I spent 4 months, from July to November, in Japan for disaster relief with All Hands Volunteers after the massive earthquake and resulted tsunami from March 11th, 2011.
The stories
I have, the things I've seen, the conversations I have had, and the
people I have met... It's was the most whirlwind combination of
happiness, mental breakdowns, no sleep, getting to know people, and
living volunteer life I have ever had... that. is certain.
My heart still aches and I would like to share everything with you.
(
Quick reference: Prior to this experience, I lived and studied in Tokyo twice and Sendai for summer program. I can speak Japanese very well, along with understanding the culture. I've traveled throughout the country and have a wide range of experiences that I will forever treasure in my memory!)
I arrived in Ofunato (大船渡), a small town on the coast of Iwate Prefecture
in Northern Japan. We had a base called the Sakari Base, within an old
electronic store that had been gutted by our volunteer group. The
tsunami waters had reached up to a meter in our area we were staying.
(Our base before and after some painting. It was painted over a couple more times as well)
(The town was pretty dark, and they had to repave the street our base was on)
While, yes, a lot of the stores were not opened when I first arrived. Plus most of the ones near the bay area were destroyed... As time went on stores started to open up and more people on the streets, what a wonderful site to see!
Within All Hands, I must admit, I have never met so many genuinely nice
people in my entire life. Everyone was there to help, whether they were
Japanese or coming from abroad that had no connection what-so-ever with
Japan. Everyone was just so wonderful.
(Our work board where we'd sign up for our job for the next day... I usually didn't need to sign up because I was a leader most of the time.)
(my sleeping bunk, very tiny!)
(Hanging out in our common area)
(During Tanabata)
Our sleeping arrangements happened to be bunk beds on the 2nd floor.
In July there were about 50-60 people staying. Numbers went up and down
since people had different periods of stay. I was certainly one of the
longest periods of stay. The average was 2 weeks. We were given 3 meals a
day, except Tuesday our day off, for our volunteer work. 6 days a week
was certainly rough, but worth it.
After about 10 days I ended up becoming a Team Leader and
translator for different projects we did. Jobs consisted of: debris removal,
ditch digging, rice field clean up, park rehabilitation, valuable sorting,
gutting houses, highway clean up, and cleaning photos to name a few. I was a Team Leader for rice
field clean up, photo cleaning, and valuable sorting.
(Me with my binder going to our work site)
Our staff made a team leader board that consisted of all the team leaders and their "descriptions"... This was mine:
"This New Jersian lady does exactly what she says on the tin – she cleans photos. When she’s not busting a groove in the car park (she likes dancing, a lot), you can find this ghetto lady up in the beautiful hills of Rikuzentakata, helping Project Tohoku’s efforts in re-connecting people with their lost memories.
WARNING: Her meeting notes are one of a kind. Expect multiple arm movements, crying, and an indefinite ending, normally punctuated by afore mentioned arm movements."
(We would have our daily meetings after dinner, each team leader would give a summary of what they did for the day. Every time I talked about my teams day, I always said "Hi, I'm Wynne, We clean photos!" with some strange hand waving motion. Most of the time, I was a horrible speaker, I would trail off about random topics of the day and move my arms around and at the end I would usually forget what I was talking about and slowly start to sink back down into my sitting position or make some strange awkward pose... yes. yes I know...)
Some photos from Rikuzentakata:
(Someone planted flowers along the edges of the coastal areas)
(This is Takata in Rikuzentakata. This part of rikuzentakata was absolutely destroyed. There's barely anything left, only the big buildings like the hotel, hospital, and high school were left standing)
(This area of Rikuzentakata was hit by both sides by the tsunami and as they met in the middle, the waters obliterated everything. There was absolutely nothing left. Not even the bases of buildings, you couldn't tell there was ever a town there...)
(The bay area in Ofunato. Many people put encouraging signs in areas that were badly hit)
My bus ride every morning and evening to and from work was through 2
towns usually, Ofunato and Rikuzentaka (陸前高田). I saw an unimaginable amount of
debris and destruction from the tsunami. It was July when I arrived and
the tsunami was in March; there was THAT much still remaining at the
time, it looked as if nothing had been done. There are towns that had
been absolutely destoryed. NOTHING is left... absolutely nothing. It was
the most heartbreaking thing I was ever forced to see.
(Boat carried more than a mile from the bay area, stuck in front of someone's house.)
DEBRIS REMOVAL and DITCH DIGGING (Rikuzentakata):
(searching through the rice fields to find debris and other items)
(ditch digging to drain water.)
