Ohtsuchi

Ohtsuchi is just as horribly destroyed as any other town. A bit more raw, with the piles of mangled cars still in plain view, and more of the foundations clearly visible. You can imagine more easily that there was life here, going on as usual, just nine months ago. 

This town lost its mayor in the tsunami. On the job, I'm told. The new town government is hard at work. This is my second visit to this town, and I see the intense effort that has gone into restarting the town. The outside of the mangled mall has already been rebuilt. Slap-together prefab buildings will do just fine as a shopping district for now. There's a big tent in a destroyed part of town. It houses the Reconstruction Restaurant. Styrofoam dishes and a several-item menu never looked this good. The bubbly young guy we met there is absolutely determined that this town is going to rebuild. It needed a restaurant again, so he helped to get it started. 

He gave us quite a pep talk about reconstruction. Then he pointed to the ground at our feet and said that his mom grew up here, in a house that stood right here where the tent now stands. 

The house was washed away. 

For the morning and the afternoon, we went to temporary housing units and made Christmas wreaths with some of the ladies, and the occasional brave man. 

Wash away their city. Wash away their homes, their wardrobes, their beauticians, their beauty budget, their jobs, and their gardens. 

But you can't stop their love of beauty and desire to decorate. 

"Oh dear, I so intended to keep it low-key, and now look what I've gone and done!!"

Dear sweet lady, if you could say that without that big grin on your face, and if I hadn't helped you arrange your purple, orange, green, pink, and other dried flowers on your Christmas wreath, and if I could still see much of any green behind all those flowers,  I might actually believe you're upset about this. 

Besides, it's been a dismal year. It's time for a splash of color. 

Christmas is coming, wave or no wave. A good 30 little temporary apartments look a little brighter now. A bit more lifelike. 

There are challenges ahead. Houses can be built but nobody will insure them. And can you imagine what the new town government is facing? 

But for now, for today, life has won here at a feisty restaurant and in a few hearts bold enough to decorate. 

We're behind you, Ohtsuchi.