Hello,
Maurice here.
I am 20 years old and come from Germany. I decided to use my gap year between University and Gymnasium for traveling Japan. A good friend recommended me to come with him to Onagawa.
The architecture of Onagawa is really good looking which is to me unusual because fast rebuild towns tend to look provisional due to the fast construction speed. But Onagawa seems to have a different development.
The main onsen of Onagawa is located in the main station of the town. The location is uncommon for an onsen but the onsen itself has without any doubt a good quality. It is as well a very practical location due to the very central location. Additionally travels have faster access to the onsen. The whole architecture of the train station itself is astonishing. Most of the building is used for the onsen meanwhile the original purpose of the location is not being changed; the station has everything what a small station needs: A room where passengers can wait as well as a roof for the platform; It is just a normal train station. But on the other hand the building is also being used for the onsen to save resources which is to me a very smart move.
Across the whole town you can see that everything is being well organised. The result is that buildings are fast built but on the other hand good looking and functional. For instance there is a big wagon hotel which has only been built for volunteers and engineers who helped Onagawa to be rebuilt. This project required close corporation of private market and the government. It was only possible to realise this project with a very good organisation structure which Onagwa seems to have. These are only some samples and I am not long enough here to see every particular feature of Onagawa but I am looking forward to learn more about it.