(Team Photos, the blue shirts are people from Habitat for Humanity Japan who came to help us)
(A cleaned ditch)
(Rain or shine, we worked!)
When I team lead rice fields, our first day was complete with thunderstorms in the morning, followed by extreme heat at noon where most of my team got burnt, back to down pour and more thunderstorms... what a day! The mountains were misty and pretty though. We saw lightening strike the ground about 10 times! Pretty cool... however hold metal shovels above our heads in a middle of a ditch in a big open field? Not so safe...
(the rice fields where we worked)
(After the thunderstorm!)
(Piles of debris were collected and put into sections, these piles ended up being several stories high)
There was just so much, I wish I could explain the things I saw and the stories I heard and how devastating everything was. It was endless. The pain and suffering was everywhere. As Volunteers, we took on tasks that many of the Japanese couldn't do because it was so traumatizing... Having to go through debris to find belongs, sorting them, cleaning them, and trying to return them to their owners? We had such a heavy burden on our shoulders.
I'm proud of the work I was able to do for these people.
CHILD CARE DAY (Ofunato):
I went to a Elementary school as a project we had where we played with children and had them see a real life 外人 (foreigner). As I played with a couple children they asked me with all honesty, "Why do you speak English?" I laughed a replied, "Because I am from America!" they would look at each other and said, "But you speak Japanese..." I replied, "Yes, yes I do!" to their response of, "So Why do you speak English??" haha... they were too adorable, they honestly could not comprehend why I could speak 2 languages!
(Me drawing with the kids)
HIGHWAY CLEAN UP and DITCH DIGGING (Ofunato):
(They were using the yards of the elementary, middle, high schools near the bay area for debris dumping... I was told all the child from each schools were safe and ran to cover in the mountains that were near their schools.)
(More piles)
(Some cleaned highway ditches all cleaned up!)
As a group, we cleaned out miles upon miles of ditches for draining systems next to the highways and rice fields. People were so thankful, they would bring out little treats and drinks for us, especially during the summer, since it was so hot!
I worked at a fish factory for a couple days on the bay area coast. We were cleaning up the parking lot from debris and mud so that the workers could park their cars and return to work there.
The things we would find... it was shocking. There were so much personal belongings and there were no houses in the general area. It was all from the backwash of the tsunami waters returning to the ocean. I remember finding a little stuffed animal underneath some of the blocks I was moving. We filled tons of bags with debris and broken materials. You can see in the second picture how many bags were being filled.
(The clean parking lot)
While I was working on highway clean up one time, we had a significant earthquake. We stood around waiting to see if the tsunami alarm would go off, it did not, but a cop car came around and told us to get to higher ground. We climbed the mountain side a bit and talked to some locals, who pointed out to us that it was okay and there was no need for worry. These types of earthquakes came quite frequently, even in July, the aftershocks were pretty significant. We had some pretty big earthquakes about once a week for some time.
I am happy to say that Japan is pretty much earthquake proof, so not much damage occurs.
GUTTING and CLEANING HOUSES (Ofunato):
(gutting, the ladies were sent to the kitchen... literally... haha)
Gutting houses was personal and rewarding. We'd have discussions with the owner, who told us what needed to be gutted and removed. We obliged and with care did what needed to be done. We'd always receive snacks from the owners, which was lovely. Little treats for our work!
PARK REHABILITATION (Ofunato):
Park Rehabilitation was my first job when I arrived. There was a park near out base that was messy for the tsunami waters that flooded the area. We took up the project, weeding and re-soiling for planting, put in new fences, new playground equipment, the works!
I talk about the Park later in this entry!
PHOTO CLEANING and SALVAGE (Rikuzentakata and briefly Yamada):
I worked in a building that had our photo cleaning project and sorting of items found in the tsunami. This building when we first worked on it was a building of man made mold disaster. This mold and bacteria was forming from all the items keep in there that weren't cleaned and and sorted yet. You couldn't go in this room without a respirator and stay in there for more than 20 minutes, you'd start getting dizzy. It was bad. There were piles and piles of boxes of unknown items. When I left, we had cleaned the building out so there was no more mold. We sorted all the items into categories and placed them into separate areas, and we cleaned more than 100,000 photos. Out of those photos over 400 albums were found and returned to their owners.
