Earthquake!

We just had a shindo 6 (magnitude 7.4) earthquake in Sendai. It started pretty abrupt and pretty hard and after a second of hesitation the four of us who were downstairs preparing for tomorrow ran outside to the street and held onto whatever we could find. The telephone wires and everything was moving and shaking--not sure how much I can accredit to actual reality as much as the very very scary beating of my own heart.

Definitely a hefty reminder of how important it is for us all to bond together during this time. Any one of us could be in an earthquake at any time--trapped under our own house or facing the loss of our loved ones. This earthquake just reminded me how close we all are--how lucky we all are to be alive.

Anyway, we're okay. We're off to Ishinomaki tomorrow.

Kansoubun #1

One woman in an evacuation center that we visited in Kesennuma was interested in talking to us after the show. Horii-san talked to her and related to me what she said.

She said, initially she was so relieved and happy to be alive, after escaping the tsunami. But after a little while of living in the evacuation center, and wearing cast-off clothes and being grateful for whatever amenities she was given, she started thinking, "Wow, I had much-nicer clothes back home. I had so much stuff!" And she started to realize that she really did have a lot of things--what she now knows was too much--and she could've been helping others and sharing it with others. She used to live in a house where everyone had their own television, because they "needed" to watch different TV shows. But now, she realizes that she didn't really need what she had thought she needed.

She said, "I think this disaster was God's way of giving Japan a reset."

* * *

気仙沼避難所で会った一人の女性は、ショーの後、興味をもって話しかけてくれました。彼女と話をした後、堀井さんが彼女の言った内容を私におしえてくれました。

彼女は最初、津波から救われてほっとし、生きていることをとてもうれしく思ったのですが、避難所で、人の古着を着、何でも自分が受け取る日常必需品をありがたく思って生活していると、「ああ、前は家でずっといい服を着ていたんだわ。そしてとてもたくさんの物をもっていたんだ。」と思い始めたそうです。そして自分が実際にどれだけたくさんの物をもっていたのか、わかりはじめたのだそうです。自分が物を持ち過ぎていたこと、そして他の人を助けることできたこと、他の人に物を分け合うことができたのにと思ったそうです。好きな番組を見られるように、家族一人一人が自分のテレビをもっていた家に住んでいましたが、自分が必要だと思った物は、本当はあまり必要ではなかったんだと今、わかったと話してくれました。また「この災害は、日本をリセットするための神の方法だと思う。」と彼女は言ったのです。

Checking out the tsunami damage--Kesennuma, Miyagi

These are pictures from this extremely hi-tech CoolPix camera that I borrowed for this trip. I'm glad I have it, but please don't mind the quality of these pictures.

I guess you had to be there.

We turned onto this road which turned out to be a long haul through barely-cleared roads with piles of houses and cars in tiny pieces as far as the eye can see.

This massive ship was washed up onto the road by the port.

Along the banks of the rivers were devastation as well.

Some houses were standing relatively undamaged between houses that were reduced to rubble.

Visiting K-wave Taiikukan in Kesennuma, Miyagi

Today we went to the K-wave sports center in Kesennuma, which is now a buzzing beehive of an evacuation center on the top of a beautiful hill. Above is one of the courts covered in people and their cots and belongings (dimly lit to conserve electricity).

The girl in the glasses in the above photo was one of the first people who greeted us as we set up. We're not sure if it was our "Disaster volunteer" arm bands, or Gene's handsome face, but she was so friendly and kept coming back to share her snacks with us.

We were able to drop off 12 boxes of toilet paper, and blankets that were donated to Yuki and Isamu (http://helpeastjapan.wordpress.com) for the disaster victims.

We were minus our 2 professional clown companions, so we braved the balloon-making on our own!!!

The evacuees were extremely friendly, and seemed to enjoy our songs. We stayed for a long time and talked to the ones who hung around after our show.

One woman was rifling around inside her bag during our entire show. When we were done, she called me over to tell me that she really wanted to give me something, but she didn't have much. She gave me a small purse, and opened it to show me that there was a 5 yen coin inside. 「御縁がありますように。」

Many of the people told us to 「がんばってください!」 I started rushing to say it first.

Gene was the hit with the kids. He couldn't refuse them when they kept asking for more and more balloons.

We had an extremely animated audience, who were so much fun to perform for. They sang along to 「涙そうそう」 and cried when we sang 「世界を変えよ」.

Thank You's!

ありがとう！！

To Arai-san, who drove us part of the way to meet up with the team from Shizuoka.

To Tadaura Takuji, Eiko, and Yoshi, who took so many volunteers into their house. 英子さんの料理がないとなにか足りない・・・

To the Matsuoka family and Isamu and Yuki who let us be a part of their team, and introduced us to their contacts in Aizu.

Josh in Kobe for his help and information.

Visiting Emergency Evacuation Centers in Aizu, Fukushima

April 3rd - 5th

On the 3rd, the four of us with a van-load of ALL kinds of stuff, arrived at our friends'--theTadaura Family--house in Aizu, Fukushima prefecture. We met up with our friends, the Matsuoka family (http://inorinotomo.com) from Nasu, and Isamu Matsuoka and Yuki Kubota (http://helpeastjapan.wordpress.com) from Kashiwa, who are also up in Fukushima to visit the emergency evacuation centers.

