Shin-Urayasu in Japan(Aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake), Mar 11, 2011

This story is not based on my travel.
As of September 2013, two and half years has already passed from the date, March 11th 2011,
when the Tohoku earthquake happened.
In my trip, I’m still asked how the earthquake was and the Fukushima nuclear reactors are.
That disaster made such an strong impact on many people.
Shin-Urayasu is one of towns damaged by the earthquake.
I’ve been living at Shin-Urayasu for 11 years.
That’s why I wrote down about my town, Shi-Urayasu, in the aftermath of the earthquake.

Shin-Urayasu has a famous tourist attraction, Tokyo DisneyLand.
As you know, most part of Tokyo barely got damage.
Shin-Urayasu is 20 minutes away from Tokyo station by train.
You might believe Shin-Urayasu also barely got damage.

However, most part of Shin-Urayasu was devastated by liquefaction phenomenon.
All is due to the fact that Shin-Urayasu is on landfill.
Here is one of the most infamous videos which show liquefaction phenomenon on the spot.

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(Video Credit: DailyNewsBros)

I was at my office when the earthquake broke out,
so that I didn’t face the fear of liquefaction phenomenon on the spot.
I was back to my town 1 day later.
It was so terrible it made me stunned.
Some roads were split and had crevasses across where someone put ladders.
Some roads were covered by mud and pool which spewed from the underground.
Some buildings leaned and were apart from the ground.
Gas, water supply and sewage hadn’t worked well at all for one and half months.
I had left Shin-Urayasu and had been at my mother’s house during that time.

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( The numbers on the map were linked with the above photos’ number. )

Several people said to me that
they don’t want to go to Tokyo.
This is because they are afraid of radioactive materials.
I reply to them that
Fukushima is far away from Tokyo and
I often eat Fukushima-grown vegetables and fruits.

However, I look into distance between two metropolitan cities which everybody knows.
The world seems tremendously vast.

Fukushima – Tokyo(239.29km/148.07miles)
London – Paris(344.010km/213.758miles)
New York – Boston(360.177km/190.250miles)
San Francisco – Los Angels(347.812km/559.748miles)

But, there is not always a bad thing.
My apartment rental fee was down from 77,000 yen to 72,000 yen per month.