Tomioka Station, all are gone and nothing happened.

JR Tomioka Station after the tsunami (Source: Wikipedia)

Every time I come to Fukushima the most heartbreaking reality I find is that little has happened in Fukushima. Japanese people boast of their bullet train and the country-wide complex webs of railway transportation systems. They have the world's most sophisticated technology and disaster preparedness  in all levels of society. But the nuclear crisis stopped everything in Fukushima. The disaster crippled the country's most efficient transportation system. When we were driving from Minami Soma (north of Daichi plant) to Iwaki (south of Daichi plant), we stopped at Tomioka station, located 10 KM south from the Daichi plant, the station used to be just a couple hundred meters from the coast.
Because this station was located within the 20 KM zone public entrance was restricted for three years. But after the radiation clean-up, this area recently opened up. When we arrived here last Thursday, we were shocked to discover the complete open view of the ocean, and no sign of a train station. Only the long lines of soil bags block the view of ocean in front of a memorial stone and flowers.

 

Geiger Counter 

Parking lot entrance

While the damaged train station has been completely demolished, the town of Tomioka left untouched since the day of the disaster. 

 

The reality and uncertainty of the ongoing nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daichi changed everything. The fact that Japanese have had to live with potential natural disasters like earthquake and tsunami has never slowed down the economy or the lifestyle of the people in this country. In fact, disaster preparedness is something they boast about. But the Fukushima nuclear crisis changed everything because even the disaster recovery couldn't even begin in many places in this land.

Inability to recover what was lost is a greater shock than the tsunami and earthquake.