DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

May 9th:
Meeting the Iwate Students
and First Day in Rikuzentakata
by Allison Haines


Today was our first full day in Japan! We had to wake up early for breakfast, so we'd be ready to leave the hotel by 8:30 AM. We left our large bags at the hotel, and then went out to the bus to meet the Iwate University students. Everyone is so nice! They were a little quiet at first, but I think that was mostly a cultural difference (and the nerves). All the UAA students sat randomly with Iwate students, and most of us got to move around and get to know different students better over the course of the trip.

 

On the bus ride, we drove past many small towns and settlements with much more compact buildings than those you'd see in America. The architecture style was boxy, with fairly ornate traditional roofs on most of the houses. We also passed dozens and dozens of large fields with workers and tractors, which were likely rice paddies and "tanbo" as one of the Iwate students called it. The Iwate prefecture has some rolling hills and small mountains, with many lush green trees and bright flowers. We noticed a high number of home gardens as well, all nicely cared for and carefully pruned.

 

Along the way from Morioka to Rikuzentakata, we stopped at a small market where we could buy small souvenirs or Japanese food. There were tiny decorated clothespins, handmade framed pictures of Japanese legends, barrettes with very detailed cloth flowers, and numerous different kinds of snacks and produce. A number of us purchased souvenirs and bought Japanese beverages at the line of vending machines outside (there are vending machines everywhere in Japan!) before we continued on.

When we arrived in Rikuzentakata, the first thing we did was drive up a single lane road winding uphill to a small museum. However, the Kesen Carpentry and Plastering Museum was nothing like our museums in the states. The parking lot was full of decorations from Japan's Children's Day, which were all cloth carps hanging from strings and blowing in the wind. There were two main buildings, surrounded by shrubs and flowering bushes. It was a very beautiful place.

 

We listened to one of the tour guides' story about experiencing the earthquake and tsunami while working at the museum. She actually watched the water invade Rikuzentakata from the museum high in the hills. Luckily, her family lived on high ground and they were all fine, but she had close colleagues who lost their homes and family members. After the disaster, she stayed at the museum with 28 people who went there for refuge. They could still see the devastation happening in the bay below, and she said it "didn't seem real...more like a nightmare." She and the 28 others lived in the cold buildings with only instant noodles and tap water for two weeks before she went home to her family.

Hearing the guide's very personal story was heartbreaking. It's one thing to read about people's experiences on 3/11 in videos or in books like Strong in the Rain, but another thing entirely to listen to intensely personal accounts from locals who survived. It was a very touching and powerful message.

After that, we had lunch at the museum, which was an almost surreal experience for me! We entered the main building - which was built without using nails, to help withstand challenges like earthquakes - and took off our shoes in a cabin-like wooden room with a square fire pit in the center. We walked through a small room with a kind of shrine and into the dining room, where two lines of floor pillows and low tables were set up with bento boxes, soup, and tea! At one end of the room there was a ceremonial display with red candles, a folding wooden tiger picture, and a small doll in full mini-Samurai garb, which as we learned is traditionally presented to a family when they have a son.

 

After the museum we made our way to the new (temporary) Rikuzentakata City Hall. There, we listened to presentations by a colleague of Monty Dickson, a city planner, and had the chance to have a question and answer session with the mayor, Mr. Futoshi Toba. We learned more about Monty Sensei's friendliness and generosity from one of his personal friends, which was nice to hear for those of us who didn't have the chance to get to know Monty. The city planner gave us an in-depth look at how the city plans to prepare for future disasters, through various reconstruction efforts like creating elevated land areas with transported rocks and soil. The before and after pictures that the city planner showed us and the answers Mayor Toba gave to our questions really helped us to understand the immense scope of the disaster.

 

Following the city hall meeting, we got to go on a short tour of the city, from the information hall and destroyed shopping center to the Miracle Pine Tree, which was the only tree in the pine forest near the bay to survive the tsunami. Wanting to preserve the tree as a symbol of strength and hope, the people of Rikuzentakata actually took it down and reinforced it from the inside out so it will never fall. Seeing the Miracle Pine, praying for the lost souls at the memorial, and seeing the height the water reached on the buildings was indescribably humbling. You could really feel the respect the Japanese have for each other and those they have lost, and their incredible resilience to overcome such disasters.

 

During the city tour and our visit to the control center for the dirt transporting conveyor belts, we were followed around by a camera crew from NHK News! Some of the UAA and Iwate students were interviewed about how it felt to be in the city and what we were looking forward to about working together on our normalization projects. It was good to see that our efforts with Iwate University and Tomodachi were noticed and appreciated!

At the end of the day, we went to our hotel/hostel, which was a repurposed elementary school called the Futamata Fukko Koryu Center. After spending some time getting to know our group members and having dinner, it was time to turn in! The girls and boys each stayed in two large rooms where we made very comfortable Japanese-style beds on the floor next to our new Iwate friends. It is hard to believe we just met these amazing people this morning! Despite cultural differences and language barriers, we already feel very close to them, and will no doubt be able to collaborate well on the normalization projects tomorrow!

Konbanwa!

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.