February 25

Snow!
More pictures forthcoming when the folks who took pictures today load them up on Facebook.

Since a whole bunch of snow had gotten dumped on Kamaishi, we drove in today unsure of whether we'd have jobs to do, but it was actually a pretty full day.

In the morning, we cleaned rubble out of a person's home.
There was a lot of belongings in every room, so it was a pretty labor-intensive job. We didn't get done, and I'm not sure if we would have finished even if we could have worked the afternoon as well.

I spent all my time in one room, stuffing smaller objects into bags, while Kato-san spent half of his time stuffing bags and the other half getting large things, like mirror stands and dressers and such, out into the hall so somebody else could carry those downstairs.

So I was in the same room the whole time, and maybe it was because I haven't done a clean-up job in a few weeks or because I haven't spent my time in just a bedroom for a while, but I started to develop an unsettlingly specific image of the owner of the bedroom.

You understand very quickly whether it's a man or woman's room, just because of the items of clothing around, but sometimes details start popping out at you.
A notebook labeled "diet book." A box labeled with a girl's name. Some kind of instrument in a case. A medal from a high school running competition. Music CDs of outdated teenage idols. Too many purses, and jars of some kind of junk, maybe cosmetics or beads or something. A music box that still plays when it opens. Letters from friends in big bubbly handwriting.

And mixed in with some really girlish items, like a plastic Sailor Moon, women's items, like lighters and menstrual pads. The bedroom of an adult child.

All of these things, except the photographs and the important certificates and the medal, get stuffed into bags to be hauled to the dump because they were soaked by the tsunami water. We, the volunteers, were the ones in there stuffing the bags.

I am 26 and a woman, with a room like that at my family home. Kato-san has two daughters.

In the afternoon, we got switched over to more urgent jobs: shoveling snow for little old lady residents. Two little old ladies, or their relatives, put in requests to have the road or little path in front of their houses shoveled.

The first little old lady was someone I'd never seen before . I didn't talk to her directly but I heard a shouted bit of conversation (Kato-san, later: "She can't hear very well.") saying she'd like to pay us. :D Grandma, we're volunteers. You can't pay us. But thank you. <3

The second little old lady had put in a request before for snow shoveling. Before, she had stuffed us with delicious treats and coffee. This time, she stuffed us with delicious treats and tea. It was wonderful.

We had a snowball fight at the volunteer center, and then made our way for home.

Guest Post: Micah

Letter from volunteer Micah (exchange student) to Japan Studies Student Leaders, Willamette University. Copied here with permission. Thanks so much, Micah.--Anna

Dear my lovely JSSL-ers,

Greetings from Japan! Many of you may not know who I am, so I shall take a brief moment to introduce myself. I am Micah Mizukami, junior, spending a year at TIU. Last year I was the president of JSSL.

I write to you all today because I would like to share my experience volunteering in Iwate Prefecture. In November of last year, I went to Iwate for the first time with two other Willamette students, Emily Abraham and Heather Hurlburt, if you know who they are. Yesterday I came back from Iwate again after volunteering for four days by myself.

I’m sure you all have seen the pictures of the damage and destruction that was caused on March 11, 2011. Nearly a year has passed since that day, and things have been cleared up quite a bit. By taking a look at these pictures, you can see how far the clean up process has progressed. http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/09/see-how-japan-has-rebuilt-in-the-11-months-since-the-earthquake-and-tsunami/

As all of you are part of JSSL, you are all bound by a common interest in Japan. If you have the opportunity to come to Japan, whether to study abroad or not, I highly recommend volunteering. Although the pictures in the link above make it seem like everything is okay, do not be deceived. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done in the Tohoku region of Japan.

I spent Wednesday through Saturday of last week volunteering in two different cities in Iwate, both of which are shown in the link above. The first two days were spent in Rikuzentakata and the other two were spent in Kamaishi. Back in November, I went to Kamaishi, so I was already familiar with the area, but Rikuzentakata was a first. As we drove to the work site, I could not comprehend what was before my eyes. There was nothing. If you look at the pictures of Rikuzentakata in the link above, you will see that there is, in fact, nothing. Nothing but dirt. Debris separated and organized into mounds. A few buildings (three, or four) remain, but are badly damaged. It’s as if a town never existed there. On my first day in Rikuzentakata, I helped build rafts used to grow and harvest oysters. The second day I spent cleaning dirt off of letters, postcards, and other paper documents.

