Possibly second to last update!!
It's been a good month or two!! I seriously can't believe how fast the time went. I ended up staying in Ishinomaki on the volunteer work an extra two weeks than I initially thought I would. The help is definitely needed, and I left the end part of my time in Japan open with the though that I may extend there if I can. So quick over view of my time here now. I finished up the volunteer work last Thursday to go back to Kyoto before going to Hiroshima for two days, to Osaka on the way back from Hiroshima, and am now in Tokyo/Chiba, for one week, then back to Osaka, then to Kobe, then to Kyoto, then HOME!! If you need a break after reading all that, feel free lol. I think I may go get a glass of water...
Surfer man!
Ishinomaki. I ended up staying 6 weeks in total there instead of the originally planned 4. Over my whole time there, the work varied quite a lot. Because I was a longer term volunteer, they put me on permanently with a Carpenter named Richard, to help him out in anyway needed. This was fully awesome, as he's an awesome guy with great life experience. Many great talks, and many awesome projects that I could help him with. He's been volunteering there since last year, so as you can imagine, he knows all the great spots and places to go, including what is probably the most awesome coffee shop in the world, but I'll get to that.
Richie!!
He was always keen to show me new places, so he often went way out of his way on his own initiative so that I was able go more places, do and see more. The work itself was mostly orientated around building work, including building storage sheds of different sizes ('Boris' the shed was the best I think), jib fixing, 'Mudding Out'(basically tearing down walls, pulling up floors, cleaning out mud from everywhere - honestly amazing what you would find within the walls!!, water blasting it all , bleaching the wood skeleton, then scrubbing it all. The aim being to remove the dirt and mold that has built up, clean it and let it dry, before the wall and floors are redone), building stages for events, moving equipment and so on. I was there at an interesting time, as it was at a transitional stage for all of the 3 bigger volunteer organizations. The 3 groups are all in contact with each other and would often help each other out. For example, the group I was with, Grace Mission Touhoku (GMT lol) put me to work with Richard, who is with Samaritans Purse (SP)the bigger of the 3. Later, I would help out with B1, but I'll get to that too. SP are a disaster relief organization from the states, that do work world wide. It's been just over 1 and a half years since the tsunami, and the building side of the organization had already been there way longer than what is normal for them(disaster relief being short term work, vs long term recovery help). Some of what I did, was orientated around helping pack up their equipment to be given to help other various groups. GMT where also moving from their one base, to two different bases (one still in Ishinomaki, and the other in Minamisanriku). You can imagine the amount of stuff, tools, tables, chairs, giant army tents, etc, that had to be packed down, relocated and set up again. And as well as all this, the community work that was going on (myself, I wasn't so involved in this side, but there is always an element of it to everything that you are working on).
Minamisanriku. Repicture this in your head completely full of residential housing and a walk of water 4 stories high coming. I was on a hill taking this photo, and that wasn't high enough. There is a YouTube vid you can watch from about the same vantage point called 'Minamisanriku devastation' or something similar to that.
Probably the central event of the time there, was going up to Kesennuma, about 2 hours north of Ishinomaki. Seriously Incredible. The drive up started with a stop at the coolest, most awesome classy coffee shop ever. The guy who owns it is 30, and is a coffee artist. Travels the world to find beans to make his own blends. Had an awesome chat with him, before I bought some coffee making stuff, and he showed me how to make an awesome coffee, and then gifted me a blend of Panama Coffee powder. The shop is litteraly in the middle of no where, in a valley somehwere, yet it was busy!
Ippo! The coolest coffee shop!
From there it was a complete slamo! Minamisanriku! I thought Ishinomaki was bad. This city was wiped off the board. I can't describe it. I'll show you photos when I get back, I can't sum it with words. And even looking trough the photos now, doesn't sum up how vast the damage is. Its real hard to convey the vastness of it. The rest of the drive up was thoroughly stunningly beautiful and inspiring nature, but coastal town after coastal town that has been completely devastated by the tsunami. A lot of places look like, that's it, no more town. Just the building foundations remain. Real moving. the contrast between the beauty and destruction is, emmm, eery? terrible, incredible, unnerving, emmm doesnt cut it. Another thing that isn't thought of too much, is that most of the land up there dropped between 3-6 feet because of the earthquake, so come high tide, it's basically ground level, and I am told there are problems with flooding. You can see where new river bank walls and sea walls have been put in, but it's still unnerving seeing how close it gets to the edge.
