BON VOYAGE ! ENGLISH: Ishinomaki

I was in Ishinomaki, Miyagi for one week (Mar26-Apr2) as part of a PEACE BOAT emergency relief volunteer efforts.

I had no words the first day I saw the area completely devastated.
We are overwhelmed by a feeling of powerlessness.
Cars and Houses tripped and went headlong everywhere.
There is a town which seized with a sense of powerlessness.
It's hard to believe this continue to hundreds of kilometers on the coast of Tohoku.
But this is a reality.

There is something that can't be known by TV. Looked with my eyes, felt in my bones, the dust and dirt, smelled mixed everything ... the reality was in there...
There is a life, There is people who trying to get back things they had before.
Everyone is trying to arise from the devastated land as if they say It happened, That can't be changed, have to moving on. so Everyone strongly started moving forward now.
There are people who need to stay at an evacuation center, people who need to stay the house half wrecked, They are prepared it's going to be a long term. They're all trying to put the pieces together, joining hands and working together to stand up.

Here's some pictures of Ishinomaki. please take a look and feel .....

Self-Defense Force supply water and food at evacuation centers

【Volunteer efforts】
We, PEACE BOAT emergency relief volunteers assist the local community or evacuating center by cooking hot meals, distributing supplies, and shoveling the mud swept in. and not the only PEACEBOAT, now more than 40 civil society organizations from everywhere in Japan and all over the world are taking part in the relief efforts in Ishinomaki.

I was in a warehouse which all the relief supplies arrive from all over and I coordinate what sufferers need and pass to other teams which they bring it to the places for distributions. They came back with the people request for next distributions.

The needs are changing day by day. Flowing supplies shows that their life has changed little by little....
Couple days, I went out and joined other teams to distributions and shoveling the mud outside of a elementary school.
At the elementary school, I just stood in the school building, covered with mud and sandy dust all around the places.....cars and houses are stacking in the back of the building... I tried hard to hold back full of emotion inside of me...

It's almost one month since the earthquake, but the area still need more people to help cleaning and recovering.