Our other main job we had in Rikuzentakata was the photo cleaning project. The bus ride to and from the モビリア (
Mobiria) was about 30 or so minutes long. It was always a hard bus ride to see all the devastation.. Mobiria was originally used as a camp ground site. After the tsunami they took all the empty spaces and built temporary housing:
They built a lot and they all come with heat, electricity, and they are set in a beautiful mountain side. I am glad that these people could have places like this, especially because many were stuck in evacuation centers for a good 5 months. I think these temporary houses opened in the beginning of July. These houses are pretty small and to fit a whole family in them? These poor people
(From the top of Mobiria, you can see everything is barren.)
Before we worked in
Mobiria, we were on the other side of the mountain under tents at the 伝承館 (denshoukan/carpenter house) which was not the best situation to clean photos. The wind was
very strong and the tents would start to blow over. My hands would be in a tub cleaning photos and I'd have to stick my leg out to grab the edge of the tent so it wouldn't blow away! We also had a limited amount of water to clean the photos with and the water would get dirty very quickly from all the mud we were cleaning off.
(Working under tents at the Denshoukan)
I remember meeting one of the women who worked at the Denshoukan and she brought out huge panorama photos of many areas of the town of Rikuzenkataka. She then would explain how she watched from a top the mountain as the tsunami destoryed all the areas below. It was so sad how she explained everything with the pictures, showing what was left out of the pictures... which was nothing.
Since that wasn't the ideal space for working, we soon after moved to working at the Mobiria.
(Me working and team leading)
(volunteers working)
(cleaned photos hanging on racks to dry)
(putting cleaned photos into albums)
(Endless drying rakes for photos found)
While photo cleaning, there were 6 young local volunteers that
would help out once in a while. 4 out of the 6 had lost their homes in the
tsunami. One girl, Kana, had been looking for her photos and with pain in her
eyes said that she was struggling. As time went by her smile started to appear
more and more on her face. That smile I'll never forget. She also loved hip hop
and she was always excited whenever I showed her some dance moves. Another girl, Mizuki, had lost her home, some of her family and friends... she lost so much. I personally cleaned some of her photos that she found and I
returned them to her. She couldn't be more thankful and was just so happy!
The last day of work, I approached Mizuki and told her that All Hands work was ending
and it was my last day. She looked stern and thought for a moment... She then
reached into her pocket and pulled out her cellphone. She took the phone charm that was hanging off her phone and handed it to me. It said 'Rikuzentaka' and 'Bond' in bigger
kanji. She looked up at me and said, "When the tsunami happened, I bought
this to keep myself strong. Even though I lost many of my friends and
family, I look at the photos that you cleaned for me and it gives me hope. It
has been a had struggle, but now I know that I am okay. I want you to have this
because we have a bond." She then looked up at me and smiled. Holding tears
back, I grabbed my wallet and pulled out a folded up heart that I made out
of an American dollar bill. I told her that "the day the tsunami happened I folded that heart
to send my love out to Japan, since I couldn't be there to help at the
time. I give this to you, my love. I will never forget you."
I will never forget this place and the work I've done here.
(Me on break)
(Up in the mountains we had a lot of rain storms...)
(This is a cover of one of the new empty albums we used to put the photos we cleaned in... Yes. If I ever hear Vegetable and Friends in the same sentence, this is what I think of!! There were 5 different kinds with different vegetables on them... hahaha)
We had a couple come to photo cleaning one day looking for pictures of their family. They found thousands upon thousands of their daughters and their family. They have 2 daughters and 1 had died in the tsunami. I was heartbroken as the wife pointed out to me, with a shaky finger, pictures of her daughter.
I told her that I would remember her face and if I found anymore I would let them know. With tears in their eyes, they thanked me and bowed lowly. After they left, I turned around and just bailed my eyes out. The pain in their eyes... I will never forget that.
She was in high school when the tsunami came and took her and 22 others, mostly teammates on her swim team, away. I'm glad that I was able to give them back a precious piece of their daughter.
It was terrifying doing the photo project at times. I remember specifically looking at this girl's photos when she was about 6 years old and thinking to myself
She is just too adorable, (they were professional pictures and it was for a children's holiday where she was dressed in kimono), I remember those photos, only to find out a few days later that she had died. It's incredibly heartbreaking to hold a photo in your hand and wonder if they are dead or alive...
