well, as most of the world has forgotten about the tsunami and earthquake last year in japan, we sure haven’t. i woke up yesterday morning and checked the news of another earthquake and tsunami that struck japan the night before. yeah, another big earthquake in tohoku followed by a tsunami. luckily, a much smaller one. then the memories started to come back. i actually felt a huge earthquake right after 3/11 when i was sleeping in the car up in sendai. it scared the shit out of me. so i could imagine how the people were feeling on this one, and on the thousands of aftershocks. i just hope our earth calms down.
this was one of the first images i took up in oshika hanto 4 weeks after 3/11. to drive the coastline and see village after village totally wiped out was sad. people still looking for their belongings and loved ones. the empty faces that will never go away.
from fukushima to iwate, we seen just total destruction. imagine driving hours and hours up the coast seeing this. we were totally speechless.
but when we found areas where nobody else could find, this is what made our missions worth it. some people refused to evacuate, and it’s those people we were looking for. and all the supplies that were donated made it to the right people. the smiles started to come back little by little and it was those smiles that gave us power.
kobochihama has a place in each and every one of our teams hearts. the strength of the people has taught me a lot. ever since then, i work harder and try not to complain as much. and of course, appreciate all the things i have and don’t have.
well, mission 7 starts next week. we have our team assembled and from what i hear, it’s going to be freezing cold. but hey, it was 0 degrees this freezing night on mission 2 as half of us slept in tents, and half of us slept in the car. i still remember sleeping in the car and somebody forgot to roll up the window before we slept. i woke up frozen! ever since than, i can handle anything.
**i got in touch with kobochihama kimura-san yesterday. he said the oysters and wakame survived the small tsunami on friday. that is great news! it was nice talking to you kimura-san. see you in a week!
