Traveling to Tohoku
June 17-18th:
*clicking on the pictures will make them bigger*
We arrived late Sunday night (17th) tired, cold, and hungry from the long train ride in Tohoku. This was a small little town in the larger area, and more well known, Sendai and Ishinomaki areas. As many of you know, Sendai was part of the area that was hit by the terrible earthquake in March of 2011 that caused the devastating tsunami and the radiation plant lots of damage. It is still unbelievable how the area is still desolated, trashed, abandoned, showing signs of devastation everywhere almost 1 1/2 years later. But our God is a God who heals the broken heart and restores what was lost!
The night in Tohoku was stretching for many reasons. Jesus had a lot to show us about our own physical comfort and preparing us for mission work. Amazingly, we were all so okay with the situation! God gave us grace to be able to accept the situation, even being joyful in the process! When we arrived, all we had was an address. The Bostroms were driving through the night and would meet us up there at 10am the next morning. So we piled into taxis and off we went. When the taxi driver stopped to let us out, it looked like we were in the wrong place. It was very run down looking and there was no one around! We were looking for a church, but didn't see any signs or 'churchy' looking buildings or anything. There was one building with a light on and a glow, so we went around the corner and there were a bunch of Americans inside. They asked us if we were the Kawases and welcomed us into the church. The church had one big empty meeting room, a kitchen, and two bathrooms. We soon realized we needed bedding! We had no pillows, sleeping bags, blankets, or anything because the Bostroms had never spent the night up there and didn't know what to expect. The Americans that were there were actually a youth group from the American Navy Base there in Japan doing some relief work. They were so gracious to us and gave up many things so we could have a pillow and place to sleep. They let Mrs. Kawase have the couch, somehow there were 3 extra foam mattresses/blankets/pillows for the boys, and us girls slept on yoga mats with sitting cushions for pillows, no blankets. Because we had only planned to be gone for about 36 hours, we had only packed the bare minimum including our dance clothes for the morning. Since we had no blankets, we layered up with all the layers we could find.
I'm gonna be brutally honest. Sleeping was miserable. First, it is hard to be comfortable on a concrete floor with nothing but a thin yoga mat! Esp. when you know you are gonna be stiff and have to dance in the morning! Second, we found out we got cold pretty quickly. It wasn't super cold in the room, but somehow no blankets made it seem cold. Third, you don't sleep when your body thinks it needs to warm up! It keeps twitching and what not to try to keep warm. At one point Abi had the yoga mat rolled around her. =) Sometime around like 1am, Jenna came to Abi & I with Josh & Kenon's extra jackets that we put on ontop of our sweatshirts and then spooned to try and keep warm. Jenna couldn't sleep so she just sat huddled in a chair. Mrs. Kawase woke up at 3am, and let Jenna have the couch while she went to do a Bible study.
So that sets the context for what happened next. When you're in that kind of sleep, it takes a long time to determine what is real and what is a dream. All the sudden all these sounds start going off. Like a bunch of alarms. I thought, "Why is everyone getting up at the same time? And so early???" They started sleepily scrambling and getting dressed and hurrying. I was so confused. All the sudden, it felt like millions of golf balls were falling from the sky like rain. Then it started. It was kinda slow and steady at first and then got really hard, really rapid, really fast. The ground was shaking. We were having an earthquake.
Next thing I know, the youth group leader (also a Sergent) was shouting, "Everybody get in the vans!" Everyone was scrambling to the door, half dressed, hair everywhere, sleepy, and stumbling because the ground was moving! Quite the sight to behold! The earthquake, a 6.1 magnitude, lasted about 1min30sec for the really hard part. Because they live in Japan, the students had Japanese cell phones with earthquake alarms; that had been what all the alarms going off were. They were checking their phones for updates and news about the earthquake. The reason we needed to get to the vans was because of the threat of a tsunami and we needed to get up on the mountainside. But thankfully the earthquake didn't create one so we were fine. We looked at the clock...it was 5:30 in the morning!!!! We all were wide awake...what were we going to do now?
