3 Days in Tanohata

We just got back from 3 days in Tanohata with the SICE students. The purposes of the trip were (1) to see some of the areas hardest hit by the March 2011 earthquake & tsunami and (2) for the SICE students to team up with a group from Waseda University (a major university in Tokyo) for “Shiinomori Camp”. Shiinomori Camp is a forest lodge/dorm that Waseda students go to ~4 times a year for more than 50 years. The students do volunteer work in the community, build their own furniture, maintain the forest, and probably lots of other things that I couldn’t understand. 41 years ago, when SICE began, the Earlham students used to spend a few weeks in Tanohata before coming to Morioka. At least one of these weeks was spent working with the Waseda students at Shiinomori Camp. After SICE moved exclusively to Morioka, they no longer spent time with the Waseda students until the tsunami in 2011. Our going was a bit of a revival of the tradition between the 2 groups. It seems like a neat experience, so I hope it will continue in the future.

DAY 1

We left Morioka early on Friday morning and headed over a crazy, twisty, tunneled, mountain road to the coast. Our first stop was in Taro, one of the communities most heavily damaged by the 2011 tsunami. Andy had been to Taro several times both before and after the tsunami and was able to do some justice to the incredibly sad story. The town of Taro was destroyed by several previous tsunamis, the most recent being in 1896 and 1933. As a result, they built a 10 meter high tsunami wall between the bay and the town. I’m not sure why they chose 10 meters, since it was clearly lower than the plaques on the rock that indicate the levels of the 1896 and 1933 tsunami, but for whatever reason, the wall was 10 meters high. In March 2011 a national warning went out to expect a tsunami "6 meters or higher"- the biggest category in the Japanese warning system. Without additional information, the people of Taro felt that their 10m wall was high enough to protect them. It wasn’t. The wall still stands, but the outer part of it is destroyed. All that’s left of the downtown area are house foundations. Buildings on the hillside on the outskirts of town are still standing, but that’s about it. It is a very hard place to be. There were more than a few tears in our group. 

 

the group climbing onto the tsunami wall. Note the offerings at the base of the wall.

A hotel damaged by the tsunami. The creepiest thing was that the building still has power. There was a light on in the top floor.

After visiting Taro, we continued to Tanohata, another town heavily damaged by the tsunami. Interestingly, Tanohata feels more like 2 towns- one high on a hill (still extent) and the other used to be down on the coast in the thin strips of flat land along river valleys. The coast is so steep here that there is no flat land except in these tiny valleys. You can’t see the ocean from much of what’s left of Tanohata, so it’s a little surreal. After dropping the students off at Shiinomori Camp, participating in the opening ceremony, and seeing that they were settling in making their own chopsticks and cups from bamboo, we headed off to see the coast. The Sanriku coast is famous for being beautiful and rugged, with massive cliffs and cool rock formations. We got to the coast just before dark, so our experience was limited, but it was beautiful!

Shiinomori Camp opening ceremony

students working on their noodle cups & chopsticks

Andy observing students making geta (wooden sandals)

our family at the Rikuchu Kaigan National Park in Tanohata

Tanohata reminded me of the most rugged parts of the Oregon or Maine coastlines, but with much higher cliffs- like everything was stretched upwards. Very impressive!

DAY 2

After spending the night in a minshuku (B&B) that has long term ties to Earlham, Andy, Yuki, Catie, & I headed up to the mountain to pick up the students and bring them to the home/dairy farm of the first host family in Tanohata. These folks hosted the first SICE faculty leader and his family of 5 for a month in 1973. We got to see lots of photos of SICE history. While the SICE group was looking at photos, hearing stories, and drinking fresh milk, Catie & I played with the family’s 3-year old granddaughter. Mrs. Kumagai took the 2 of us to see some calves and the girls shared snacks and toys. Then the whole group (SICE, Waseda, & us) headed up to the high pasture to see the cows. They run a free range dairy farm on some beautiful very steep, rugged land. It looked like Vermont on steroids with a view of the ocean. It was interesting to see the erosion problems caused by grazing, although I think Andy & I were the only ones who noticed. Catie enjoyed petting the cows and of course, felt that she should feed them. She scared off a few cows with her handful of grass before she found a taker.  

the "family suite" minshuku style!

SICE students in the Kumagai house

Mrs. Kumagai with the girls

walking out on the high pasture

SICE students posing on a knife-edge ridge

Catie tromping along with the rest of the group

"now which one of you is gonna eat this grass?"

finally!

a very tired girl after her cow adventure

We had lunch and spent the afternoon at Shiinomori Camp. The students finished working on their geta (wooden sandals), while Catie & I went to the nearby playground. FINALLY a decent playground in Japan!

Tom getting advice on finishing her geta

EVERYbody got to work at Shiinomori Camp

For dinner, the Waseda students organized a nagashi somen party at the temporary housing village for the residents of Tanohata who lost their homes due to the earthquake or tsunami. It was tough to see so many families still living in the Japanese version of “FEMA trailers” over 2 years after the disaster. There is so much construction throughout the region, it’s hard to imagine how many displaced families there must have been right after the event. In spite of the sadness inherent in such a place due to the fact that everyone there lost at least a home, if not family members, the event was very fun! 

Nagashi somen involves creating a “river”, in this case out of split bamboo logs and a garden hose, and sending cold noodles down the river for people to scoop up out of the flow with their chopsticks. Everyone has a bowl of sauce to dip the noodles into. It’s hilarious! It gets even funnier when they send down cherry tomatoes and bits of fruit. I suspect our large group of gajin was there to provide comic relief, but the kids and old women of the temporary housing were even funnier! There were a lot of noodles flying and laughter. 

Nagashi somen!  The building in the background is the temporary housing community center.

After we ran out of noodles, it was time for another fine Japanese tradition… the bashing of the watermelon! For this event, participants get blindfolded and then go after a watermelon with a big stick- think piñata. Of course, everyone around them is yelling out conflicting directions and ducking out of the way when the stick bearer gets too close. After several of the temp villagers took their turns (including two hilarious old women set on beating each other as much as the watermelon!) the SICE students got their chance. One of them was the victor and smashed the watermelon to loud cheers from the onlookers. The watermelon was delicious and we all had a good time. I took Catie back to the minshuku, but Andy & Yuki headed back to Shiinomori camp with the students for a little self-serve fireworks display in the rain. Andy said it was a whole lot more impressive than your average DIY 4^th of July display.

watermelon smashing

 DAY 3

Today began with all the SICE students and a bunch of Waseda students visiting with a few local junior high school students. It sounds like they played lots of games (telephone, duck-duck-goose, etc.) and had a good time. Catie & I hung out at the playground until it was time for lunch and the closing ceremony at Shiinomori Camp.  Then we headed back to Morioka.

Fujinami Minshuku's bathroom turtle

the Japanese really love these rolly slides- so does Catie!

Miss C getting her in workout while the students were off playing

It was a good weekend all around. The students made some friends and we all had some fun new experiences. I would have liked to take the siteseeing boat along the Sanriku Coast, but alas, there was no time this trip. Maybe some other time!