Earthquake Two-year Memorial

A couple of weeks back, on 23rd October, Tokamachi held an anniversary ceremony for the earthquake. It was the first time they had done something like this. I think they thought last year was too soon after the earthquake.

The ceremony was built around times of the three major earthquakes. At 5:56pm, the lights on Honcho were turned off and candles were lit along the side of the road. At 6:20pm(ish) there was a minute's silence. At 6:45pm, three processions of people, carrying illuminated balloons, left Kinare and took different routes to Honcho where they placed the balloons. Ton Jiru (pork soup) was served and a taiko group played their drums in the darkness.

It was quite an experience. The darkness and the silence brought back many memories from the hours after the earthquake. It was strange to hear the taiko drums too. I love taiko drums, but on a night like this in the dark, they could easily remind you of the quakes and the aftershocks.

So I guess that's official 'closure' for the earthquake so everyone can move on and get back to normal lives. It's certainly true of the majority of people, but there are still about 5,000 people in Tokamachi, Ojiya and Nagaoka living in temporary prefabs because their house sustained too much damage in the quakes. The empty spaces were houses once stood are slowly being filled as construction work springs up every now and again, but I guess with the snow due to arrive in a month or so many will have to wait until next year. Gambarre.