Yuriage was the most devastated part of Natori City in the follow up tsunami of the March 11th, 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. This seaside town lost over a thousand people with much of its fishing and agriculture industry, and countless households to the 8 meter high tsunami that struck 45 minutes after the biggest quake in Japan's history. Driving around the area you'll see flat areas where houses once stood but now there is just cement, as well as a few battered and bruised houses that survived the tsunami but seem to be beyond repair. Highlights of the area are Hiyoriyama, a man-made hill with a shrine once used as a lookout for incoming ships, and Yuriage Middle School, an evacuation area and now a memorial for the fourteen students that did not survive that day.
View pictures of nearby Arahama here. Or learn more about the affected areas outside Sendai here.
