- 5 weeks ago
Great Japanese Railway Journeys - Season 1 Episode 13 -
Tokyo to Sendai
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Tokyo to Sendai
tele: https://t.me/TopFilmUSA1
#film#shows#usa#usashows#hot#filmhot
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FunTranscript
00:04Japan.
00:05Michael, welcome to Japan, a railway paradise.
00:08Its huge population spread over Long Islands lives by its railways.
00:13I feel like I'm driving.
00:14My new adventure takes me through the land that launched the high-speed train.
00:19I love Shinkansen.
00:21Where millions of journeys are made each day through some of the most bustling stations on earth.
00:27Busy city.
00:28I'll ride Japan's vast railway network to uncover a land of bold innovation.
00:35Haven't quite got the hang of it yet.
00:37A place of enduring traditions, volatile geology and remarkable people.
00:44Kanpai.
00:45Join me on an excursion like no other.
00:48I'm too excited to sit down.
01:06This morning I'm travelling at speed, thrusting north on the super-fast bullet train.
01:14Japan's largest island, Honshu, is about 800 miles long, with Tokyo not far off its centre point.
01:22With such enormous distances and a dynamic population of 120 million people, you can see why this country opted for
01:32high-speed rail.
01:34Having left the capital behind, I'm now travelling on the longest of the Shinkansen routes to Tohoku, which is an
01:42area that comprises a fifth of Japan's landmass, with only a tenth of its inhabitants.
01:48A region of farmers and fishermen.
01:54Countryside at last.
01:57This Japanese journey will take me north from the capital Tokyo, along Honshu Island, to Fukushima, and the coastal city
02:05of Sendai.
02:07I'll cross the Sugaru Strait through an undersea rail tunnel to Hokkaido, the most sparsely populated of the country's four
02:15main islands.
02:16My route will take in Hakodate, Lake Toya, and Sapporo.
02:21The port city of Otaru will be my final destination.
02:34My first stop today is Fukushima.
02:37With a population of 290,000, it's surrounded by mountains, with the O-Range on the west and the Abukuma
02:45Highlands to the east.
02:50At Fukushima, the lines divide, a Y shape, and so the front part of the train will go in one
02:57direction, the rear part is another.
02:58And now I discover that my two Shinkansens joined together were different colours and different models.
03:22The Fukushima area is part of the rural Tohoku region, known as the Rice Granary of Japan.
03:30Thirty miles northwest of the city, I'm visiting Watanabe Farm in the Yamagata Prefecture, where rice has been cultivated for
03:39over 2,000 years.
03:42Rice has always been a staple for the Japanese people.
03:45And although their annual consumption is now about half of what it was in the 1960s,
03:51each person is still eating almost 57 kilograms per year.
03:57The cultivation of rice historically involved families, small farmers, working together to share out the water and bring in the
04:06harvest.
04:09The farm is run by Kyoichi Watanabe, who is also chairman of the Local Producers Association.
04:18Watanabe-san, konnichiwa!
04:21Konnichiwa!
04:23Hello!
04:23What a pleasure to see you!
04:28Why are the conditions right for rice here?
04:31About rice here?
04:31There are more tomatoes on the beach, so far, it's good to be on the ground.
04:38The rice is great to cut up, so lower than it will be made of salt and condensed water.
04:47The rice is more expensive for rice.
04:52Oh, so I think there are many different crops like this.
05:00Yes, please. What a lovely idea.
05:03This farm stretching across more than 30 acres
05:06produces 40 tons of rice every year.
05:09Please.
05:10Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
05:12Japanese onigiri.
05:14Onigiri. And two sorts.
05:17Japaneseæ¢
å¹²ã.
05:19And this is gomaå¡©.
05:20Beautiful. Thank you so much.
05:24How are you?
05:26Delicious.
05:27Very good.
05:29Is it a family business?
05:31Yes, yes, yes.
05:32It's basically me, my wife, my husband, and my husband.
05:36We're doing three of them.
05:37Is it very hard work?
05:39Of course.
05:40And the vine-cari is also allæ©æ¢°.
05:43So if the weather is raining,
05:45it's not possible for the vine-cari.
05:49Although the farm is run as an independent business,
05:52it works in collaboration with 27 other local growers.
