On a bright, warm late November day, an open-air market hums with activity. Children dart among strolling tourists, vendors cry out their wares to visitors and locals alike, who are looking to stock up on produce, cheap clothes and handicrafts from around the country.
There's a festival atmosphere, and the air is full of the scent of fried seafood, the sweet, buttery fragrance of freshly baked madeleines, hot savory soup, and steaming rice being pounded into fresh mochi. There are citrus fruit from Shikoku and apples from Nagano, buckwheat soba noodles being rolled and cut by hand, and grilled meat Hokkaido-style. At the fish stall, plump local octopus, squid and salted fish catch the eye. Market tents spill over the plaza and into the parking lot, where tour buses vie for space with the cars.
A little beyond the parked buses is the area's Red Cross headquarters. Farther still are forested hills that block the view to the sea where there still remains an area of total destruction even eight months after the massive tsunami devastated this coastal town last March 11.