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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?
04:31Here we go!
04:32The forest?
04:32The wind there is a joint, sort of hill and the river.
04:39This is a lot of water-to-stated water.
04:43I can t ask the river to eat.
04:47I can ask the water-to-stated water here.
04:49It is a lot of water-to-stated water.
04:52That's the variety!
04:52There is a lot of cold water-to-stated water.
04:56The water-to-stated water is always appropriate for rice.
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.
05:10Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
05:12Japanese onigiri.
05:14Onigiri. And two sorts.
05:20Beautiful. Thank you so much.
05:26Delicious.
05:27Very good.
05:29Is it a family business?
05:37Is it very hard work?
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.
06:19Because I think rice in Japan has always been a collective activity between different families and farmers.
06:27And it seems that it still is today.
06:29The 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.
07:01The produce from the field starts here. It comes into this machine where it shapes, shudders and separates.
07:12The machine sings to you when the bag is full. Lovely, beautiful, ready for market.
07:26After you.
07:32The paddy field has been drained, ready for the harvest.
07:35And after rain stopped work yesterday, Kyoichi's son Kyohei is making the most of the sunshine.
07:44I've been doing the agriculture for 47 years.
07:50I've been working in the 4th century, and I've been working in the 4th century.
07:53And my son of a son of a 5th century, I've been working in the 5th century.
07:57Can I ride?
07:59Oh yeah, I'd love to. Yeah, yeah.
08:03Hello, konnichiwa.
08:04Love to see you. Thank you very much.
08:08On. On. On. Yep.
08:13Yuckuri, yuckuri. There we go.
08:17Let's go.
08:28I never saw myself as a rice farmer, but I am enjoying this so much.
08:35Like that. Like that. Like that. Okay.
08:50Haven't quite got the hang of it yet.
08:57Very good. Thank you so much.
09:03Arigato. Oh, what do you think?
09:11I really enjoyed it. That was fantastic. Have I ruined your field?
09:14It's okay. It's okay. It's okay.
09:36Back at Fukushima Station, I rejoined the Shinkansen to continue my route north.
09:43It's okay.
09:45My head, I am sorry.
09:52It's okay. I have no idea.
09:53I am sorry.
09:55It's okay.
09:59It's okay.
10:00It's okay.
10:01It's okay.
10:02Yeah.
10:05I welcome you.
10:06It's okay.
10:06Oh, such a nice day.
10:08I'm sorry.
10:13on the 11th of March 2011 this region was devastated by an earthquake and more particularly
10:20by the tsunamis that followed since the epicenter was just offshore and the vertical and horizontal
10:27ructions of the pacific plate through the ocean into spasm and i recall this horrific event
10:36partly because one should remember that probably nearly 18 and a half thousand people were killed
10:41and also because the response from the public and the public authorities was impressive
10:49catastrophic flooding extended over 200 square miles and the fukushima daichi power station
10:57suffered the world's worst nuclear disaster since the chernobyl explosions in 1986.
11:11which found itself at the center of the disaster
11:32with a population of just over a million sendai is the largest city in the tohuku region
11:38and the capital of the miyagi prefecture it was the first to be hit by the tsunami
11:45and the region suffered the greatest loss of life as waves traveled as far as six miles inland
11:53to discover how the tragedy unfolded here on that notorious friday afternoon
11:58i'm meeting british expat luke happel who was working for the local government at the time
12:09luke we're standing here on what appears to be quite a new sea defense but the area here is very
12:13sparse in trees and buildings so this is the aftermath of the disaster absolutely the tsunami
12:20actually came about 10 kilometers inland from this part of the coast here and in places it was 10 meters
12:26high
12:26in some places 20 meters high and i think the highest recorded height was 40 meters what was your
12:32position at the time what was your role so i was in japan on a exchange teaching program looking after
12:40english teachers from various countries that were living across miyagi prefecture and part of that role
12:45was disaster preparedness and safety confirmation but this is not something we ever thought we'd have to
12:51do where were you on the day and how did it unfold so i was uh in my office when
12:57i first started to feel
12:58the the shaking i'd experienced many earthquakes but we started to realize that this one was different
13:04i sat under the desk with my helmet on you know i did think that the building would fall down
13:09any minute
13:10and that i would uh you know i would die um and i do i remember thinking of my you
13:15know my family um seconds
13:18passed and eventually it settled down and um we had a a moment of respite before we saw the the
13:24horrific
13:25footage of the of the tsunami uh coming in uh on the on the news how much later was the
13:31water after the
13:32quake so it uh varies depending on which part of the prefecture but it was anything between 10 and 30
13:37minutes um we had a very big earthquake on the wednesday before nothing happened then there was no tsunami
13:43so many people having initially evacuated uh were then caught up by the wave trying to get home and
13:49what became of your colleagues we weren't directly affected by the wave but we did lose one of our
13:56our colleagues taylor anderson in ishinomaki prefecture we spent the entire first night trying to get
14:03through to people she remained missing for about a week so we then made the decision that we would
14:08uh go to the stricken area directly to look for her and what we found there was just you know
14:14unimaginable destruction i got some photos here this is a taxi just hurled hurled exactly that's
14:22exactly the right word the power of the waves bending metal everything piled up here just smashed and
14:29absolutely oh ghastly images and terrible memories yeah you don't live in this area anymore so when you
14:37return um how do you feel i have complicated feelings because i'm very happy to come back
