A Little Bit About Me

Hello readers, my name is Derek Yamashita.
 I am a fourth-generation Japanese American currently attending UCSB.  Through this blog, I hope to share my experiences with all of you as I travel all across Japan for the next two weeks!

Also, this is my first blog!

UPDATE: I will be traveling abroad to Japan for a year and have a new blog that I am making. One that I will actually finish, sorry but this blog was never completed.  

HERE IS THE UPDATED BLOG:  http://studyabroadaticu.blogspot.jp/







Below is a summary of how I discovered my love for Japan  

Ever since I was a child, I have been raised with constant exposure to Japanese culture in the form of food, media, and interactions with other Japanese Americans.  Yet despite all of this, I had never shown notable interest in Japanese culture.  However all of this changed two years ago.  During the summer of 2011, I and three other Huntington Beach students took part in a sister-city program between Huntington Beach and the city of Anjo, Japan. Through this experience my exchange student Kumi Oiwa home-stayed with my family and I for two weeks, and I later home-stayed with her family for two weeks.  During my two week home-stay experience, I had completely and utterly fallen in love with the culture and people of Japan.  I had formed deep friendships with the people I had met and gained innummerable fond memories as my new friends immersed me in their culture.  The two weeks that I spent in Japan are among the happiest moments of my life. 

The Anjo and Huntington Beach student delegations at the Tanabata Festival in Anjo, Japan

My home-stay family!
(I will be visiting my host family on this trip!) 

The moment I stepped off the plane from my return from Japan, I had a burning desire to return to Japan.  I developed a deep interest in Japanese food, media, culture, and people and began to read blogs  about these topics.  I had rediscovered my culture of heritage, and I tried to immerse myself in Japanese culture whenever and wherever I got the chance.  I often dreamed about returning to Japan.

However on March 11th, these dreams were shattered as I watched people and places just like the ones I fell in love with in Anjo swallowed up by black curtains of water.  That night I watched in horror as I saw this destruction unfold on live television.  At that time I did not know that the damage primarily affected Northern Japan and I feared the worst for my friends in Anjo.  Day by day the death toll would continue to rise, and more and more reports would suface about entire communities being lost from this disaster.  An overwhelming sense of loss overcame me during this time, and I had even fallen into a period of depression.

With the support of my family and friends, I started a T-shirt fundraiser to direct my emoti

The Night Before My Flight...

Has it really been two years since I have home-stayed in Japan, two years since I have come to love the people and culture of Japan, and two years of dreaming of returning to Japan?

Yep.   

Tomorrow is the day I have looked forward to since the day I returned from my trip to Japan two years ago.  I am too excited to sleep.   

All packed up!

The 2012 Terasaki Foundation Educational Tour delegation

Day of Flying/Arrival

Pulling an all nighter last night was definitely an awesome idea, I slept through 6 of the 11 hour flight.  Hopefully this will help me adjust to the the time change.  Still 5 hours away from landing... I sit here in the dark cabin full of excitement.  I just met 20 other awesome people that I will be sharing these experiences with, and I am sure that by the end of this trip they will all be life long friends.

Finally we have arrived in Sendai airport.  Just a little over a year ago, this airport was heavily damaged during the tsunami.  However just one year later, these damages were completely repaired. 

Sendai Airport during 3/11

Sendai Airport now

After arriving in Sendai, we took a bus to our hotel.  I was utterly shocked to see how massive and beautiful this city was.

Downton Sendai

I was under the impression that this city was wiped out by the tsunami, but I was surprised to find that this is a huge thriving city!

Minami Sanriku

Minamisanriku immediately after the disaster.

After spending a night in Sendai we departed for Minami Sanriku.  This town is one of the hardest hit areas in the Tohoku region.  Over half of the people in this town were lost on 3/11.

Okawa Elementary

A memorial to the children who lost their lives here

One of the most notable places we visited in the Tohoku region was Okawa Elementary.  Here roughly 70 out of 100 children and 7 out of 10 teachers were killed by the tsunami.  After the earthquake, all the children and staff gathered in a field outside the school and debated as to wether they should evacuate up into the hills or run to a nearby bridge to comply with the tsunami warnings.  Some argued that the hill would be too difficult for the small children, while others argued that the bridge was to far away.  During their efforts to determine the correct evacuation route, the tsunami rushed through the valley where the school was located.

