Mr. Ayukai's family has been in the Kesennuma area for over 300 years. His first name is Munefusa. His sons are Muneshige and Munetoshi. As the ancestral lords of Kesennuma they have a certain place within the community. Their garden is a public garden; their home is an evacuation area. The house overlooks their neighborhood in Kesennuma city.

In the pictures at the top of this page you can see the destruction. If you take his neighborhood and combine it with the adjacent neighborhood (just beyond the concrete building in the distant center of the photo) you have roughly 340 houses. Of the 340 homes you should be able to see; 320 homes are gone. The remaining homes are on the hillside like Mr. Ayukai's home. The neighborhood (or town) across the river decided to dissolve as a legal entity. There is nothing left.

While Munefusa was at work Makiko Ayukai (a former english teacher) was with their boys. When the earthquake struck she took them to the entrance of the house. She didn't go outside for fear of falling objects from the face of the house. It was a long quake, most people say over two minutes. Combined with the Magnitude of 9.0 - it was truly exceptional.

The tsunami came less than an hour later. No one knew that it would be so big. It came within a few vertical meters of their house - covering the lower garden by over a meter in height. She watched as the tsunami destroyed her neighborhood. But, like everyone else, she ran for higher ground when she realized this was like nothing she had ever experienced.

Muneshige and Munetoshi are little boys. Munetoshi is just a baby. Muneshige is still terrified of earthquakes. He told me we would have to go to high ground if a tsunami came. A sad truth for such a young boy to recognize (I believe he is 5?).

I inquired about their thoughts on moving and much more. But, that is a story for another day. The strange reality is that despite all the personal items on the empty foundations - they have nothing to do with the home beneath them. They just washed around and ended up on the concrete. The contents of a given house may be kilometers away.

more to come - including visiting Fukushima.