There was another story of a worker I knew at Mobiria, where we had our photo cleaning. He would come by once and a while to see how we were doing. One day he saw a picture and pointed out it was his sister! and then pointed our that it was photos from her husband's grandmother. She was 90 years old and her house was washed away in the tsunami while she was inside it! She survived! The next day the sister came by and checked the photos and then brought them back to her grandmother. The day after the grandmother came by and gave our group some apples and thanked us over and over again. She said she was so happy to find all these photos of her and her friends and she said, I never forget this, 'Now I can look at these photos and smile. I am very old, but I now have the will to keep living! Thank you!' She was so sweet and such a wonderful soul that woman had!
I remember one day working at the photo cleaning, 2 ladies came into the storage unit. An older women was looking for pictures of her daughter's wedding. She was desperate. She begged me to find more photos of her daughter, since she said she only found one in the albums that we had cleaned already. I will never forget her begging for those pictures. The Japanese are so composed, calm, and collected all of the time, especially the elderly. To see this women in an almost panic was so upsetting. I tried to explain to her just how many photos we still haven't gone through and that there is still a possibility that her daughter's photos are still in the storage unit. I will never forget her face as she looked at me with deep sadness and said 'Thank you' It was so sad...
Storage and Salvage pictures:
I spent many a day in this building, from the cleaning and sorting. I studied every detail of each item and every edge of the building. It was a never ending job... even in November, right before I left, the police and other volunteer groups were bring in items that were STILL being found in debris, mud, and waters...This is mainly because Rikuzentakata was just completely destroyed by this tsunami. Compared to Ofunato, that town is still in a bad state. The people in Ofunato are beginning to smile and build again, while most people in Rikuzentakata were still struggling...).
(The famous last standing tree in Rikuzentakata with surrounding area that used to be all forest and trees is now all gone.)
While working at photo cleaning, we work in a temporary housing unit, many people stay by to see what we are doing, especially since there's random foreigners. One day, an old man stopped by and wanted to look at some of the cleaned photos. I gave him the box and helped me pick out a few albums to look at. The first album he picked up he recognized his friend in an old family portrait, about 30 years old. The photo contained 2 twin babies, mother, father, grandmother, and grandfather. He looked up at me and said, "This is important." I nodded in understanding, but he repeated, "this is so important". He then took a shaking finger and pointed toward, one of the twin babies, the mother, the father, and the grandfather. He then looked back at me with sad eyes and said, "These 4 died in the tsunami. This is so important." I fought back tears as I nodded my head and said, "Yes, this is so important." The man than smiled, pulled out his phone and called someone. It was the other twin baby in the photo. He talked for a couple minutes with her and then hung up the phone. He then looked back at me with a big smile and said, "She is so happy. She is so very happy."
(sorting of items)
(sink area)
Yamada photo cleaning:
(We traveled up to Yamada a few times to help with their photo cleaning processes. Here's the building we worked in filled with boxes and hanging photos)
(Me with Nozomi, while her brother Souta takes a picture of us with his dad's camera at Mobiria)
When I was working at the photo cleaning in Rikuzentaka I met a couple who had 2 children, a little boy and a baby girl. The wife let me hold their baby girl as she talked to me about March 11th. She said that she was 8 months pregnant and she left her home with her son in their car thinking that they would be able to come back to their home, since their home wasn't too close to the coast. Instead it was completely wiped away in the tsunami. The husband was at work near the coast, but left his work in time to avoid the tsunami waters. The
next day the wife gave birth to their baby girl and named her Nozomi, which means Hope. I looked down at their baby girl and she looked up at me and smiled. She was beautiful and that is an absolute inspiring and beautiful story that this child stands for.
I adore this picture.
(She was quite fascinated by my All Hands Volunteer bracelet and I let her chew on it haha. I then gave it to her.)
(In the storage unit. This room was filled to the ceiling with items found. I couldn't even get into the room for most of the time I was there. 4 months later, not only could we access the room, but we sorted and cleaned most of the items inside, on the floor are the school bags we cleaned for the children who lost them in the tsunami.)
(On the left, the sorting, middle drying photos and albums before cleaning, and on the right the cleaning... in the same building)
I miss working there. When the project was over and we had our last day at the park opening, I actually went back the day after to Mobiria to finish up some things for the photo project. I was one of the few people that took the time outside of work to do things. It was very important for me to do so.
(That's me in the corning squatting down in front of what used to be part of Rikuzentakata, I was probably crying like usual... my friend shot this picture for me.)
