I visited Kamaishi with Takahashi sensei. He taught in Kamaishi many years ago and he had heard that one of his former students had been killed in the tsunami. This was to be my introduction to the tsunami affected area.

I want to reitterate that these images were taken this June - 3 months after the tsunami. Yet, notice the personal items that lay in the street and around the houses. The violin was sitting in a closed case. I opened it to see this sad reminder that this house was occupied by a family not unlike my own when I was growing up.

Going down the road it was not immediately obvious how badly the area had been hit. But, as we pulled over and I looked more closely at the houses, the damage become apparent. It was an odd feeling walking through a neighborhood that had been abandoned but was largely still standing.

What I could not know was that this was to be the least damaged area I would visit. Despite that; all of these houses are a total loss. Sadly, I came to this neighborhood knowing that lives had been lost. But, unlike many areas I was with someone who had once lived here and knew many of the names on the houses as we passed.

Note; as I move forward I will have more images from Japan and more images from our daily work. This is going to be a bit challenging for me and I mean no disrespect to the people who I will be showcasing in Japan next to happy images from the states. It is the nature of our work and the reality of the situation. As life moves on here, life in Northeastern Japan has been tragically turned for the worse. It is not over.