Jonet Salon at Shibitachi meeting house in Karakuwa

On 22nd June, I came from Tokyo to join the Jonet operation for the first time.

At 8 in the morning, 6 of us packed ourselves with a lot of relief goods into a car and left from Sendai for Karakuwa to visit a shelter called “Ikoi-no ie (resting house).”

The journey had been expected to take about 2 hours and half, but it was about to take much longer when we found the road in the Motoyoshi area destroyed and had to detour by Takadai.

In the city of Kesennuma, very much similar to Onagawa I had seen a month before, there were tanks overturned and ships charred, and debris everywhere.

Traffic was bad for a number of road construction works taking place.

Prepared for further delay, we had Onigiri (rice balls) and managed our lunch in the car.

In the end, it took us 4 hours to arrive at the resting house.

The seashore in the peninsula had remained beautiful as sapphire, despite the tsunami.

Since we were late, everybody had gone home once, but they all came back to the house again when we finally arrived.

“You made it!” Everyone welcomed us.

Because it was a weekday, there were no children. About 20 women between their 30s and 70s gathered with us.

Soon we treated them to famous brands of sweets and Maccha (powdered green tea used for tea ceremony), which we had received from all over the country. I was pleased to see some members having their second cup of tea. “I did not expect to be having Maccha!” someone said joyfully.

Next we made toy bears, using work-gloves. Everyone was making her own bears quite actively. Many lovely and original bears were created.

“My eye sight is bad,” a woman said earlier, but she ended up losing herself in making most original bears.

In the end, photographs of our bears were taken. I assumed everyone enjoyed it very much.

We of course gave them our present –“Jonet-Set”– and hand massage. “My hands are lightened,” they were pleased.  This time, we also did their nails. The nails, though having looked tired from living in the temporary housing, once again became lovely.  “I can see the sheen of my nails,” a woman said with delight. It was indeed a grateful moment to our experience.

The ladies in Karakuwa were pleased with other presents we gave them – the lovely hand-made pouches that our members in Tokyo made. “Could I take two extra for my daughter and grandmother?” We were happy to hear a woman asking us something like that.

A man brought us photographs of the immediate aftermath of the disaster. When he was telling us his story, two of our members were quite shaken.

The tsunami took not only many fine houses but everything away. What’s more, more than 10 people were killed in his neighbourhood, he explained.

“Have a safe journey home,” many came to see us off. “We will be back for sure,” we answered.

On the way back, we stopped by the disaster countermeasures headquarter in Karakuwa district.

“We wish these would be a help for you who have been aiding the affected,” we left the members of headquarter with 10 Jonet-Sets.

There was a smile. But I only realised they were also the victims themselves. Surely there is no one who has escaped from the disaster.

The road construction works taking place everywhere confused us on our way back. We went inland and got lost. It took us a while to get back onto the Sanriku Expressway and finally another 4 hours for our return to Sendai.

The whole journey took us 8 hours. Though quite tired, we were nevertheless finding a sense of fulfilment in the end.

“We had to travel all the way up, but I really wanted to make them feel better,” said one of our members in the car on the way back. “I, too, wanted to cheer them up even a little bit,” answered another. I was remembering these words.

Mayumi

Temporary housing

Jonet Salon meeting in Karakuwa,

 Shibitachi meeting house.

Everyone strongly banded together.

We had lively conversations, quite harmoniously!

In the end, it was nothing but their smile that saw us off.

We were given delicious pickles.

Work-glove-bears the Shibitachi participants made.

Debris has not been removed.

Many work vehicles on the road.

Because of the bad traffic, it took us nearly 5 hours

to get to Karakuwa from Sendai.

Reportage No. 3 from Kami-no Ie and Tsukihama

100 days have past since the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster on 11 March.

9,200 people have been killed and 4,700 are still missing in Miyagi prefecture alone. This reality weighs heavily on the minds of us who have survived.

I received a letter from Mr. Katsumi Ono, the owner of the tourist home “Kami-no Ie” in Tsukihama.

You can read what he had to say in the letter in our last blog entry.

“Kami-no Ie” has been given great encouragement and wishes from people all over Japan who have known “Kami-no Ie” for a long time, said Mr. Ono.

Mr. Ono has drawn a blueprint of Tsukihama’s future and already made some specific suggestions for its reconstruction.

We wish him all the best.

We, members of Miyagi Jonet, had our Jonet salon meeting at the Onagawa General Gymnasium – now a shelter for many – in the morning and then split into 2 groups. One group took visitors to Ishinomaki and Tsukihama to show them the present condition.

The other group had another Jonet salon meeting in a shelter in Kaisenkaku, Onagawa in the afternoon, then came to Tsukihama to stay for a little while on their way back.

Electricity supply has been recovered so that people can watch television now. There is, however, still no internet connection, as the optic fiber cables have been cut off. Due to the severe damage to the house, water supply inside their house has yet to be restored.

While the priority has been given to the construction of temporary housing, building companies have not been able to arrange for enough building materials to fix the damage caused to private houses.

Even now meals are rationed. Bento (box meals) are distributed for breakfast and dinner, and bread for lunch.

Temporary housing has been built just in front of Kami-no Ie.

The installment of exterior parts of the temporary housing was finished today, and air conditioners and other household appliance were being installed inside.