I forget if I mentioned that I was in the news... a lot. Not only in Japan, many newspapers and news stations would come stop by Mobiria for the photo project fairly often and quite randomly at that matter. Me, being the leader and translator, I got to talk with them on a daily basis. Most of the time it was kind of like a
SURPRISE, we will film you today! or as newspapers filed in they would first stare at me in complete shock with a ... "
you... you speak Japanese?" and quickly followed by "
Good! Now we can interview you!" NHK, ABC, and national geographic even came to take pictures of us! I think I was only interviewed once in English, haha... and Here's the link to the ABC one!
This video is about the photo project, I'm talking a little towards the end, but you can see me in the background. Becci, who was the starter of the photo project, is the one being interviewed. I led the ABC crew around the building and giving them details about what we do and the other things we find.
I wasn't just in the newspaper for volunteering, I was also interviewed for dancing. So I became pretty famous around town! (^_^) It's funny how most of the time when these news programs reports about the volunteer work I never saw it. I had many people around the town say "
I saw you on TV!" and usually I go "
Huh? What? When?" I never got to see them on the air!!
(Old newpaper article describing destruction from a tsunami in the 1960's)
While I was working at photo cleaning, I came across many interesting and intriguing things that used to be people's belongings. One album I found was numerous amount of newspaper articles taking about the effect of the 1960 tsunami on Ofunato's harbor. In this newspaper clipping, like many others, The top left picture shows the disaster from the 1960 and the bottom right pictures shows the same area and how they rebuilt in as of 2008... Of course, 3 years later that same area was completely destroyed again. The only things really standing is the told blue "Maiya" tower above the building. I don't have a close picture of what it looks like now because I never got close to that area, since it was fairly close to the coast.
This was the library people could come and look through all the photos we cleaned for them. I pretty much remember every single album thanks to my photographic memory.
Yes. Most of them were done by my team I lead.
(We were addicted to jenga for a period of time at All Hands, aaaand that's some sake next to me!)
As volunteers, after our work was done for the day, we usually relaxed, hung around either with each other or locals, I took up dance lessons, we drank to forget our worries, played games for humor, updated our facebooks and blogs.
(Dance photo)
Trip up and back from Yamada, (the coastline):
(It's strange being in such an area that is so beautiful yet suffered so greatly from a natural disaster. These 2 shots are from the same area with the giant tsunami walls toppled over. You angle the camera in a slightly different way and you can't tell that I'm standing in a disaster area...)
I want to mention a little about the tsunami walls that Japan sets up all around their coastlines. These are to help with protecting from an impact from a category 2 or lower tsunami. The tsunami back in March was a category 1... therefore, there was nothing that could be done. It was a once in a thousand years type of tsunami.
(This is part of a tsunami wall, these blocks are HUGE pieces of concrete)
(They were destroyed and pushed over fairly quickly by the rushing waters)
(It's a stuffed dog, dirty and laying in the sand. This area along the coast line near Yamada still had a ton of debris around. This was taken in November.)
Those images I can never get out of my head, they are quite haunting in a way. I knew that even after 4 months of volunteer work, in the bigger picture it looked like we accomplished little to nothing. When I would have photo cleaning in Yamada, a town 2 hours north of Ofunato, our drive consisted all along the coast and you really start to get a sense of just how much was damaged. It is endless...
(An apartment building for teachers, the high school is in the background in the left. The high school is a good 2 miles away from the coast.)
Some pictures from Rikuzentakata:
(You can see the collapsed roof of a house, this roof was not originally from that area.)
(When it rains, Rikuzentakata gets completely flooded in areas, since the whole island sunk, much of what was the town now is consumed by water in most cases)
(There was a town here... there was a whole town here and it was wiped off the map... Very sad)
I interacted with the locals constantly, especially because I could speak
Japanese, (apparently so incredibly well that locals were convinced
I was half Japanese at the very least, yay confidence booster!) The
stories I had heard of people and what happened to them on that March
11th day were... they left me speechless. There were so many people
who had lost their families, their homes, their friends, their
businesses...
everything. It's hard to watch on TV the disaster that
occurred, but to see the aftermath and hear their stories in first person... it was so
heartbreaking.
(Don't give up Iwate Prefecture)
(Don't give up Ofunato)
I loved seeing these signs all through the towns. Giving the people some hope!
It was such a big disaster area, so much was
destroyed and so many people were in pain, you could see it in their
eyes, you could hear it in their voices when they spoke. It gave me the courage to keep working for these people. I wanted to help.
More pictures from Rikuzentakata:
(5 story apartment building... 4 stories high the wave was...)
