By Jangwoo Lee | Program unit
A massage from Disaster Areas
Two and a half years have passed since the March 11 earthquake. This section showcases the efforts towards recovery by the people living in the affected areas. For this round, we feature Mr. and Mrs. Kikuchi, who run“Tairyo-Maru” (roughly translated as the “good catch boat” ) at the Fukko Yatai Mura, Kesennuma Yokocho, a“temporary mall” for reconstruction in KesennumaCity. The food stall serves traditional fishermen s fare.
We used to run a horumonyaki (barbecued beef and pork offal) restaurant inKesennuma City, before it was washed away by the tsunami. When we were thinking of starting all over again, we happened to find out about the plan for the “temporary mall’ village.” So we started “Tairyo-Maru” in November 2011 along with the opening of the village.
With Masao’ s 30 years of experience working as a chief on a deep sea tuna fishingboat, we serve traditional fishermen’ s fare made with fresh tuna and bonito at ourfood stall. One of our signature dishes, the hoseki-don or “gemstones rice bowl”consists of a rice bowl topped with salmon roe, sea urchin, and fresh shrimp andcosts 3,000 yen each. Some might think it is too expensive a dish to be served at amakeshift food stall, but many customers are satisfied when they tried our dish. We use local ingredients and never compromise on taste. We also providelocal sake, which goes well with our dishes.
Many volunteers from across the nation come to Kesennuma City and drop by our stall. Some people sent us lettersand called us, even after they had left Kesennuma City.
We have to close our stall by the end of November because the period of operations for this mall will end then. Iwant to continue this business for the sake of those who have come and grew to like Kesennuma and our food stall.
We have a dream of starting a guest house in my hometown island of Oshima off the coast of Kesennuma. Likeeveryone else, we need to think about our future. We may not know what the future holds but we will move forward enthusiastically.
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