Ever since the Towada Art Center opened five years ago, the city in Aomori Prefecture has seen its prospects dramatically alter. Not only by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, but by the subsequent devastation of neighboring areas, all of which compounded the dwindling prosperity of Towada. It was detached from nearby Misawa in 2012 when the railway connecting the two cities closed, though conversely the prefecture as a whole benefited from an extended Tohoku Shinkansen Line stretching from the old terminus of nearby Hachinohe to the prefectural capital, Aomori City. There's a lot to love in this quiet, unassuming place but it has definitely seen better days.