Anyhow. Kesennuma itself was also badly hit, though the area I was staying in was back on its feet. We were there for about half a week, setting up for an SP event at which Bethany Hamilton was speaking at (she's a pro woman surfer, who lost her arm to a shark at 13 years old, yet still pursued on, there's a movie on it). Seriously lovely woman. Once again, and probably not for the last time, I was surrounded by people who are incredibly great people, with hearts bigger than elephants. I'm not able to put my finger on what it was, but something about being there really shifted me, and I find myself looking back on it and feeling both moved and humbled.
There were many highlights of my time volunteering, meeting many great people (seriously no shortage of them). But to name a few, meeting and getting to know the different groups of volunteers, the chats with everyone I worked with, the coffee shop just before Minamisanriku, the runs through rice paddys (more like running away from giant spiders in webs stretching lampposts) and on the shore, the crazy swimming miles out to sea with Satoshi San(surfer guy who was in the room next to me, funny thing there too - Pokemon in the west, the main character is called 'Ash'. In Japan, he is called 'Satoshi'. So Ash and Satoshi lol), bonfires, building things, and the Nomozi Jewellery Project with B1. But in reality the whole time up there is as one thing, so I can't really pick out single things.
The Nozomi Jewellery Project is aimed to help give employment and a support base for Ishinomaki women, more often than not, solo mothers as a result of the tsunami. I started helping them out with some of the basic things in Jewellery design, business and make. The concept is centered around making Jewellery from broken chinaware and pottery, which you don't have to go far to find and is in no short supply. They're also looking at making fabric string bracelets often made from kimono material. For New Zealanders, I would describe it as a surfy/casual look (wearing one now to test out durability as well come up with more simple design ideas for them). Im looking forward to being involved in this more in the future and helping out in anyway I can. Seriously inspiring.
Hiroshima is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to! Karl and I took the Shinkansen (bullet train x0 ) there. Imagine, 7/8 hours by bus, or 1 and a half hours by bullet train. Boofgar. Being Ash, and being man, I was perfectly organised -cough-. So originally we planned to get to Hiroshima around 1 pm, but didnt end up leaving until 4:50 pm. We got there just in time to meet up for dinner with possibly the four most hospitable girls in Hiroshima. They took us out to a Hiroshima style okonomiyaki, followed by a cafe that really reminds me of cafes back home. Over the course of the evening, it became apparent to them that we hadnt booked our hotel, as we planned to stay in a capsule hotel that I was under the impression you didn't need to book for (a turn up when you need it place).
As it turns out, it was a public holiday weekend in Japan. So everything was booked out. I didn't think that sleeping in the train station would be that bad, but thanks to the kindness of Emma (a New Zealand girl living in Hiroshima that Richard introduce to me), she let us sleep at her place, whilst she stayed at Jessica's place (one of the other girls who came out for dinner). Quite embarrassing to say the least. But we were very grateful to have a comfortable place to stay. Not to mention that there is a great view of one of the many rivers that go through Hiroshima.
The following day would find us wandering around, as well as going to the A - Bomb Dome (the building that was directly under the epicenter of the blast), The Peace Park (incredibly beautiful), and the Hiroshima Memorial Museum within (goes without saying that it was really moving. It covers all sides of what happened, leading up to it, the time of event, and then the aftermath up until today. I came out of there caught between trying not to be angry at the horrifying things that we are capable of doing to each other, and saddened by what happened).
