For years, northeastern Japan has been known for its quality candy, sake, and seafood, but many businesses in these industries came close to collapse after the massive earthquake and tsunami that followed five years ago.

Back in 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake struck the Tohoku coast, triggering a devastating tsunami that claimed the lives of 17,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more. It also triggered the core meltdown of the nuclear reactors at Dai Ichi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima.

I am currently exploring Japan and documenting the social impact of nuclear technology. However, on the fifth anniversary of the tsunami, I wanted to explore a place far from the broken reactors of Fukushima. So I decided to go to