MINAMI-SANRIKU, Miyagi Prefecture--After her buoy survived a 5,000-kilometer journey across the Pacific, Sakiko Miura, 64, plans to keep it safely indoors when her restaurant reopens this spring.
MINAMI-SANRIKU, Miyagi Prefecture--After her buoy survived a 5,000-kilometer journey across the Pacific, Sakiko Miura, 64, plans to keep it safely indoors when her restaurant reopens this spring.
The buoy, which is marked with the Japanese character "kei," was one of three she had used as the sign for her restaurant Keimeimaru before they were swept away by the March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.
Miura lost both her business, which she had operated for 11 years, and her home in the disaster. But the "kei" buoy was found on Middleton Island in the Gulf of Alaska and returned to her last June.
Ten months later, Miura is now busy preparing to reopen the restaurant where her home once stood. Although there were about 80 households in the hamlet where Miura lived, almost no sign remains of the past. The entire area has been designated as unsuitable for residential living.
Despite this challenge, Miura scrambled to find 10 million yen ($102,000) to start over.
"I decided to give the restaurant another try specifically because it was the 'kei' buoy that returned," she said.
When she looks at the "kei" buoy, Miura said, "I feel my husband is saying to me 'Why don't you try doing it a while longer?'"
Keimeimaru was originally the name of the fishing boat used by her husband, Keigo, a fisherman who died 32 years ago when he was only 37. The boat's name was created by taking a character each from Keigo and Akihiro, the Miura's oldest son, now 44.
After Keigo died, Miura raised four children by herself, working at restaurants and other jobs.
She fulfilled her long-held dream of attending a correspondence course for senior high school in her mid-40s. After graduating, she opened the restaurant in 1999 next to her home.
Miura now lives with her 91-year-old mother in temporary housing. Although Akihiro once also worked as a fisherman, he has changed jobs, so Miura will not be able to get fresh fish as she once used to.
She plans to run the restaurant as she did before the natural disaster, only serving those who make reservations beforehand so she can provide the freshest ingredients. She hopes those in urban areas who have provided assistance in the past will also come and spend time "as though they were returning to their own hometown."
Miura, who also works as a guide to explain to tourists about the devastation brought by the disasters, plans to tell her restaurant guests about the dangers of tsunami.