Ofunato:
(Flowers in bloom)
I had 3 really good local friends while volunteering. We would get
together and have girl night often and talk about anything and
everything. The last night before I left Ofunato, they talked to me
about how happy they were to have someone like me there. They said it
was so hard to talk about their struggles with other local Japanese,
since they were lucky enough to still have their houses and in
comparison to others, were much better off from the disaster than others
they knew. When they all looked into my eyes and said, "Thank you.
Thank you so much for being here." It got to me and I was so choked up.
I met a wonderful man the first day I worked on project. His name
is Daiki and he's a music mixer and DJ from Ofunato. He was into hip hop
and he had a wonderful singing voice. He got so excited when I told him
I was a hip hop dancer. Many nights, across the street from our
base under the parking garage, I would be dancing with me, myself, and I. He saw me
one time and was so incredibly excited. He's such a wonderful person and
I hope I can see him again. I worked with him a lot in the park, went
drinking with him, listened to music and all. He lost one of his best
friends in the tsunami and as he told his story to all of us on the last
meeting night, with tears in my eyes, I hugged him and told him that I
will never forget him.
More photos of surround areas:
(Pictures like this go on for miles... down the whole coast... it was just... unbelievable.)
(Last tree standing)
(This bay area used to go out another 200 meters back with a beautiful beach area)
(picture from my dance lessons)
I had a lady walk up to me one time on the street and say in English '
I do not speak English well, but Thank you!' I, of course, responded in Japanese so she was so relieved and continued in Japanese, '
I am so glad you understand Japanese! Now I can properly thank you!'
She went on to say how happy she was to have volunteers from around the
world to help her hometown. I know for a fact that being able to speak
and understand Japanese, converse with the locals, and so on, gave me a
much more in depth look at volunteering.
I remember a few people ask me in question '
You are volunteering? You work 6 days a week and do not get paid? Why?' To the simple reply of '
I love Japan! That's why!' and I can see how that would be quite confusing to some people. It is what it is!
More pictures from Ofunato:
(Anything barren, means there was once a building there... In some cases you can see the foundation of the building, but a lot of the times it was completely destroyed)
I met an older man who lived in Ofunato, who said he survived the last 3 tsunami that hit his town. The first in his time was in 1933, the second as an effect from the Chile Earthquake in 1960, and then the one on March 11th. He told each time, him and his family had rebuilt their house on the same land, because that land was passed down through generations. He then smiled sadly and told me, "I think this is the last time I can live here... 3rd time is enough." That was really sad the hear...
Throughout the months of being in Japan, many of the areas that were not taken care of started to gross weeds and other growth in the piles of debris. Many areas that were flattened almost looked like regular fields around October.
In other areas the piles were moved and dealt with a lot... mostly they just kept getting bigger and bigger since they had no where else to put all the debris.
(You can see the fence completely pushed over on the left)
(Areas of Ofunato, The bay area was hit so hard)
I do remember numerous occasions when I was with locals while there
was an earthquake. It is interesting how my local friends would react to
an earthquake... well I mean,
not react. There would numerous
occasions that people would be in the middle of a conversation, an
earthquake would happen, they would pause and then continue on. I would
sometimes ask quickly, "
Earthquake?'"to which they quickly replied, "
yes" and we continued on. I asked some of my friends about this, to which they replied honestly as "
Nothing could be as bad as the one in March, plus we feel so many all the time that it does not matter so much anymore." I can understand that certainly, since I felt so many in a 4 month stay
that I was there that they were not at all surprising by the end.
(Fences pushed by tsunami waters)
(The mountains in Tohoku are gorgeous! It could take my mind off all the debris I was seeing for a moment's time)
(Obon Festival, sending lanterns with people's names on it who have died down the river in Ofunato.)
(Last tree standing in Rikuzentakata)
(beginning of a driveway)
(Remains of a baseball field, now ruined and in water)
(Apartment buildings where the waters reached the 4th floor)
(Mounds and piles of debris being sorted for recycling and burning)
(Along the way to Rikuzenkata, This
coastal area is completely gone. Before I left, they set up a small shed
type store front that you can see the edge of on the right. I think it
was a conbini)
(Construction areas in Ofunato)
(More construction in Ofunato)
In November before I left, in Ofunato they
were starting to repair damage on some buildings and building temporary
stores.
That made me smile. This construction was no where near the
bay, it was a good distance away. I specifically remember a gas station
building being built near one of our work sites for ditches.
(I refer these as beautiful disaster)
I need to stay strong and remember what I have seen, what I have heard, and what I have done.