14:42but also it reminds me of those challenges that i had i was only planning to be here for two
14:48years
14:49i i had this experience and i knew that i had to stay to to help that led me to
14:55do volunteering in
14:56mental health and it really did change the course of my life i feel very privileged to have spoken to
15:01thank you thank you very much this stretch of coast was once the neighborhood of arahama with 800 houses
15:13and over 2 000 residents its former junior school just 700 meters from the shoreline was one of the few
15:20buildings left standing that day as the tsunami approached pupils teachers and local residents took
15:29refuge on its roof the man in charge of their safety that day was school principal takao kawamura
15:40kawamura sensei hello michael portillo what an honor i'm very moved to see the destruction of
15:51the school of the school where you were principal i wonder could you please show me up to the roof
16:02thank you
16:07320 people including 71 of the school's young pupils were directed to gather here by principal kawamura
16:20kawamura
16:21i recognized this roof from the photographs on the day of the disaster was it something that you thought
16:29about that you've rehearsed that you've practiced forこの学校は仙台で唯一津波の避難訓練をしていた
16:49学校です指針があった後私は4階の教室に避難するように指示を出しましたその後屋上に上がってまいりました
16:49after the earthquake were you thinking the tsunami is possible指針があった時すぐに津波という意識はありませんでしたでも何かが起こるというふうに思っていました
17:02so you and the children must have seen the tsunami advancing from the ocean津波はどんどんどんどん高くなったのでここ屋上まで避難をしてきたというわけです
17:14it must have been a terrifying sight
17:33それまで子供たちの家などがたくさんあったわけですがあっという間に一軒の家もなくなり海の底のような様子になってしまいましたもちろんそこに住んでいたお父さんやお母さんも何かがあったらどうしようか心配したはずです
17:34were you able to save all the children who were in the school that day
17:48多くの子供は助かりましたただ一人お母さんと自宅に戻る途中に亡くなった子供が一人います
17:49i'm very sorry very sorry about that what happened to the school i've seen photographs tell me about the destruction
17:58below us
18:06私たちの学校の周りはなんと海になってしまいました津波は4
18:15.6mの高さでこの学校に到着しましたしたがって2階の廊下もすべて水浸しです
18:16thanks to a well-organized evacuation and the strength of this four-story building everyone from
18:23the roof was airlifted to safety
18:25but tragically up to 200 people in the arahama area lost their lives
18:31what did you learn that day about human nature
18:34it was many years ago now but i congratulate you on your success in saving all those children that day
19:01you know
19:03hearing this harrowing story of the catastrophe
19:06i try to draw some consolation from the fact that people obviously behaved
19:12so wonderfully with such great humanity towards each other
19:16but then that raises the question
19:18if i found myself caught up in such a situation how well would i do
19:32the 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
19:49the school never reopened but the community chose to preserve it as a museum
19:54and monument to the disaster
20:13as a museum
20:14back at sendai station i'm catching an early morning train on the senseki line
20:24my destination is the town of shio gama just 10 miles east
20:30located on the pacific coast it has for a very long time been a major fishing port
20:36and remains one of the most important in japan fish markets are held on the wharf side
20:42and this morning chefs and wholesalers are gathering for the daily tuna auction
20:52just 15 years ago the prized bluefin tuna was 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
21:10the japanese people have a great taste for raw fish which must of course be exquisitely fresh
21:17the experts are inspecting the catch ready to make their bids
21:22the market's director is nobuyuki iwamoto
21:27i'm michael i'm very impressed by the tuna here today
21:30the bidders who are inspecting the fish what kind of thing are they looking for
21:49you know
21:50today bad weather has seriously reduced the catch
21:59Where will the fish go to?
22:06Today, the bidders easily outnumber the tuna,
22:09which means it's going to be highly competitive.
22:17Not a 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.
22:57Now 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 harbourside,
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.
23:36Konnichiwa.
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?
23:56Oh, the Big Eye Tuna is different from blue fin tuna.
24:36I'm entirely in your hands.
24:37First of all, it's the most delicious part of the red meat.
24:44It's called a carbon-like salt.
24:49I'm going to put it on the fish on top of the fish.
24:54The sushi is a proper way to eat with your hands.
24:58When you eat with your hands, you can get a lot of information on your hands.
25:03You can eat with your hands.
25:08Wow.
25:09I'm going to put it all in, in one go.
25:13Here it goes.
25:19That is wonderful.
25:21It just melts in the mouth.
25:23I'm going to put it all in, in one go.
25:26So this is now my middle piece.
25:29Same thing?
25:31Yes.
25:31All in one go?
25:32Yes.
25:32Yes, all in one go.
25:34Please eat with your hands.
25:35Please eat with your hands.
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.
25:58Because this is how it should be done.
26:05And it's an easy thing.
26:08This is A little drumroll now because I've reached the climax of my tuna tasting.
26:21And it's extraordinary isn't it?
26:22I mean this could be a completely different fish.
26:24The colour is different, the texture is different.
26:27The tuna has so many varied parts.
26:36Master we have left the best for last that is sensational may I ask you how long have you
26:42been preparing this delicious fish for people that's extraordinary I'm I'm so privileged
26:52to 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 no
27:27doubt that it binds people together Japan is prone to volcanoes earthquakes and tsunamis and the
27:36greatest disaster that it's ever suffered was the Second World War but it meets each catastrophe
27:43with stoicism and it speedily recovers with its people working in unison next time wow look at
27:55this great big vat of soybeans for food on an industrial scale this feels small scale a manual it's very
28:03charming this is so beautiful with great care ah it's lovely Japan is noted for its spectacular views
28:15but surely that is one of the best
28:47so you
28:50you
28:50you
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