06:17It's very interesting what you say to me because I think rice in Japan has always been a collective activity
06:25between different families and farmers, and it seems that it still is today.
06:30The farm sends some of its brown rice away to be polished and turned into white rice.
06:35The rest is processed here on site.
06:38All this machinery here, what does this do?
06:54The hulling machine removes the husk from the grain and processes a sack of rice every 90 seconds.
07:00Produce from the field starts here.
07:03It comes into this machine where its shape shudders and separates.
07:12The machine sings to you when the bag is full.
07:18Lovely, beautiful, ready for market.
07:32The paddy field has been drained, ready for the harvest.
07:36And after rain stopped work yesterday, Kyoichi's son Kyohei is making the most of the sunshine.
07:44I've been doing the first time in the forest for 47 years.
07:50I've been doing the fourth of the year and the fourth of the year.
07:53And I've been doing the fourth of the year and the fourth of the year and the fourth of the
07:56year.
07:56Do you want to go in?
07:59Oh, yeah, I'd love to.
08:00Yeah, yeah.
08:02Hello.
08:03Hello.
08:03Konnichiwa.
08:04Love to see you.
08:06Thank you very much.
08:09On.
08:10On.
08:10On.
08:11Let's go.
08:13Yuckuri, yuckuri.
08:15Yuckuri, yuckuri.
08:18Let's go.
08:27I never saw myself as a rice farmer, but I am enjoying this so much.
08:35Like that?
08:36Like that, like that.
08:38Okay.
08:49I haven't quite got the hang of it yet.
08:57Very good!
09:00Thank you so much!
09:02Arigato!
09:04What do you think?
09:11I really enjoyed it. That was fantastic.
09:13Have I ruined your field?
09:36Back at Fukushima Station, I rejoined the Shinkansen to continue my route north.
09:46I'm sorry to interrupt you.
09:52I'm sorry to interrupt you.
10:14On the 11th of March 2011, this region was devastated by an earthquake, and more particularly
10:20by the tsunamis that followed, since the epicentre was just offshore, and the vertical and horizontal
10:27ructions of the Pacific Plate threw the ocean into spasm.
10:33And I recall this horrific event, partly because one should remember that probably nearly 18,500
10:40people were killed, and also because the response from the public and the public authorities
10:46was impressive.
10:50Catastrophic flooding extended over 200 square miles, and the Fukushima Daiichi Power Station
10:57suffered the world's worst nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl explosions in 1986.
11:08My next stop will be the port city of Sendai, which found itself at the centre of the disaster.
11:32With a population of just over a million, Sendai is the largest city in the Tohoku region,
11:38and the capital of the Miyagi Prefecture.
11:42It was the first to be hit by the tsunami, and the region suffered the greatest loss of life
11:48as waves travelled as far as six miles inland.
11:53To discover how the tragedy unfolded here on that notorious Friday afternoon, I'm meeting British expat Luke Happel,
12:02who was working for the local government at the time.
12:09Luke, we're standing here on what appears to be quite a new sea defence.
12:12But the area here is very sparse in trees and buildings, so this is the aftermath of the disaster.
12:18Absolutely. The tsunami actually came about 10 kilometres inland from this part of the coast here,
12:24and in places it was 10 metres high, in some places 20 metres high,
12:28and I think the highest recorded height was 40 metres.
12:32What was your position at the time? What was your role?
12:35So I was in Japan on an exchange teaching programme,
12:39looking after English teachers from various countries that were living across Miyagi Prefecture.
12:44Part of that role was disaster preparedness and safety confirmation,
12:48but this is not something we ever thought we'd have to do.
12:51Where were you on the day, and how did it unfold?
12:55So I was in my office when I first started to feel the shaking.
13:00I'd experienced many earthquakes, but we started to realise that this one was different.
13:04I sat under the desk with my helmet on.
13:07You know, I did think that the building would fall down any minute and that I would, you know, I
13:11would die.
13:12And I do, I remember thinking of my, you know, of my family. Seconds passed and eventually it settled down,
13:20and we had a moment of respite before we saw the horrific footage of the tsunami coming in on the
13:29news.
13:29How much later was the water after the quake?
13:32So it varies depending on which part of the prefecture, but it was anything between 10 and 30 minutes.