I watched over a period of 4 months, as my town turned from a ghost town with no lights, to a lively town full of energy. Watching the slow progress of debris being removed and clean up occur... it was such a wonderful sight. I remember working in the rice fields and highways, I would pull out debris and personal belongs from the mud and water that still remained. Anything from articles of clothing to cups, books, photos, roof tiles, flat screen TVs, tires, trophies, statues, you name it... I've found it. It was heartbreaking to find things like children's clothes, love letters, diaries, kimono... I couldn't help but stare at all these belongings and think 'Someone's life was taken away from them...'
Park Opening:
Our last day of volunteer work was the opening of a park we had rehabilitated and cleaned up in Ofunato. The park had about a meter and a half of water come through it destroying the fence and most of the playground equipment. My first day with All Hands was actually at this park. At the time we were digging up the soil and turning it over, pulling out the weeds, so it could be used again. I still remember finding random items in the soil, broken glass, magazines, jewelry, etc.
We made it beautiful again.
(All Hand's job was to weed, put in new soil, make the layout, sand the gazebo, painting, and clean up. We worked with contractors for the playground equipment, brick laying, concrete, etc.)
The finished product was pretty amazing. There was new equipment, benches, flowers, it was beautiful. It was more beautiful to see the kids playing on them!
(On the banner for the locals we wrote 'Okaeri' meaning 'Welcome Back'.)
(The banners for the park opening!)
We had a ceremony with the mayor and our director gave speeches, along with games for the kids, food and drinks, giving out All Hands t-shirts, and we had a memorial garden where people were aloud to plant flowers for people that they had lost.
(Here's some pictures of the finished product)
(She was the first child to slide on the slide! She's my friend's daughter and she's adorable!)
(Here's all the people who came out for the opening ceremony)
(I got to hold the ribbon as they cut it.)
(On the edge of the park we had a memorial garden where people could plant flowers for family and friends that were lost in the tsunami, My 2 dance teachers were the first to plant)
(At the park we had 4 special benches that people could write messages on, they sealed them and they will last forever! I wrote on all 4 of course...)
My messages:
"Forever in my heart"
一緒に笑ってくれて、
一緒に泣いてくれて、
その全て忘れない！
大船渡が大好き～
(We laughed together, we cried together, all of that I will not forget! I love Ofunato)
大船渡の皆さんへ
この町は本当に素晴らしくてまたこの公園で会いましょう！
素敵な思い出を持っていきますように～
この全て忘れません！
(To the people of Ofunato, This town is truly wonderful, let's meet again at this park! I will take with me all my beautiful memories~ I will not forget!)
皆さん～
どこへ行っても
同じ空の下でいます！
笑顔で前へ行きましょう
(Everyone! Whereever we go, we are under the same sky! With a smile, let's go forward!)
大船渡の皆さんへ
大好き～
ウィン
(To the people of Ofunato, LOVE YOU!)
I was so meaningful reopening the park with all the locals.
After the park opening we had a huge BBQ with all our close friends come and we had music, food, drinks, and I preformed some Japanese dance as well on the stage outside! It was so much fun and a wonderful way to close the project.
(Me with our teachers and others who danced along the way)
(So there was a lot of alcohol and people took it upon themselves to draw all over each other's faces... hahaha)
(Me and Hiroki)
I forgot to talk about Hiroki! Hiroki was a local of Ofunato who joined All Hands on the last 4 days of the project. He told me a story of how he had watched us from afar for a good 5 months, he had been admiring our hard work for his town, but he was too afraid to come and talk to us. Finally he got the courage to come join our group, especially because he wanted a t-shirt. He cried on my shoulder the night of the BBQ because he was so touched by the work we were doing and he was ashamed that he couldn't help his town in the way that All Hands had. He talked about March how there was never enough food to go around and he would go to the super market and buy onigiri (rice balls) for others in his town and pass them around. He was such a wonderful man.
(dance photo)
(The bay area in Ofunato)
It's was quite interesting to look out into the bay areas of Ofunato, Rikuzentakata, and other towns... It was scary, because the bay area is so incredibly stunning and beautiful, but for such beauty to turn so quickly into a savage beast and tear down anything in it's path, only to once again turn back to beauty after an hour or so, as it sucks in all the pieces left, almost like trinkets from a trip...
Scary.
(Some pictures of Ofunato's bay area. The mountain's are beautiful and you can see the higher houses we saved from the tsunami while down below there's nothing left.)