This is one of the many tragic stories of 3/11, and is one that I broke my heart when I read about it in a news article.  Seeing this location in person was an especially painful experience.



Here we met with Takeyama and Mrs.Ogawa, two people who were in this area when the tsunami hit.

Mrs.Ogawa actually drove up to our tour group suddenly when we were surveying Okawa Elementary school.  She was not scheduled to meet with us, she just was eager to tell the story of what really happened here on 3/11.  Just a few days earlier, Mrs Ogawa had approached another tour group to share her stories with them and was told by a woman that the children's deaths should have avoided and that it was her fault that they died on that day.  This accusation was made regarding the fact that the members of this school were killed while the teachers were debating about the proper evacuation route.  Being so wrongfully accussed both angered her and caused her to suffer great emotional pain.  She was very flustered when she approached us, she still was shaken by the unfounded accusation a few days earlier.  She was overjoyed to find that our group was both understanding and interested in what she had to say.

Mrs Ogawa told us how she rushed in the direction of the houses near the coastline to try to save her loved ones and ended up having to be rescued herself.  She came very close to losing her life on that day. Takeyama informed us of how the farmland that supported this area has been salinated by the tsunami, and that they are now unusable.  He also showed us how the earthquake had lowered the ground level of this area which has made this area prone to flooding and even more vulnerable to another tsunami.  Thus many people do not believe this area should be redeveloped and recovery progress has halted to a stop.  The rubble may be have been cleared, but  the survivors of this community now face the tragic possibility that their community and way of life may never return.

Seeing the destroyed remains of the buildings in this area was shocking, but hearing personal accounts is what moved me the most.  Our group listened with an open heart to their stories and offered our condolences to Mrs Ogawa and Takeyama.  Being able to share her stories with us brought Mrs Ogawa (and many of us) to tears.  It was an honor to have been able to have meet Mrs Ogawa and Takeyama.

Through a translator, I was able to tell these two about the T-shirt fundraiser that I had held in America to raise funds for 3/11.   I wish I had pictures of this, because the gratitude they expressed shook me to my core.

Takeyama and Mrs Ogawa 

Darrell Miho

In Minamisanriku we met a man named Darrell Miho, a co-founder and leader of the non-profit organization helping out Minamisanriku called Ai Love Japan.   Darrell organized many of the interviews that we had with survivors such as those that we met at Okawa Elementary and shared with us some of the tragic stories that took place on 3/11.
































Our lodging in the Minami Sanriku was at an elementary school called Minshuku Sansankan that was converted into a hotel.  Staying at this school was truly a blessing.  It was a place where our group was able to truly bond.  We booked the entire school for our tour group, so during the nights we would stay up late exploring the halls, hiking through the mountain village, and bonding in a tatami mat room.  Our meals were delicious and the kindness of the kind old women working there was unparralleled.

The school itself was in a beautiful mountain area surrounded by forest

Delicious meals in a great atmosphere

The school posters were still left up. Perhaps for decoration?

This bedroom was once a classroom!

As enjoyable as our stay at this converted school was, I must admit I did feel a sense of guilt and saddness from this experience.  Walking through the halls, I viewed pictures of the children who once went to this school.  I also walked through empty classrooms that still had chalk drawings from the children. Many of the residents of this town have long since moved into neighboring cities and this school had to shut down due to lack of students.  The fact that we were staying in an elementary school was a bitter reminder of the hardships that this town faces.

Photos of when kids once attended this school

A classroom that was not converted into a hotel room

This blog is still a work in progress, thank you for reading this far.  I will finish this blog and re-share it when I finish it.

One of the students in our group asked "how did the emotional trauma of the disaster affect you?"  The professor replied "I am a scientist, I know what happens to people's bodies after they die... "  He then discussed how he simply had to look away from the horrors and despair that was all around him.  He had to lead without becoming emotionally comprimised.  He noted how he arranged a graduation ceremony in the lobby of the school for some of the graduating students at the time.  While talking with a student he asked a student about how his parents felt about him graduating from the university, but the student informed him that his dad was killed by the tsunami.  He recalled how to this day deeply regrets asking the student.

We then were shown a 3d model of the city of @@@@ constucted with painstaking detail for a research project by some of the students at the university.