Ishinomaki Day 1
I recently returned from a week in Tohoku volunteering with the NGO Peace Boat in the tsunami-devastated city of Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture. For the next week I'll be posting day by day accounts of my experience.
On Friday evening, volunteers assembled in preassigned teams of six with all their gear in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Though I can speak Japanese, I opted to join an international, mostly bilingual team for this first trip to Tohoku. Volunteers traveled by overnight bus to Ishinomaki Senshu University--10 buses carrying over 350 volunteers of many nationalities who'd come from all over Japan and abroad.
sunrise on the way to Ishinomaki
cherry blossoms at a rest area
Peace Boat busesWe arrived in Ishinomaki at 8:30 am, unloaded our gear and listened to instructions from Peace Boat staff.
volunteers receiving instructions on arrivalWe set up our tents on the campus grounds around the university track.
the university track team practiced despite the upheaval around them
my homeAt 11:30 our team reported to duty, suited up in rain suits and safety boots. A bus took us to Peace Boat's base at Ai Plaza in the center of the city where we heard detailed explanations of the type of work we would do, how to keep safe, etc. Each team gathered wheelbarrows, shovels, trowels, brooms, bags for mud and debris and set off to an assigned location.
the last time my yellow-green suit was cleanOur first day's task was to clean out a movie theater--remove the seats, shovel the oily sludge into bags, haul them outside, and scrape the floor clean. Headlamps were our only source of light.
removing chairs from the theater
bagging sludge
heaps of sludge bags and debris
nearby temple grounds filled with debrisThe center of Ishinomaki City was hit by the overflowing river caused by the tsunami--the flood line reached up to the second story of buildings. Debris was piled everywhere, and many buildings were badly damaged.
damaged building, muddy road
debris and damaged buildingsWe worked at the movie theater all afternoon then hauled ourselves and our tools to the clean station to be hosed off.
the clean station
clothes and tools all hosed off From there we walked back to Ai Plaza, past the manga characters, to leave our tools and take a bus back to the university.
on Ishinomaki's main street
a poster for IshinomakiAt the camp site, we quickly set up cook stoves to fix noodles and other quick foods and were also served soba and salad by a food truck supporting volunteers. By 9 pm the grounds were quiet--everyone exhausted from the overnight trip and the first day's work. The temperature dropped fast at night--I made good use of a small hot water bottle and adhesive Hokaron warmers throughout my week in Ishinomaki.
On Friday evening, volunteers assembled in preassigned teams of six with all their gear in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Though I can speak Japanese, I opted to join an international, mostly bilingual team for this first trip to Tohoku. Volunteers traveled by overnight bus to Ishinomaki Senshu University--10 buses carrying over 350 volunteers of many nationalities who'd come from all over Japan and abroad.
sunrise on the way to Ishinomaki
cherry blossoms at a rest area
Peace Boat busesWe arrived in Ishinomaki at 8:30 am, unloaded our gear and listened to instructions from Peace Boat staff.
volunteers receiving instructions on arrivalWe set up our tents on the campus grounds around the university track.
the university track team practiced despite the upheaval around them
my homeAt 11:30 our team reported to duty, suited up in rain suits and safety boots. A bus took us to Peace Boat's base at Ai Plaza in the center of the city where we heard detailed explanations of the type of work we would do, how to keep safe, etc. Each team gathered wheelbarrows, shovels, trowels, brooms, bags for mud and debris and set off to an assigned location. 
the last time my yellow-green suit was cleanOur first day's task was to clean out a movie theater--remove the seats, shovel the oily sludge into bags, haul them outside, and scrape the floor clean. Headlamps were our only source of light. 
removing chairs from the theater
bagging sludge
heaps of sludge bags and debris
nearby temple grounds filled with debrisThe center of Ishinomaki City was hit by the overflowing river caused by the tsunami--the flood line reached up to the second story of buildings. Debris was piled everywhere, and many buildings were badly damaged.
damaged building, muddy road
debris and damaged buildingsWe worked at the movie theater all afternoon then hauled ourselves and our tools to the clean station to be hosed off.
the clean station
clothes and tools all hosed off From there we walked back to Ai Plaza, past the manga characters, to leave our tools and take a bus back to the university. 
on Ishinomaki's main street
a poster for IshinomakiAt the camp site, we quickly set up cook stoves to fix noodles and other quick foods and were also served soba and salad by a food truck supporting volunteers. By 9 pm the grounds were quiet--everyone exhausted from the overnight trip and the first day's work. The temperature dropped fast at night--I made good use of a small hot water bottle and adhesive Hokaron warmers throughout my week in Ishinomaki.
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