After that we walked to the A Bomb Dome, at which, my awesome new camera chose to run out of batteries. Mum taught me that if I have nothing good to say, then say nothing at all. So ill leave my thoughts of my beloved camera there. Again being men, and super organised, we started the day too late, not fully anticipating how much there is in the Museum. To the websites and forums that say 1/2 to 1 hours, not quite right. More like 3 hrs to pay it the respect it's owed. This ultimately meant that we were too late in going to Miyajima Island, which we caught the train to the wharf anyway, but not time to go to the island itself (not to mention that by this time it was dark and raining). At this point, we made a humorous solemn pact that in five years time, we will return, as Hiroshima is worth far more than the time we gave it. Not to waste the train ride, we went to a coffee in the area that was the shizzel binizzel (that means awesome by the way). Great conversations with the staff there. Also they had a load of books around the place. The book that 'happened' to be on our table, was written by a Dan Freeman (seriously bizarre). A fantastic write up on the man (presumably by his children) at the front, that I am thinking is true on many levels (“He felt strongly that art and shared creative outlooks are mediums of profound empathy and understanding, that create friendships that transcend national and cultural boundaries"). And especially after the Memorial Museum, and seeing the art works of victims, this rings painfully true. From there, we trained back to Hiroshima, to have dinner with Emma for the last time. Hiroshima style ramen. Possibly the best ramen I've had. Seriously scrummy. That night we stayed in a capsule hotel, which was and experience in itself. Located in the seediest part of town, you could tell that it had been set up for men (no ladies allowed) who had gone out for a fun night. With 6 floors, it had almost anything one could need. Restaurant, a room with personal lazy boys and tvs attached, laundry, sleeping area, ....and public baths complete with spa and sauna. Each of the capsules were maybe 4 x 7 feet, with personal tvs. And on that lets just say that there is no sound proofing, I say no more.
Didn't get to bed until maybe 1, and then up at 5am to catch tram to station at 6, to catch bus to Osaka by 7. Quite a sleepy bus ride to Osaka. Though I have to say that it is nice have a bus by day for a change. You get to see more of the out back of Japan. Which is stunning. Again, it is in a way similar to nz, but the mountains are less rolling and more dramatic, in stark contrast to the land inbetween which is completely flat (normally with lush green rice paddies). Its as if God was like "flat land... Hrmm... Let put a mountain range here, and here...mmm and here. I'll mold it into the land later but looking good, time for a beer!". It's seriously beautiful. I can definitely see an attraction to living in such a place. Probably the other big difference is that the bush in Japan is far far more wild. I would think twice before just rummaging through it. Snakes, spiders, giant grasshoppers....Bring It!! (the dust you see is from me running for dear life! lol).
For Hiroshima being so great, we really do owe it to the girls for looking after us in our complete unorganised retardedness. Especially to Emma. She and the girls sorted out dinner on the first night, followed by sorting the accommodation out (Thanks for letting us use your place Emma!!!), then she sorted the bus ride tickets back to Osaka, the reservations for the capsule hotel, and took us to the awesome ramen place. Not to mention the list of 'Must Do's ' in Hiroshima to begin with.
Karl and I arrived at Osaka around 11:30am, just in time to meet up with one of our friends, Tammy, to go to Osaka Aquarium. Have to say, I have come to really enjoy the chaos in try to catch multiple trains and subways across cities to get places. It's fun even when you get lost!! Though it's hard to get lost when all the locals around you are so so helpful. Anyway. We got to the aquarium around 1 and had a great time going through it. The set up there is quite different to Kelly Tarltons back home. In this aquarium, they have maybe 7 different tanks that are seriously deep. The path starts at the top and spirals down to the bottom, meaning that you go past different depths of the same enclosures a half dozen times. This was particularly awesome with the coral reef enclosure. It was also awesome because there were tonnes (I'm quite sure literally tonnes) of people there, and it gave you a decent chance to see everything. Personal highlights (excluding the obvious fun with friends) were: Watching the NZ dolphins at feeding time, the jelly fish (friggen amazing), and the giant deep(er) sea crabs (that reminded me of the War of the Worlds movie). Leaving there at about 5, we went and had ramen for dinner nearby, then headed back to Kyoto, as I had to catch overnight bus to Tokyo at 11:45 that night, and yet to pack.
The biggest low point of the whole weekend, and had I known I would of taken the time to appreciate it all more (more than I was already), was that it would be the last time I would get to hang out and see Karl before went our separate ways. It was only when we were saying the goodbyes that he mentioned it was Sayounara, to what I was like 'What?!' . But I'm glad that the weekend was loads of fun to finish it off on a high.
The over night bus to Tokyo was completely un eventful, other than sleep, which if you sleep walk, is eventful. But I don't, so nothing interesting to say about it really.
Will do another update soon xD currently in Chiba/ Tokyo having a great time. Hard to believe I will be home in two weeks xD
Hope everyone is well :)
Sun set in Tokyo
ash
Location:Chiba
