Rikuzentakata Onsen

Rikuzentakata Onsen is found in Rikuzentakata, an Iwate coastal city that experienced perhaps the most complete destruction of any municipality during the 2011 Tōhoku tsunami, with virtually the entire city center — including historic buildings, neighborhoods, and a beloved coastal pine forest of 70,000 trees — swept away by waves reaching up to 15 meters in height, leaving behind a landscape of devastation that shocked the world. From this almost total destruction emerged one of the most powerful symbols of Japanese resilience: the 'Miracle Pine,' a single survivor from the 70,000-tree coastal forest, preserved and displayed as a monument to both the tragedy and the community's determination to rebuild, even as the tree itself eventually died and was preserved artificially as a permanent memorial. The onsen here provide mineral bathing in a city whose rebuilding process — including the massive earthmoving project that raised the entire city level by meters — has become one of post-disaster urban reconstruction's most ambitious and closely watched examples in modern history.