皆さんでおいしい食事をしました！

Our three vehicles loaded with people and stuff to (hopefully) give away, we left at 8:30 and managed to hit up 4 different Evacuation Sites (避難所) before 4 PM.

只浦さん＆バナナ

It was a lot of fun, but not a little exhausting. We were happy to get our feet wet and figure out what is just the beginning of what we hope to be able to do for these disaster victims.

「サミー」と「グーフィ」のピエロマジックショー

Altogether on the 4th and the 5th we were able to visit 6 evacuation sites. The 会津美里町おやめ荘ふれあいセンター, 高田体育館, 新鶴体育館, 会津美里町農業村環境改善センター, 赤沢小学校, and 赤沢幼稚園. At some of these sites we were able to unload bananas, and at all of them we presented a clown and magic show (Isamu and Yuki) and mini-live by Gene and Florence. We also left each of the children with stuffed animals (donated to Family InternationalShizuoka) and balloons.

どれにしようかな？悩んでる子供たち

At 赤沢小学校 we were invited in by the staff to eat the lunch that we brought. They served us coffee and we got to partake of a yakisoba takidashi (焼きそば炊き出し) that a team of cooks from Okayama prefecture came to serve to the evacuees. As we sat in the corner of their office, we found out from the ladies that they themselves, whom I had thought were volunteers or government coordinators, were also evacuees from Narahamachi, running the evacuation center! 感動しました。They said that they'd rather be working to manage the center than sittingaround doing nothing. They were so friendly and professional and helpful that I wouldn't have thought they had just lost everything that they own. (Narahamachi is one of the cities about 2km away from the 2nd Fukushima nuclear reactor. According to some of the people that I talked to, they evacuated immediately after the earthquake, taking nothing with them, and haven't been able to go back to their houses since. We asked the woman in charge of the 赤沢幼稚園 evacuation center when she thought she'd be able to go back to her house, and her answer was, "Maybe my grandchildren will be able to go back. But maybe I'll be able to go back tomorrow--we must have hope.")

We had brand new dolls to pass out as a bit of an "encouragement gift" after our show, and mostly children came forward to receive them. One woman came up to me and asked me for a "cow doll." It seemed like a strange request, but I gave her one. Then she explained to me that her family had a cow farm in Narahamachi, and had worked for years to expand their number of cows. When they evacuated from the earthquake, they had to leave nearly 30 cows behind. They hadn't seen their cows in over 3 weeks and knew they would probably never see them again. I told her she could take 30 dolls, and she said I was a funny foreigner.

This boy was extremely excited after our show. He followed us around everywhere and told me about 10 times that I was "beautiful". (「お姉さんキレイですね。」)

Gene and I sang mostly famous Japanese folk songs like 「花」　「涙そうそう」　「島歌」 and 「なごり雪」. We felt it like it was appropriate to honor the country and sing songs that everyone could sing along to. We were a little nervous about the kids, because we didn't plan a program geared toward them, but they were very polite and seemed interested in the songs that we sang. Maybe because they don't have television or much else to do, we were able to hold their interest for longer.

One very friendly ojisan chatted up Gene and I after our show and was talking very animatedly about the oldies songs that he likes and how he likes singing at karaoke, etc. When I asked him where he lived, he said 「わかんないなぁ。俺の家は津波でやられたんだ。」 I didn't really know if I was supposed to say 「残念ですね・・・」 or 「なるほど・・・」

This evening we arrived in Sendai, and brought some bananas, food, and fuel for our friends here. We're making plans to go to Kesennuma （気仙沼）tomorrow, so please pray for us!!!

Please also pray for encouragement and strength for the evacuees, some of whom have been working non-stop in order to forget about the pain of their loss. I have a new and amazing respect for these people who seem to be even more polite, kind, cheerful, and all-around JAPANESE in these, the worst of circumstances.

Post #1

Hi guys!!

I know you all will support our very small attempt to do something about this situation in the tsunami-affected areas. There are so many great people doing stuff already, we want to see how we can go lend a hand and what we can get our friends back home to help with. Since we were basically just sitting at home itching to help, we're pretty thrilled to be able to go up and jump right in.

On the first trip, Gene and I will be going with my dad and Nobuka Horii, certified disaster coordinators from Shizuoka prefecture. We get to ride on their coat-tails and work with them to distribute stuff that we've sent ahead: fruit, toilet paper, and toys for kids, etc. Gene and I will be taking our expert balloon-making services, and hopefully we'll be able to sing some Japanese folk songs to encourage people (which is probably the thing we're better at). The main purpose of this trip is to figure out what we can do, and how we can help better the second time we go up--what we can bring, whether more people are needed, etc.

We'll leave to catch up with the Shizuoka team in a few hours, so wish us luck. I promise to update you every time I encounter an internet connection!!!

Lots of love and HOPING for your prayers,

Florence