13:37We had a very big earthquake on the Wednesday before. Nothing happened then, there was no tsunami,
13:43so many people having initially evacuated were then caught up by the wave trying to get home.
13:49And what became of your colleagues?
13:51We weren't directly affected by the wave, but we did lose one of our colleagues, Taylor Anderson,
13:58in Ishinomaki Prefecture. We spent the entire first night trying to get through to people.
14:03She remained missing for about a week. So we then made the decision that we would go to the stricken
14:09area directly to look for her. And what we found there was just, you know, unimaginable destruction.
14:16I've got some photos here. This is a taxi just hurled, exactly. That's exactly the right word.
14:23The power of the waves bending metal.
14:25Everything piled up here, just smashed.
14:29Absolutely.
14:30Oh, ghast lemonges and terrible memories.
14:33Yeah.
14:34You don't live in this area anymore.
14:36No.
14:36So when you return, how do you feel?
14:39I have complicated feelings because I'm very happy to come back.
14:42But also, it reminds me of those challenges that I had.
14:46I was only planning to be here for two years. I had this experience and I knew that I had
14:52to stay
14:52to help that led me to do volunteering in mental health and it really did change the course of my
14:59life.
14:59I feel very privileged to have spoken to you. Thank you very much.
15:06This stretch of coast was once the neighbourhood of Arahama, with 800 houses and over 2,000 residents.
15:15It's former junior school, just 700 metres from the shoreline, was one of the few buildings left standing that day.
15:24As the tsunami approached, pupils, teachers and local residents took refuge on its roof.
15:33The man in charge of their safety that day was school principal Takao Kawamura.
15:40Kawamura sensei. Hello.
15:42Hello. Michael Portillo. What an honour.
15:47I'm very moved to see the destruction of the school where you were principal.
15:57I wonder, could you please show me up to the roof?
16:07320 people, including 71 of the school's young pupils,
16:11were directed to gather here by principal Kawamura.
16:20Kawamura sensei.
16:23I recognised this roof from the photographs on the day of the disaster.
16:27Was it something that you'd thought about, that you'd rehearsed, that you'd practised for?
16:49After the earthquake, were you thinking a tsunami is possible?
16:54After the earthquake, were you thinking a tsunami is possible?
17:02So you and the children must have seen the tsunami advancing from the ocean?
17:14It must have been a terrifying sight.
17:20Were you able to save all the children who were in the school that day?
17:49I'm very sorry. I'm very sorry about that.
17:53What happened to the school? I've seen photographs.
17:56Tell me about the destruction below us.
17:59I'm very excited.
18:03It was about a sea of states like this.
18:05By the way, the tsunami had been mapped to the university,
18:09I arrived at the airport at the airport.
18:12Therefore, all of the two bedrooms were washed out.
18:16Thanks to a well-organised evacuation
18:19and the strength of this four-storey building,
18:22everyone from the roof was airlifted to safety.
18:26But tragically, up to 200 people in the Arahama area
18:29lost their lives.
18:31What did you learn that day about human nature?
18:40It was many years ago now, but I congratulate you on your success
18:45in saving all those children that day.
19:02Hearing this harrowing story of the catastrophe,
19:05I try to draw some consolation from the fact that people obviously behaved
19:11so wonderfully with such great humanity towards each other.
19:16But then that raises the question,
19:19if I found myself caught up in such a situation,
19:23how well would I do?
19:31The land along this coast is no longer suitable for building,
19:35but in 2021, rail company JR East redeveloped 27 Acres
19:41as a pick-your-own fruit park for visitors and nearby restaurants.
19:48The school never reopened,
19:50but the community chose to preserve it as a museum and monument to the disaster.
20:13Back at Sendai Station,
20:15I'm catching an early morning train on the Senseke Line.
20:24My destination is the town of Shio Gama,
20:28just 10 miles east.
20:31Located on the Pacific coast,
20:33it has for a very long time been a major fishing port
20:36and remains one of the most important in Japan.
20:40Fish markets are held on the wharf side,
20:43and this morning chefs and wholesalers
20:45are gathering for the daily tuna auction.
20:53Just 15 years ago, the prized bluefin tuna
20:56was pushed to the brink of extinction by overfishing.
21:00But following the introduction of strict catch quotas
21:03and new protective legislation, the population has recovered dramatically.
