Return to Ishinomaki--Six Months After

Last week, just before the six-month anniversary of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, I traveled north to Tohoku to complete another volunteer work stint with the NGO Peace Boat in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture. In late April and early May, during Golden Week, I had joined an 8-day trip. This time I joined a 4-night, 3-day trip--2 nights on overnight bus and 2 nights staying at the Kasuka Fashion factory building.

our lodgings

Conditions for volunteers have changed dramatically since my first trip when we had to bring our own tents, food, water and gear. Now most gear can be borrowed, lunch and dinner are served, water is available, tents are not necessary, and there are even...daily showers.

shower stalls

And Ishinomaki itself looked quite different from the sludge shoveling days of spring. Most of the debris has been heaped into organized mountains, mud has been removed, destroyed cars have been gathered and stacked, and shells of houses stand amid cleared open areas now filling with weeds. 

debris mountain

miles and miles of damaged homes

 The volunteer work that our team was assigned to do was all in the same location--Oginohama, a small fishing community part way out the Oshika Peninsula. The tsunami had overrun the fishing port and poured over the torii gate at the base of the shrine. Our efforts for the three days were to ready the shrine and surrounding grounds so that the locals remaining in the area could hold their important annual shrine festival. On day one, many teams worked together to clean the neglected 200 steps up to the mountaintop shrine, scrubbing away moss and mud for hours on end.

Some teams worked with the fishermen helping to cut ropes in preparation for wakame cultivation, an alternative to oyster farming which was heavily damaged and takes longer to revive. The port area had sunk about one meter; high tides now inundate the pier.

cutting rope for wakame

submerged pier

On day two we returned to the shrine, and our team was assigned to weed and cut grass alongside the upper steps.

weeding and grass cutting

In the afternoon, locals cut bamboo poles, and volunteers helped hoist the festival flags.

preparing the flags

festival flags hoisted

We returned to Ishinomaki via Onagawa, one of the most dramatically and brutally hit towns along the coast. The tsunami reached 18 meters in Onagawa (60 feet), even flooding the first floor of the hospital, high on a hill. Debris in Onagawa has been mostly cleared, leaving a stark, eerie and sobering landscape.

Onagawa Hospital

police box on its side

climbing up to the hospital

view from the hospital

view from the hospital

trying to comprehend

the tsunami reached the top of this building

Back at our home base, after dinner, tsunami survivor Yoshinobu Bandai spoke to volunteers, sharing his harrowing experience of escape in Ishinomaki, his despair at hearing people's last cries for help, and the grim scenes the days after the tsunami. He implored us all to heed disaster warnings, to not hesitate in escaping to higher ground in case of tsunami, and to be wary of predicted heights of tsunami waves--in Ishinomaki the warning had been for just a six-meter wave.

with Yoshinobu Bandai

Later we watched Peace Boat's DVD of earthquake, tsunami, and volunteer efforts.

On the third and final day we returned to Oginohama for the actual matsuri (festival) event. Peace Boat volunteers set up for a barbecue then joined the priest and priestess and locals climbing the 200 very clean steps to the shrine for the ceremony.

Volunteers waited in silence outside the shrine during the proceedings.

Afterward we descended the steps...

 and the mikoshi (portable shrine) was brought out and carried through the harbor rubble, to the few habitable homes and temporary housing for purification rites, then out to the pier followed by the elementary school students--now only nine in the area, down from 20 due to relocation after the tsunami.

bringing the mikoshi down the steps

carrying the mikoshi through the port area

the procession

stopping at the temporary housing units

The mikoshi and drums, children and priest and a few volunteers went on one boat, and most of the volunteers and locals on the others, and we chugged out into the bay toward a pair of islands. The scenery was stunning and it was difficult to imagine a tsunami on that placid sea.

Back in the port, we cooked up the feast that Peace Boat had prepared and served the local residents who seemed to enjoy this day of community and festivity.

 After the feast, all played Bingo and a raucous round of suika wari (blindfolded watermelon bashing) followed.

This trip to Ishinomaki was short but deeply meaningful. My teammates, once again, were amazing--patient, thoughtful, and hard-working.

my team departing Ishinomaki

And Peace Boat staff members, selfless volunteers themselves, continue to awe and impress me. I am so grateful for these brief opportunities to join them in helping Tohoku recover.