In a garden on the edge of Otsuchi Northern Japan is a white phone booth. In spite of having no wired connection, and sitting in an area of perfect cellphone reception, the booth attracts 10,000 visitors a year.
This is the "Phone of the Wind" (風の電話). It has been on the hill since 2010, when Itaru Sasaki installed the white windowed box in his garden shortly after losing his cousin to cancer. It was a tribute to him but also the things Sasaki regretted not having said.
It was an eccentric gesture, but one that would find connection with other residents in Otsuchi when a shared tragedy struck. Just months later the port town would be hit by the 2011 Tōhoku Tsunami.
The low lying coastal region was decimated by the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and following Tunami. 800 were dead and over 600 people missing, never to be found. Even ten years on there are many mourners who have not found out what happened to their loved ones.