In Kamaishi, also pictured in the link above, half of the town is perfectly fine, unaffected by the tsunami. The other half, however, is eerily quiet, a deserted ghost town. It truly feels like a post-apocalyptic world. Some buildings have been torn from their foundations [*], nowhere to be seen, while others stand falling apart, debris scattered everywhere. The first morning in Kamaishi was spent helping an old woman, whose house was lost to the tsunami, move her things from a friend’s house into a temporary housing facility. This old woman was so grateful that she treated the two other volunteers and me to tea and Japanese sweets. She also talked of her experience with the disaster and how she was safely out of the country for a wedding, but how many friends and acquaintances were lost to the devastation. Despite losing her house, many of her belongings, and friends, seeing her gratitude and generosity after simply helping to move her things was quite moving.

Other jobs in Kamaishi included removing dirt, oil, and other debris from the gutters, cleaning a mound of what used to be a barbershop, and walking around Kamaishi with a map to mark down which buildings still need to be cleaned out before being torn down. Another incident that left an impact on me during volunteering was cleaning the pile of debris that was once a barbershop. While cleaning up, an old woman sitting in the back of a taxi passed by, and seeing the volunteers, she bowed her head deeply towards us. It was a silent display of gratitude and I’m not sure if any of the other volunteers noticed, but the old woman bowing silently in the taxi left a deep impression on me.

However, we are all volunteers. As volunteers, we have no expectations to be thanked. Instead after volunteering, we thank the person who asked us to volunteer before leaving the work site. Thank you for letting us work here. In November at the quick volunteer orientation, we were told that volunteers should not have the mindset of ボランティアをしてあげる, but instead think in terms of ボランティアをさせて頂く. I will humbly receive the favor of volunteering, not I will give you my help volunteering. It is with this spirit that we volunteer. We are all grateful for being allowed to work in such an area, grateful to learn from the experience of volunteering.

I met many wonderful people during my stay in Iwate. All of the volunteers are truly people to look up to. They spend their free time, their weekends, volunteering. Some even spend all their time volunteering, with no salary or income. They all know that there is still a lot left to do, but they work while smiling, laughing. Everyone works as hard as they can, does the job as best they can. If I have the chance, I want to volunteer a third time this spring. I hope that other Willamette students will go and volunteer as well. While the jobs vary in type and intensity, help is always welcome.

I apologize at how long this email has become, but it is my hope that JSSL will spread the message that although nearly a year has passed, Tohoku should not be forgotten. Even though the pictures make it seem as if everything has been cleaned up, that is not the reality of the situation. A lot remains to be done.

I wish you luck with Sakura Matsuri preparations and such. I am also very impressed at your organization in welcoming the ASP students this year. Keep up the good work!

Thank you.

Peace and Love,

Micah Hisa Mizukami

[*] The buildings in Kamaishi reduced to foundation were mostly torn down later. Rikuzentakata's buildings were not, they were washed away. --Anna

Guest Post: Volunteer Emily

Brief bio? (Where you live, how long you`ve lived here, where are you from, etc.)
Hi! My name is Emily Davis, originally from Boulder, Illinois, living in Japan. I lived in Iwaizumi from 2009-10, and have lived in Morioka for the past two years. I'm 25 and work as an English teacher for Zenrinkan NPO in Morioka.

What kinds of work did you do as a volunteer? (What did you do?)
The first time I volunteered, we cleaned out a devastated beauty salon. The second time, we worked on a building that maybe was an apartment complex? The third time we did a Christmas event for children in the temporary housing units.

Was volunteering what you expected it to be? Why/why not?
The first time I volunteered, I really didn't know what to expect. Hard labor, I guess. A little bit of danger. But I didn't expect to be quite so revolted. It probably sounds like I'm a sissy, but we put our hands in this filth over and over again, it got in our eyes, ears, noses, and all the time I was thinking about what could be in it. Plus, the Japanese people didn't really give us directions. People were just doing what they thought needed to be done, and I didn't feel confident just picking up a shovel without someone directing me. I couldn't relax at all that day.
But then we had the second volunteer day. I was really anxious in the morning, thinking that it would be the same thing, but it was completely different. I mean, the work was the same, but I had gotten used to the rancid mud, and having plenty of friends around really helped. I really enjoyed it, I could make a game out of it instead of thinking about the death and feeling anxious. Now I feel totally confident that I could happily volunteer again. (Once it gets warm, that is, I do nothing but kotatsu in the winter...)

