Hello, everybody!   As you may know, many people in Fukushima Prefecture lost their homes due to the earthquake of March 11, 2011.  Virtually all these people lived along the east coast.  Some people lost their homes because of the damage caused by the seismic energy itself.  Some lost their homes due to the tsunami that occurred shortly after the earthquake.   And some people lost their homes because the homes themselves were to close to the nuclear power plant.  (There is an area around the plant that was evacuated due to the meltdowns, and much of that area is still closed off today.)

Last week I rode my bike to the northern part of Fukushima City to shop at Aeon shopping center.  It’s a little far for me (at least twenty minutes or more by bike) so I don’t usually go to that particular shopping center.  But this time, I looked around the neighborhood.

There are homes in this area which are temporary housing for evacuees.     (Even thought they are considered temporary, they are still being lived in now, almost six years later.)

So there you can see them.  Very, very VERY small.  Japan is known for small housing.  But we’re not in Tokyo.  This is Fukushima–the countryside–where people tend to have larger housing.  And remember these people came from the rural part of Fukushima Prefecture, so many of them probably once lived in houses that were quite large.  Farmhouses with lots of land, and so on.  So this temporary housing must seem very cramped and uncomfortable to them.

You can see the doors.  Each door represents a different home.

You can see the pink roof of the AEON shopping center in the background.  One can buy almost anything there (including food) so these evacuees are probably happy that shopping is conveniently located…(at least they have that.)

Another photo….

I took this photo to show how little space there is.   No place for gardening, for grandchildren to play.

Another photo….

There was nobody out and about so I didn’t talk to anybody while I was there.

Okay, this is across from the temporary housing.  You can see that the regular houses (NOT temporary housing) in this Fukushima neighborhood are quite nice.  These are what typical middle or upper middle class people here might live in.  (That white house is especially nice–it’s actually a little more spectacular than typical houses in Japan.)

Some sort of religious center?  I wasn’t sure what this was.

Here I am on my bicycle heading back to my home.  The twenty plus minute journey!  The houses here are VERY typical.  Just regular homes for Fukushima City dwellers.  I live on the other side of that mountain in the background.  My area is downtown, whereas this area in the photos is not the city center.

This is a photo of a poster.  Sorry, it’s all in Japanese, but it tells of the upcoming memorials that will take place in Fukushima City on the anniversary of the earthquake for 2017.  (March 11th)  I always try to go to the memorial downtown and look at the candles and think about the victims and pray for them.