
 
 
Yesterday I was on Fukushima FM with my friend Itaru , As I was running along all of a sudden a car stopped and out jumped Yamazaki san. He had heard us on the radio and came to say hi. He is from Minami Soma and didnt leave at all since the tsunami. I told him we were having trouble t find somewhere to stay and he said leave it with me and shot off to work.
 
I had a call from him about 2 hrs later saying he had found a room for the next 2 nights for us. Amazing. He then said he would show us around when we arrived and go for some dinner. I haven’t had this kind of support for so long and it was awesome to have someone who had been here the whole time to tell us about what has gone on.
At one of my rest stops we meet Takeuchi san who is a good friend of ZUN who has supplied us the van. Funny who you meet along the way. As we were talking these 2 cats came walking out of the bush not looking in the best shape and takeuchi san just couldn’t leave them and took them home to look after them. Great work bro.
 
Once we arrived in Minami Soma we meet straight up with Yamazaki san and he took us around. Now as you hear on the TV and read about in the newspaper that it is very dangerous here well it is NOT. I promise you, Noone here is not going outside and the air is in better condition than other places like Fukushima. It is the way that the ends go and Minami Soma has a very low reading.
We went for a drive and well as you can see there aren’t much left. The road right by the beach isnt much any more, Along this road and the beach there was 1900 houses that were smashed and are now gone. The tsunami came a hell of a long way up and now it is just a lot of concrete pads where houses were.
 
This is where a house was and that 6 of 7 kids died, Also this little forrest was bigger and it about a km from the beach but the tsunami came right up here and they found a boat up in the trees.
 
There are piles of rubble and broken cars etc everywhere. A lot of it is along side the roads and is from the clean up of stuff that was all over the roads. Remember they have been able to start the clean up almost right away here.
 
 
But next door in Odaka town which is inside the 20km circle it has only been opened at the end of April this year so there is still so much rubbish and broken things everywhere. You are aloud to go into the area as it is safe to  but you can’t go back and live yet. It is a very weird feeling, The only real power is that of the traffic lights but there is no people. A few people are there cleaning up but things are just as they have been for the last year.
It was very sad to think about what everyone has had to go though over the last year , being able to see your house maybe from st anding on one side of a fence which they say is safe and then with nothing really different at all where your house is but not being able to go there. All the schools and kids have been all move to other places and so many of the schools have lost over half of the students to either the tsunami or families ovine away, But they are still boxing on and smiling which is so great to see .
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
As you can see the cars and even a boat still here in the rice fields and well just pushed off the roads so people can get past.
There was around 70,000 people living in this area of Minami Soma before but now only about 45,000. Right after the tsunami for 6 months a lot of people had moved away but are slowly coming back which is great to see. it is such a beautiful spot, some awesome surfs spots here to, but the locals don’t really go in the ocean now as they lost some many family and friends right there so now it is a kinda special place.
 
The fences and everything has been hit from the ocean side and while one side of everything looks fine the other side is smashed .
 
 
 
 
Yamazaki san also took us out for dinner where we meet more great locals. Just amazing to see and was great to meet everyone.Big hi to Kanae and Ayumi.
 
These 2 super funny girls worked at the restaurant   and after hearing what we were doing came back with his awesome desert. Thankyou so so much .
It was a great day and well to finally see what and why we are running was great. It has given me so much more fight and want to make this event work more. I hope these photos will start to help you underst and why we need to make time and support everyone who has been affected by the tsunami and earthquake of 3.11       From now on for the next 10 days we will be right in the middle of it so please keep reading and we will show you as much as we can. Tell everyone and lets make a difference even if it is just a small one.
 
Here is a map of todays run     Click Here