I have been told that people will draw for the residence in temporary housing, and who wins can move in this month.

Soon people in the Satohama shelter and 3 families who have been evacuated from Kami-no Ie shall regain their private family living.

Operation vehicles have been brought to the shore to clean up debris. After separating metals and wood, all debris will be taken to a collection point.

I shall keep following the progress made in Tsukihama.

An elder friend of the landlady of Kami-no Ie.

The 5 pictures below are shots from

the Jonet salon meeting

at the Onagawa General Gymnasium shelter.

 

Making bear toys from work-gloves

A temporary bath in Tsukihama

Water supply has been restored outside,

yet is not available indoors.

To the Members of Miyagi Jonet

I would like to thank you all for your support and encouragement. I am deeply grateful for your kindness.

3 months have past since the disaster. As the construction of temporary housing will be finished in about 10 days (at last!), people will be able to start moving in this month.

We attended a memorial service held in Higashi-Matsushima city on the 18th of June that was the 100th day after the disaster. Hoping the day to be a turning point in this aftermath, we are now about to start looking for future.

Even though Higashi-Matsushima city has been coping with the problems rather slowly, as you might have already found, we have not been completely numb with the shock but we have been thinking about reconstruction plans for the Tsukihama area.

We were, however, having communication problems while our internet connection was cut off.

Given this situation, there wasn’t actually much we could do. But we are fortunate to have assistance of some people who have access to the internet so that we are making efforts to prepare for various plans.

I have been appointed as president of the organisation called “Higashi-Matsushima Experience Network”. (You can find more about the organisation on our webpage.) Our organisation has proposed a plan “experiencing-tourism (in which tourists are encouraged to experience the local everyday life)” for Higashi-Matsushima’s tourism in future. This new tourism will be formed in 2 parts: conventional tourism based on sightseeing and the experiencing-tourism part, in which tourists can experience fishing village life. I believe that this new form of tourism will lead to new developments of the area.

Also, we have concluded that we need to start a scheme to get external support in order to reconstruct the area. 

The following are the contents of the scheme:

1. We will launch Oku-Matsushima reconstruction project.

Under this project, we will start a unit-owner scheme in order for rapid reconstruction of Oku-Matsushima’s industry. (The project is to allow people to make financial contributions in units of 10,000 JPY to the area. Those who wish to invest in our project can become unit-owners.)

Though similar projects have been launched in other areas already and ours could be a rehash, we have concluded that we should accept external support, as there are already a number of people who wish to support us financially.

Owners can make contributions in units of 10,000 JPY. In return, we will either send them marine products (sea urchin, abalone, etc.) when the fishery industry is rebuilt or invite them to Oku-Matsushima and offer them fishery experience.

Owners can choose either of these two, depending on which area of Oku-Matsushima they wish to support.

2. We will make specific reconstruction plans:

In fact our plan has already been submitted to the city committee and is being examined at present. It seems that Miyato will be the model district, where reconstruction works will first take place. For more details, please check our webpage.

If you have any suggestions or opinions about this, I would be happy to go to Sendai to discuss these ideas. Also, you can send emails to us: kaminoie@rose.ocn.ne.jp

Best Regards,

Katsumi Ono, the owner of Kami-no Ie

 

Map of reconstruction plan

Temporary Housing

 

Preparing for the 14th National Shelter Symposium 2011 in Sendai

Representative of NPO Japan Women’s Shelter Association

Board Chairperson of DV Sufferer Support PMJ Foundation

Hijikata-san

Director of the Non-profit Corporation Japan Women’s Shelter Network

Board Chairperson of the Non-profit Corporation Sankaku Navi

Kaibara-san

Board Chairperson of the Non-profit Corporation Feminist Support Centre Tokai

Oki-san

The National Shelter Symposium is scheduled to take place in November 2011.

Thank you very much for coming to Sendai for the symposium preparation meeting, and helping us out at the office with the preparations for the Salon, too.

Donations of Mobile Solar

Fuji Electric representatives brought Mobile Solar units to Sendai.

This is a photograph of them having just arrived at the station.

The Mobile Solar units will be delivered to Karakuwa by the end of this week.

Cell phone use is limited and so it is impossible to contact those in evacuation centres.

Visit of Unilever

The spouse of Unilever’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ms. Kim, and the spouse of Unilever Japan’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ms. Sylvia, arrived yesterday to visit the disaster area and consider further support measures.

Since the quake, we have received tremendous support from Unilever.

Yesterday at 6:00 a.m. boxes of donations were delivered to our office. We immediately packed them onto a car heading to Minamisanriku where there is not yet running water. Among the goods was floral fragranced body shampoo that will help to heal the victims. No doubt the donations will uplift bodies and hearts.

Our guests listen intently to the interpreter.

In the background, the bulldozer tirelessly removes debris.

Coastal pines bent from the 7 meter high tsunami.

At the Jonet Salon held at the Tagajo evacuation centre,

our visitors could listen directly to survivors’ stories.

Cracked earth of a rice paddy.

The pine trees in the distance have been dulled by the tsunami  

Donations from Unilever. Fragrance has a tremendous healing power.

A rugosa rose blooms at a Shichigahama viewing platform.  

Traces of retreating water