RIKUZEN-TAKATA, Iwate--The shout came out in Osaka dialect. "Bring your wheelchair, or any other wheeled item for fixing if it's broken!" said a man sitting in front of a shelter set up at Daiichi (No. 1) Middle School in Rikuzen-Takata.

A bicycle shop owner from Suminoe Ward, Osaka, Norio Eto, 66, was working as a volunteer at the shelter to repair bicycles and other wheeled devices in the quake- and tsunami-hit city.

He had traveled more than 1,000 kilometers by car to get there.

Much rubble and debris still litters the town and public transportation systems are yet to be fully restored. Bicycles are a vital means of transportation for people in the city.

This is not Eto's first visit to the disaster-stricken region. From March 19 to 22, he visited Sendai and repaired bicycles at shelters and other locations until gasoline shortages forced him back to Osaka. He then came to Rikuzen-Takata to help.