After the Sendai Tanabata Festival, we visited Sendai Airport, which was damaged and flooded by the tsunami, in which floodwaters reached a height of 3.02m.
It was heartwarming to see various messages of support and encouragement from all over the world and all over Japan, and they made the airport brighter and cheerier. Each and every petal of the sunflowers here is a message from a different individual. They are hoping that Sendai can be like sunflowers; bright and shining. This is from passengers and staff of ANA.
These messages are from visitors to Haneda Airport in Tokyo.
So are these.
This colorful one is from Kansai International Airport (KIX) in Osaka.
Miyagi's mascot with a message of encouragement. Sendai is located in the Miyagi Prefecture.
The blue line around the pillar shows the height the floodwaters reached when the tsunami hit, 3.02m.
Because the Tanabata Festival was underway, even the airport had some fukunagashi decorations, with words of encouragement on them. The board is promoting Hagi no Tsuki, a regional specialty confectionery of Sendai. It's really delicious!
More messages from all over Japan and the world, this time from JAL passengers and staff.
Cranes of well-wishes and support from Kyuushuu, the south of Japan.
Alongside the messages were photographs of when the tsunami hit, to serve as a reminder.
This was a photo from 17th March, about a week after the disaster.
This one is from 30th March, of the interior of the airport, almost 3 weeks after the incident.
Up till now the upper floors are still under going renovation.
We attended a short presentation on the airport and what happened when the tsunami hit. One of the speakers shared a story of how one of the airport staff, whose grandmother went missing during the earthquake, still showed up for work and greeted each and every passenger with a smile and tended to their needs. I felt my heart wrenching in sorrow for the staff, but at the same time it's really touching to know that such kindred souls exist.
In a mere 4 months, most of the damaged area has been rebuilt, and international flights resumed on 25th July 2011. The airport is now fully operational.
Aww it's so sweet of all those passengers to write messages of encouragement and support for the airport...ww
ReplyDeleteAll the big boards of messages look really bright! It's really nice of all the people to write/make them =]
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