So after a fitful night of two hours on and off, I woke up to Tokyo. Konichiwa!
Shortly after, we grabbed breakfast with this view and then got on a train. This would be the 400 year old garden at the hotel. Yes. 400 years.
Then we hopped on a two hour train ride, accompanied by an hour and a half on a bus to get to the Iwate Prefecture, part of northern Japan - and more specifically, the part that was hardest hit by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
We arrived in Rikuzentakata after a harrowing ride through some curvy mountains. We saw empty fields where houses used to be. Then we hit the area closest to the coast and then saw the abandoned buildings, ripped apart by the tidal waves. It's nearly hard to tell in the bright and hard sun that such devastation occurred - until you see the debris piles.
What really brought it home was looking at the former City Hall. For folks that went up to the top of the building on the right, they were saved because they were about 8 feet higher than the roof of the building to the left. The folks who ran to the top floor on the left were taken by waves.
We stopped for a moment at the shrine at the entrance.
We then stopped by the high school where kids were still studying that day. In fact, in times of emergencies, the school serves as the place where residents gather to wait out the storm. If they hadn't run up the hill behind the building, they lost their lives. A lot of people died in that building. We also learned that the students still in the building that afternoon were mostly seniors, preparing for college entrance exams.
The comparisons for me to September 11th were inevitable, but instead of an act of terrorism, this was an act of nature. So severe that after the earthquake - which alone was off the charts - citizens had 30 minutes before the first wave of the tsunami hit. That's 30 minutes before a gigantic tidal wave appeared out of nowhere. The area we were in earlier today had 3 waves come up, as high as a five story building - and wipe out everything in it's path and taking thousands of people with it. They are still very much recovering from the disaster. While the piles of debris aren't as big as they used to be, they are still there. The fields are still empty. And while communities and governments decide how to move forward, they are moving slowly because they are consensus building.
Reminds me of the deadlock at Ground Zero.
Nearly 3,000 people are still displaced from this. We stopped by the temporary housing, where families will be living for at least 3 years while pieces continue to get sorted out - and there are recent reports of domestic violence and drinking, due to the small, cramped spaces and stress. We toured one of the apartments and the place in whole is no bigger than a NYC studio apartment, with a small kitchen, a small living room, bedroom and bathroom. In fact, my friends who think they have the smaller apartments in NYC have practical lofts compared to these.
Yet, the Japanese remain a gracious people, thanking us for our support and assistance. We met with two tutoring projects in Rikuzentakata, where students can come and find a place for community, to study, to get tutored. The schools were mostly wiped out; students are cramped and crowded and these projects give them a chance to not only find space for their studies, but a chance to also socialize with other kids, to find a mentor and a tutor in the college kids from across the country that come to volunteer to work with them. One student started today and she commuted 3 hours this am and will commute 3 hours back to school afterwards. Another gentleman lives 6 hours away and comes in during the week and goes home during the weekend. They seem committed to volunteering and doing more for this community that has seen so much tragedy.
We also met with a council member who enlightened us on the response and recovery - as well as the city council structure. Let's just say that if anyone wants to be a Mayor and live very comfortably, move to Japan. We were amazed. Shocked might be a more appropriate word.
So we headed for Kamaishi after touring the areas and and checked into our hotel for the night. A HILARIOUS situation then happened as we all got up into our rooms and couldn't figure out how to turn on the lights. I managed to turn on the television to get some light, only to find a flashlight under the bed. It did no good as we still couldn't figure the damn thing out for the life of us. Turns out that you need to put the keychain in a slot when you enter to turn on the electricity in the room. It's an energy saver. Allegedly. We used a hell of a lot of energy trying to figure out how the hell we were gonna see in our rooms tonight!
We capped off the night with a pretty traditional dinner in Kamaishi. Before we went to dinner, one of our hosts today showed us a map of the area. She pointed out where our hotel was. She then explained that if we felt an earthquake, we needed to leave the hotel and turn right and just start running. This was in case we hit a magnitude of 5 or over. Um. Whaaa? She assured us we would be fine, but to turn right and keep running. Apparently there's still a lot of earthquakes happening. Super.
Packing up our weirdness over this conversation, we then moved on to dinner. Complete with tatami mats, sake, sashimi, udon, and some amazing fish. Dinner took a few hours at best, but I've never felt more satisfied and complete after a meal.
Or jetlagged. I have gotten a total of 9 hours of sleep in the past 2 (well, really 3) days - and that's being generous.
So, I promised you pictures. And there's already a lot. But I've decided to leave you all with a picture of the day to end my posts. And here's today's. This was a box meal we saw at the train station and had to snap a picture of it. I mean, it's adorable, but who can eat this thing? It's too cute!
Until tomorrow, oya-sumii (good night). See you next post. Mama's got some sleeping to do!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture
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