A woman carrying her baby around in the town of Ishinomaki, Northeastern Japan. She was looking for any supplies she could find in the rubble. A day after a massive earthquake and tsunami hit Northeastern Japan, I hopped on a plane to Tokyo and then to Fukushima airport. From there we visited various areas: one where people were sleeping on the stage of an auditorium waiting to hear whether their hometown had been contaminated with radioactivity; one where rotten fish were strewn on the ground -- a reminder of an industry that used to feed the people in that neighborhood; another one where someone was wading through mud, headed towards their destroyed houses to find the dogs they had left behind. It was a three-day-long stay; three very full days.
There are many things I've learned.
Practical things, like 'don't wear sneakers when you're covering the aftermath of a tsunami'.
Don't save on little things, like 'utility belts' for lenses, extra batteries, a good wind jacket, etc. They make a big difference when you work on little sleep and in difficult environments.
But more importantly I learned that grilling a fish with your pals in a middle of the road after you've lost everything can be incredibly uplifting. So can 5 pieces of chewy candy that a stranger offers you, mumbling the word "candy" in broken English.
Anyhoo, here's a selection of the videos I produced from there (I'm on my second trip here now, so expect more to come):
A video about the economic repercussions of the tsunami for a town of ship building companies and food processing facilities:
