Shaken and Stirred

June 11^th

We have had small earthquakes every day.   With my California know-how, I’d guess that the first couple were 2.0’s.  This morning we had a good rattler -- more like a 3.5.    One of our Japanese volunteers was here during the big one.   She said that the quake that caused the Tsunami had a low, loud rumble to it.   Our daily aftershocks are quiet, but un-nerving.  The volunteer house goes silent and we all just wait for it to pass.   The good thing is that we are staying in a nice solid building and we are up on high ground.

Yesterday, I joined a volunteer team that went out a rocky inlet near the harbor to help start the clean up on an oil spill.   The oil is from one of the ocean tankers that got pretty beat up.   Our group of 7 joined about 30 other local volunteers at the job site.   The man leading the project gave us an orientation (in his limited English) and we headed down to the shore to shovel and pick up globs of oil and oil soaked mud into bags.    It didn’t feel like we were making much progress and it will likely take months to clean up that shoreline.   It was a hot, tiring and frustrating day.   We came back to base stinking of oil, very exhausted and disenchanted.   We soon found out that we weren’t the worse odorous offenders in the group.   One of the teams went to a seaweed factory to clear out boxes of rotted seaweed.  Peeeyeeew!  Each of the other work teams staggered back to the volunteer base muddy, dusty, dirty and tired.    The looks in their eyes expressed utter exhaustion.

Getting Settled In

The long transport to the volunteer base camp wasn’t bad at all.    By big gaijin (non Japanese) body was a bit large for the seat on the overnight bus.  Thankfully, no one was seated next to me.    I was glad for the three hour connection in Morioka because it took me awhile to figure out where to catch my next bus.   In Tokyo, everything was in both English and Japanese – but here in the North there isn’t much English.  ( I went to the store yesterday to try to by some cleaning supplies.  You should have seen me trying to figure out what was what.  Hm, that spray bottle has a picture of a crib and a bed?   Febreeze perhaps?)

I continue to be impressed by the Japanese.   It’s no myth – everyone really is as nice as they say and there are continual little “touches” that surprise you.   I might sound like I’m obsessing about toilets, but I thought it was a hoot when I sat down on the Western style toilet at the train station and a tape came on that said something like “thank you for using our toilet.  Welcome to Morioka” and then there was the sound of rushing water like a waterfall (I guess to help you with you “flow”).    It made me smile as I was going.

There are currently about 60 volunteers here, about 15 of them are Japanse and the others are from all over the world.  There is Michael from England, entertaining Thomaso from Italy, Maria from Sweden, Ana who is about  my age and is a Japanese American working for the US Embassy in Japan,  Dominic from Milwaukee, and Tyree from Kentucky who keeps getting a lot of stare and smiles from the locals because he has a big ol' 70 style afro.    Just to name a few.   We are nicely crowded onto the floors of three communal living spaces.  A cacophony of snoring at night.    

Arrival in Japan

Just arrived at Narita, Tokyo airport after an uneventful 11 hours flight.    First class, baby!  (I thank my departed stepdad, Fred every time I get to use the Delta standby pass)

On the plane, I chatted with the Delta translator about doing relief work in Japan.   Her husband is a hair dresser and every couple of weeks he takes an hour bus ride to one of the shelters in the impacted zone to give complimentary haircuts to the evacuees.    She had some astonishing photos on her iphone of the damage there.     

The IT professional in the seat next to me was a wealth of knowledge about Tokyo and the train/ metro system.   Just as we were landing, he pointed out a house in the middle of the intersection of runways.  Apparently the owners of the house were protesting the building of Narita Airport and have refused to move for over twenty-something years.   (The things you learn when talking to a local!).  

I noticed how green the land is around the Narita Airport (about 60 miles from Tokyo proper).   Rice paddies and golf courses.     The weather is humid and muggy as Typhon season is beginning.