Us at 5:30am.....we are not morning people =) (Me, Jenna, Kenon)
We ended up being able to worship with them and do some worship dancing for them. It was such a neat time to be able to connect with their hearts. Later, Mr. Bostrom came to get us at 10am. They too had felt the earthquake while driving, but had been in the mountains, so they were safe. We went to an area near the thousands of temporary housing for those who had lost their homes in the tsunami in March 2011. Walking through all the houses telling them we were dancing and had free lunch, I began to realize the trauma they had been through. The houses were teeny.....even for Japan where everything was small. And they were empty. They literally had lost everything. To them, it seems like they had nothing to live for anymore. Many of them were old/retired and had no way of producing an income anymore (they don't retire til they are like dust in asia---they were really old!) and their families unable to help because they were dead or gone or in the same situation. Though the suicide rate in Japan is already extremely high due to the high stress levels, it had increased drastically in the Sendai region. It was heart breaking to see the devastation and hopelessness.
This was on a rice ball snack--- Train station in Ishinomaki
Pray for Japan, you are not alone,
pray for tohoku
Us after worship dancing with one of the youth.
Same place we slept the night before
We heard many stories, some of which I'll share here. One man was trapped in his car during the tsunami because many of the cars in Japan have electric doors and they couldn't open them once the water touched them. He was in his car for 3 days in a field while people all around him in other cars were dying. Of the 25 or more cars in that field, he was the only one who survived, only to face the issue of cleanup and restoration having lost everything. Houses were completely gone, just the foundation remained. Houses sunk 5-10 feet and are still like that, water filling the area. There is a high school that the village of Tohoku was supposed to go to in case of a tsunami. They went there and waited while the first wave came. About an hour later, they decided it was safe and went back to their homes. Not 30 minutes later, the second wave of the tsunami came and wiped them all away. Later the high school caught on fire. Many recall hearing the wailing, the screaming, the crying, the sounds of terror, little kids crying for their moma, seeing people just wandering around the streets staring numbly at the complete vacancy of where houses used to be or seeing a huge mound of trash all over a building. There are still huge boats, miles from the shore, lifted upside down on top of a 5 story building. One huge gas cylinder lies sideways and they are leaving it for a memorial for those who have lost everything, loved ones, and hope for restoration. There are still miles and miles of cars, broken, glass smashed out, twisted frames, junkyard looking cars. There are miles and miles of 'trash' mounds 4 stories high. The trash, upon closer inspection, is bicycles, picture frames, kitchen chairs, couches, t-shirts, shoes, toys, lamps, books, lawn mowers, plates, baby blankets, jewelry, computers, signs, house parts, dressers, mirrors, pillows, nic-nacs, everything. You begin to realize this isn't just trash, these are people's belongings, most valued possessions, memories, their life. You begin to see the vastness of the devastation. But God can restore!
building near the highest window
The water still sits in the sunken holes
The huge gas tank they are leaving put as a memorial
in, they began to collect them and use them
for various things and sell them
After the people gathered, we first danced for them. We soon realized that if we took breaks or pauses they would think it was over and begin to walk away. So for about 45 min, we just turned on worship music and danced. It was powerful! That was probably one of my best memories of Japan. Being able to serve the Japanese people, showing them that they did have hope and safety in Jesus, in the midst of circumstances that screamed differently. Many of them were so touched that we would bless them this way. It was precious and dear to my heart to see tears streaming from their eyes down their cheeks, coming up to us, patting us on the arm, hugging us, thanking us. After dancing we were able to lead some worship in Japanese with the Bostrom family and preach the gospel. We also got to serve them Dicon soup. So yummy! It is miso soup with lots of veggies and chicken! Yum! Later that afternoon we caught a train back to the Bostrom house, arriving late at night, packing, and getting ready to head to Gotsu in the morning.