What would you say to someone who is thinking about volunteering but hasn`t done it yet?
Do it! It's a great experience, and it will show you what you're made of (in a really good way). But bring a friend or seven with you. Or make some when you get to the site. It's better to do with friends, and it makes it fun, because the devastation can bring you down if you're alone.

What is it like going to one of the coastal towns damaged by the tsunami?
Ummmm. I think everyone really responds differently to it. I'm sure some people feel numb, or cry, or get angry. It sounds bad, but I just feel sick. You see the debris, you smell the old dirt. There are guys directing traffic with batons because the signals were still broken. Those little things that signify "it's not right" really get to me, and kind of tie my stomach in knots. But I'm sure that's not a normal reaction, probably just me.

Other thoughts?
Like you, Anna, I sound incredibly depressing about all this, don't I? But I guess the point is that we've earned this luxury to sound gloomy. There's a certain aura of a battle scar in it, like the kind you show it off at parties and say, "When I was in 'Nam..." We've volunteered: we're part of a tough crowd, we're one of the good guys, and we'd never say it about ourselves, but that feeling of being a hero is definitely a motivating force to return and volunteer some more. And heros don't talk sunshine and rainbows, do they? When was the last time Batman said, "You know, things are really looking up in Gotham City, I'll bet they'll rebuild in no time!"? He wouldn't say that, he probably wouldn't say anything, but he'd stand by his city and hop in his awesome car every time someone raised the batsign. Isn't that good enough?

Volunteer January 28/29

Last weekend, we spent both days at an old folk`s home. It was a day care center for the elderly in Unosumai--HANDS had been there at least once before to clean out the flowerbeds and plant new bulbs for the little old ladies to enjoy.

This time, there were about three jobs. One: get the first floor ready for repairing and repainting. This meant tearing off the floor and then getting the rust off the metal beams so they could be repainted. There were two main ways to getting the rust off the metal beams: one, a little metal scrubby brush and/or sandpaper, which seemed to do a whole lot of nothing. Two, the scariest looking contraption alive, this evil-looking machine that screeched when it hit metal and set off an impressive batch of sparks everywhere. I think it`s called an "electric sander" in English. I have no intention of ever touching one.

Job two was outside. Some pine trees had died, likely because of the tsunami water, and we were to chop down the trees and cut them into pieces to load onto a truck and dump.

Job three was inside, in a back room. The old folk`s home had received adult diapers as relief goods donations, but the little old ladies actually preferred the pad kind. So, job number three was to cut off part of the adult diapers to convert them into pads.

Our group was split into two groups, men and women, with the men handling jobs one and two and the women cutting diapers in the back room for job three.

I`ve always thought of myself as a feminist, but I have a tendency to accept sex-specific assignments even though I don`t agree with it. For one thing, there were only three women and the diaper-cutting job was just as important as the others. On the other hand, it was very cold and because we had no opportunity to move around we couldn`t warm ourselves up very well.

Well, on the second day the group from Tokyo (mostly foreigners) decided that on Sunday, everyone was going to change jobs. The men would take a turn back cutting diapers, and the women would go get rust off beams and such. So they did. Not sure what our site leader thought about all this, but he`s an easygoing fellow so I figure he must have been fine with the change.

Anyway, some diapers were cut and some rust was removed, and all the trees I think were cleared out.

The Kamaishi volunteer center, either because it hadn`t been getting enough weekday volunteers or because there wasn`t enough work to merit being open all week, has changed the days it takes volunteers to Friday through Sunday. This means there should be plenty of work to do Friday to Sunday, when the most people come in the first place.

Rikuzentakata, I think, is still holding steady at 6 days a week with Tuesdays off. When there`s not enough work at Kamaishi and we`re scheduled to volunteer, we go to Rikuzentakata instead.

In the coming weeks, HANDS may be changing its schedule from every day to just part of the week. So far, we have changed to taking every Tuesday off. This isn`t due to not needing volunteers, so much as scheduling concerns for our regular staffmembers. Stay tuned for more information.

If you sign up for a day that we don`t end up dispatching volunteers on, don`t worry. I will help you sign up for another volunteer opportunity in the area (probably through Toono Magokoro Net) or in Ishinomaki (probably It`s Not Just Mud).

It was a great weekend. According to my planner, looks like I`ve had 46 volunteer days. I`m still looking forward to next time. :D