Up the coast

I hadn't researched the trip as well as I might have. We'd planned to stay in Kaneyama machi near Aizu. We'd stayed in a minshuku there a couple of years ago and the town had mailed us a brochure last year, keen to get visitors to come back after the earthquake. But as the place we'd stayed in was booked out (an encouraging sign),  I started looking along the coast. I'd picked out a couple of places to try on the Iwaki sightseeing and accommodation guide. http://yado-map.com/ close to the sea. I tried ringing, no response, presumably lost to the tsunami.
Fukushima is a bit off the radar for tsunami damage. Unlike Iwate and Miyagi, the focus tends to be on radiation. I took a look at the Wikipedia page for Iwaki to see the numbers of people who died in the tsunami, and there is no mention of it at all. On another page, the number of dead in Iwaki was listed as 310.  In places a little further north, like Namie and Futaba, closer to the reactors, the priority after the earthquake was evacuating the living rather than searching for the missing. There are occassional reports that turn up in the media about the burden on people's conscience.

There was considerable damage in Iwaki.  

Godzilla among the devastation

 

It was unclear in places whether house had survived and been
fixed up or rebuilt entirely.

buildings gone

No entry to the Shioyazaki lighthouse - Hiro was
relieved.



People out fishing... presumably there is no radiation checking of the fish they catch.



Gathering shellfish. According to Hiro  possibly sea urchin.

A school destroyed, turned into a junkyard at the front.

Shioyazaki lighthouse

A lot of buildings gone... I am not sure where the temporary
housing units are, presumably a lot of people have been relocated
to temporary housing units further from the reactors.

 

Cheerful paintings on the barrier walls. They looked quite fresh,
I am not sure if they were painted before or after the tsunami.
In much of the area the tsunami walls seemed very low or non existant.

A michi no eki  - kind of farmers market / souvenir shop.
I was wanting to check out a michi no eki to see what produce
was being sold. The signs to the michi no eki remained, but
the original building had gone.

The new, temporary michi no eki. It didn't open until 10 and we
were there at 9, so we didn't stay around to see what they had.

Boats destroyed and piled up still remain.