21:09The Japanese people have a great taste for raw fish,
21:13which must, of course, be exquisitely fresh.
21:16The experts are inspecting the catch, ready to make their bids.
21:22The market's director is Nobuyuki Iwamoto.
21:27Hi, I'm Michael.
21:28I'm very impressed by the tuna here today.
21:31The bidders who are inspecting the fish,
21:34what kind of thing are they looking for?
21:51Today, bad weather has seriously reduced the catch.
21:58Where will the fish go to?
22:06Today, the bidders easily outnumber the tuna,
22:09which means it's going to be highly competitive.
22:17A lot of shouting.
22:37It's over.
22:40That's what they call an open outcry auction.
22:43I've never seen anything happen so fast.
22:45The largest of the fish, weighing in at around 100 kilograms,
22:50sold for almost £1,900 each.
22:53I guess the bidders don't know exactly what they're in for.
22:56Now they find out what quality they've bought,
23:00whether they've got a bargain or not.
23:07With the range of fresh fish and seafood for sale here on the harbour side,
23:12Shio Gama has more sushi restaurants per capita than anywhere in the country.
23:19Across the bay, close to the town centre,
23:22traditional restaurant Kameki Sushi has been serving diners for 80 years.
23:28I've been invited to a private tasting by master chef Masahiro Hoshi.
23:35Hoshi-san, konnichiwa.
23:38I'm Michael.
23:40Thank you very much.
23:42You have beautiful tuna.
23:43I've been to the fish market.
23:45I've seen the fresh fish arriving.
23:46Why do you get such good tuna in this part of Japan?
23:49This is where the salmon and the salmon are.
23:55It's very big.
23:57and they have a lot of fish and fish.
23:59They can eat a big fish with big fish,
23:59such as fish and fish.
24:01They can eat a big fish.
24:05The salmon, fish and fish.
24:05That is magnificent.
24:07This is a fish and fish.
24:12Ah, big eye tuna is different from blue fin tuna.
24:18I am entirely in your hands.
24:53Should I use top six?
25:08Wow, and to put it all in, in one go.
25:13Here it goes.
25:19That is wonderful.
25:21It just melts in the mouth.
25:26So this is now my middle piece.
25:29Same thing?
25:31All in one go?
25:31Yes, all in one go.
25:33Yes, all in one go.
25:34This is for the sauce.
25:35Please take a look at the sauce.
25:43A bit fatier.
25:45A wonderful piece of fish.
25:47I've been to many sushi bars around the world.
25:50And sometimes I've seen those plates on conveyor belts.
25:53And that now seems like a blasphemy.
25:57Because this is how it should be done.
26:00I'm eating a bit of a spoon.
26:04I'm having some of this.
26:05Here's a bite.
26:06I'm taking a bite.
26:06I'm having some food.
26:06It's been cooked for 10 days.
26:08It doesn't get at the same time.
26:11If you don't want to eat it, it's not just a good bite.
26:12If you don't want to eat it, it's easily gotten.
26:16A little drum roll now because I've reached the climax of my tuna tasting and it's
26:21extraordinary isn't it? I mean this could be a completely different fish. The color
26:25is different, the texture is different. The tuna has so many varied parts.
26:36Master, we have left the best for last. That is sensational. May I ask you how
26:42long have you been preparing this delicious fish for people?
26:49That's extraordinary. I'm so privileged to have enjoyed your skills today. Thank you so much.
27:13Cooperation is a vital part of Japanese culture. I sometimes find the consultative decision-making
27:21here a bit frustrating because it can be quite slow by comparison with the West. But there's
27:26no doubt that it binds people together. Japan is prone to volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis.
27:34And the greatest disaster that it's ever suffered was the Second World War. But it
27:42meets each catastrophe with stoicism and it speedily recovers with its people working in unison.
27:53Next time. Wow, look at this great big vat of soy beans. For food on an industrial scale,
28:00this feels small scale and manual. It's very charming. This is so beautiful, with great care.
28:10Ah, it's lovely. Japan is noted for its spectacular views, but surely that is one of the best.
28:39are the benefits.
28:42In fact, the oceanic world, which aims to Sh Abs 3 inatherjeven in naturalã·ãŒã³,
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