This was quite a day! I woke up at about 5:40am after a night full of tossing and turning. As I awoke the air felt warm and balmy. At least it wasn’t as sweltering as when we went to sleep!
As I got up and changed I noticed it was pouring rain. Aska woke up and said that work would probably be delayed. So we stayed in our comfy clothes and chatted with folks until we received any word on work assignments for the day.
At some point not long after waking up a big earthquake rocked us. Everything was fine. Then a tsunami warning was released. What?! No one else seemed panicked so I didn’t panic either, and ultimately about an hour later it was canceled. Shesh. Way to start a morning!
We were told morning meeting was delayed until at least 9:30am (as opposed to 7:45am). We passed the time chatting, watching the rain, playing charades and card games.
People chatting and playing games. Koba in the background is hanging a sign that says Peace Boat so people know we are occupying the old factory. Supposedly people passing by thought we were a bunch of squatters staying illegally!
9:30 came and the only news was that the meeting was delayed another hour, til 10:30. More waiting around and game play.
Charades with friends. Very fun, especially when a lot of your new friends don’t know English and you don’t know Japanese!
At least at 10:30 we are told we are going to work at 1. Finally! We continued just hanging out, but it was nicer knowing we had more than an hour to relax. We had lunch, chatted, and finally got ready to work. The rain even stopped for us!
We headed out side for morning (well, afternoon) meeting. It was definitely a lazy day as people slowly congregated out front.
This picture makes me smile so much. This is me and my friend Koba. He doesn’t know any English, and I don’t know enough Japanese to hold a conversation. How do we maintain a friendship? I don’t know! But we do funny things like strike a pose, then laugh and high five each other.
Today all the teams would be working together on clearing a parking lot belonging to an an apartment complex. We loaded Ted’s truck with equipment for 15-20 people, and then we all got on bikes and rode out to the site.
When we approached we saw, well, a lot of dirt and mud.
Tools for the day
Work in progress
Everyone took an area in the parking lot and set to work. At this point our group had a decent idea of who was good at what, so there wasn’t bickering over tools and areas like I noticed in some other groups.
Joji and Calum set up a peach bag, which we’ll fill with mud and debris.
We found a lot of personal belongings, but for some reason, it was less sad. Maybe because they weren’t photos or sentimental items. Among the items found were movies, clothes, cds, food containers, food and drinks.
One stuffed animal was discovered though
Again, there was a lot of glass. Sometimes it’s just everywhere. Thank goodness we wear gloves, because you may be reaching for a shirt and it’s full of smashed glass.
A few hours later we were all finished!
Our team 11 in front of the area we worked on
Peach bags are incredibly hard to fill properly. I relate it to a soft over-ground kiddie pool- once you start fillling it with water, it’s hard to make the bottoms and sides lie flat, so if it’s uneven you have to drain it and start over or just deal with it. The peach bags are big, making them hard to lay flat and fill evenly. Calum was super proud of his perfect peach!
We all biked home and cleaned our gear and got ourselves cleaned up. Word about the dollar-plate sushi restaurant had got out all over base camp, and so a big group of us walked over after work since we got done a little early.
It was a beautiful night for a walk. We walked along the river and took in all the sights. There was about 11 of us, and I would walk with a group of 2-3 people chatting, stop to take pictures, and fall behind into another group of a few people and chat with them. It was really wonderful- we were all happy, all there to help the same cause, all getting along. At this moment I realize in a day and a half it would all be over, I wouldn’t see these people, I wouldn’t be at this place, and it would be like it never happened. I’d be back in Tokyo before I knew it. It just felt too soon! Where did the week go?
Our walk brought us to Kappa Sushi where we filled up 2 booths. Aska, Chris, JT, Maki, Koba, Calum
I didn’t get a picture of the second booth, but I did get one of these silly guys. Wesley (right) from my work team and his friend Will (team 10).
Once again we gorged ourselves on delicious cheap sushi, and my friend Madeleine and I shared a couple desserts. Koba left early because he didn’t want to be late for curfew at 7pm. We all stayed out just a bit later, returning to camp around 7:20.
When it was time to pay the bill Aska told us Koba left enough money to cover most of everyone’s tab. For no reason. He said thank you for caring about Ishinomaki. Oh Koba! We left and I popped into Lawsons to get him a candy bar called Black Thunder and we walked home. When I returned I found my friend Rachael and asked her to tell Koba, “thank you so much for dinner, you didn’t have to do do that!” I then gave him the candy and we hugged.
I later learned he saved that candy for another 2 weeks, and enjoyed it on his bus ride back to Tokyo in early July when he was so sad to be leaving. Awwwww.
After seeing Koba I went to my sleeping area to relax a little bit. And then there was another huge earthquake. I went out of the girls area and everyone was just chilling, so I went back and read a bit. Aska joined me and we laid around talking til lights out. Another hot night- this time we got smart. We closed all the windows, so despite it being hot, hopefully there were fewer flies! Forget all the ones trapped inside… we can dream right?!
This is blowing me away!