I believe these were signs that this community would be okay:
Now while living in America, I had never seen a real rainbow. I've seen the fake ones from the water hose or shining in the glass and what not. Living in Tohoku Japan I have seen not one, not two...
ten! YES! 1.0. separate rainbows! I cannot believe how awesome a rainbow is! I was like a little school girl jumping around and screaming
RAINBOW!!!
(The leaves in the fall turn SUPER red!)
(One of the bay areas in Rikuzentakata had such beautiful sunsets with the mountains all around!)
Ofunato is beautiful and I want to show every the beauty of this town.
(The mountains and the sky are ALWAYS gorgeous here! Rain or shine! I have never seen such a beautiful area! It's so different from Tokyo, where you're constantly surrounded by people and bright city lights!)
I wish I could live in Ofunato for a longer period of time! I'd just loved it there! I felt so apart of a community as well, which is much harder to do in Tokyo. It would also be nice to live there so I could learn more about 東北弁, the dialect there. It's pretty different from Tokyo, especially when the older people speech. It's hard to understand them sometimes! I had to guess a few times about what words meant...
(The street I lived on, this is sun rise)
A volunteer lifestyle is difficult I will admit. Living with so many other people, I never slept and I was always the first one up and downstairs for at least a good hour. I am glad I got up super early (usually 5, the bus didn't leave until 8:15) As I am a social person, if I do not get my
alone time, I turn into a monster and I
will someone's head off. So 5 o'clock I would sit in the dark downstairs with some computer and write in my journal and go online for a little bit, since no one else was on the internet I could access it for a bit!
I could watch the sun rise and the mountains were so beautiful in the early morning!
I am proud of every single day of work in Ofunato, Rikuzentakata and Yamada. Every single photo that was cleaned, every single edge of ditch dug, every piece of debris picked up, every personal belonging returned, every inch of a house gutted... everything had a purpose and was truly meaningful in someone's life.
(Show us your hands All Hands!)
(Always wore socks with sandals...)
I felt at home while I was in Ofunato, not so surprising right? It's Japan after all. I was surprised at how quickly the locals became my close friends, how All Hands became my family, how this little small town was so cozy and comfortable. I had never spent time in such a country side type of town before!
The welcoming of people was quite different from when I lived in Tokyo. Now I know why people who didn't live in Tokyo said that Tokyo people were "cold" compared to the rest of the country... which is saying a lot since most people I met in Tokyo were polite, friendly, and I got along with them very nicely
The only reason we had to stop our project is because it's getting into winter and we couldn't do most of the jobs we had been doing in those types of conditions.
There is still so much work that needs to be done in Japan. There were dozens of towns that were obliterated to nothing. Debris was STILL being picked up from areas after I left. They only recently began to rebuild a few buildings in Ofunato where I was staying after I left.
Rikuzentakata is a different story however. That town, so much was completely destroyed that they are having a hard time deciding if it's worth building in those areas again. The earthquake caused the whole island of Japan to sink a few meters, causing bays and coasts to be more flooded in areas that previously would have been fine. There are families that will be in temporary housing for the next 2-3 years... The government doesn't know how to distribute money evenly, since so much was damaged and so many people were effected by this disaster. I would see buildings 5 stories high, up to the 4th floor the windows were blown away. Whole forests were ripped town except for one tree standing. There is still, even now, so much to do and not enough people to help.
I will go back.
I wish the world was more connected in some way. We have so much technology in our grasp yet we don't use it to it's potential. I hate American TV for that reason. I feel like most channels show some of the most ridiculous and mindless shows I've ever seen. How is that helping anyone as an American citizen? Does it make you think in some intellectual way? It makes me sad. I can't watch TV anymore... even the news is so biased and you never get the whole story.
I talked with a couple people in my dad's office about how bad it was in Japan still and they were all so shocked! I thought they were building by now! You never hear anything on the news about things that really are important... It's just, well, a shame.
(These posters were put up all around the town at the 6 month anniversary after the tsunami disaster)
There is far more I can write about this experience, (along with many more pictures for that matter), but for now my writing shall be finished...
After I got back to America, I read a news article about the Emperor and how he recently talked to the people of Japan and told him how proud he was for them coming together as a nation after this disaster. As am I and so should the Japanese people. The strength that I witnessed over there was more than I had ever seen. Even in such a horrible disaster, so many of these people were so brave and so strong and kept pushing... it's amazing, it truly is. It's beautiful to see the human spirit triumph over something like this. Clearly this disaster was the biggest Japan has had since WWII, except this wasn't man made.
I have certainly learned that there is always tomorrow...
Love to all!
