Tsunami-destroyed pub reopens outdoors with help from locals, volunteers (JAPAN)

[AsahinaKimi]

Hiromi Kashiwazaki, second from right, shares drinks with customers at his outdoor pub in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on July 25. (Mainichi)

OTSUCHI, Iwate -- A pub manager who lost his establishment when the March 11 tsunami struck has now reopened outdoors with help from volunteers and the community.

"It will take time until I get enough financial support to rebuild, but in the meantime I wanted to make a place where people could gather this summer," says the pub manager, 50-year-old Hiromi Kashiwazaki.

The outdoor version of the pub, called Izakaya Don, is in a central district of Otsuchi that was hit hard by the tsunami. The pre-disaster pub was about 1.5 kilometers away, but both it and Kashiwazaki's house were destroyed on March 11.

Izakaya Don's reopening was made possible after a meeting between Kashiwazaki and a University of Tokyo volunteer team at the end of May. Katsushi Nagumo, a 54-year-old Tokyo designer, began making plans for outdoor stands that would be used at the pub, and with Kashiwazaki had the help of local carpenters and volunteer students in building the stands.

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http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110730p2a00m0na006000c.html
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