YAMADA, Iwate -- Nine years after Yamada Port in Iwate Prefecture was destroyed by the Tohoku disaster, a new European-style bar has opened where fishermen can enjoy an early-morning meal.
Named Bihan Bal, the bar on Tuesday began offering a nighttime menu of wine and dishes made with foodstuffs caught or harvested in the region. For fishermen and others who visit in the early mornings, it serves meal sets and soba noodles from 6 a.m.
The March 2011 tsunami and a subsequent fire destroyed Yamada Port and the heart of Yamada town. Before then, a soba shop had been located in a corner of a fisheries processing center within the port, filling the stomachs of hungry fishermen who start working in the early morning.
The bar is run by the Bihan supermarket that operated the processing center. People who work at the port had been lamenting that there were few places that serve breakfast in the restored port and town, and the supermarket decided to open the bar to accomodate them.
"People at the port have an early start. It's great that I can have a quick meal before work," a 30-year-old employee at a fisheries processing center said.
A Bihan spokesperson said, "I hope this bar will become a place where young people can meet and discuss the future of the town."
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