this summer I went to Japan twice. Once with some people from my japanese class, and we stayed with host families in Chiba. It was such an amazing experiance. After being in Chiba for a week and visiting the high school (btw I found some people in the MCRmy at the school) we went up north to Sendai. which was affected by the earthquake and tsunami. We went to Miyagi-suisan high school, where A fantastic base ball team's fields were completely wiped out, and flooded, when we went to visit it was cleaned up, but there were temporary homes in their fields so now they can't play, we went to the school, and they also had to build a temporary building for them to be taught in. My Sensei, and my Japanese club at school have been doing many fundraisers, and we raised about $3000+ (i think) we are planning to fly the baseball team from Japan to Houston, TX so they could come to my high school and be able to play against our teams. They will be coming in January, and I can't wait. Being there was a great experience
about a week after I came home from my first trip I was sent off again to Japan, except this one was a volunteer programme called "the Kizuna Project" funded by the Japanese government, for students to come to japan and learn their culture. We were able to see so much! They had sent my group to Fukushima, near the power plant, but we were kept out of danger from the radiation, and we went off on a fairie to an island in oshima, which was also effected by the earthquake and tsunami. We stayed at a ryoukan (traditional japanese style inn) and right at the entrance was where the water actually stoped from the tsunami, there was nothing else around it, and it looked like greek ruins the way you could only see the base of the homes. there was nothing.
they had split the girls and the guys into different inns, and the man who ran the inn the boys stayed at was heavily effected by the tsunami, he was 78 years old I believe, and he was driving in his car on the mainland when the tsunami hit him, and drag him into the ocean, lucky for him he had an old car, and was able to roll down the windows with a crank, so he swam out, and against the current, one mile back to the island. On his was back he saw many reckage of structures, and many people dead. But he survived.
this summer my sensei and some people in my class are planing on returning to oshima and volunteering for a week, but we need to find people to sponsor us in order to do so.
so wish us luck, and keep the people of Japan close to your heart
