National Post

Japanese teen’s soccer ball found in Alaska after tsunami swept it out to sea
Retrieving a lost soccer ball is standard fare for many teenagers, but one Japanese schoolboy is getting his ball back all the way from Alaska, where it drifted following last year’s tsunami.

Misaki Murakami, 16, lost his house and all its contents when the massive waves of last March crushed his hometown of Rikuzentakata in Japan’s northeast.

But now, thanks to an observant beachcomber in the Gulf of Alaska, he is set to have his soccer ball returned to him, identified by the “good luck” messages scrawled on it by former schoolmates. (Photo: REUTERS/NOAA/David Baxter)