Why Would They Do That?

I've watched a construction project from our balcony since moving back here in 2009. The work on the right is building an apartment tower that will be about fifty stories tall. But, the work on the left looks like a very expensive make-work project.

  I couldn't imagine the cost of this machine digging about 80 feet down, hauling out the soil, only for the backhoe in the foreground to dump the soil back down the hole before the steel sheathing is pulled out. They would move over a few feet and repeat the process.
Then one day I saw the backhoe mixing some powder into the soil before dumping it back down the hole. No doubt that's ground solidifier, to help prevent liquefaction, the phenomenon of soil sinking and water rushing to the surface. 

I suspect that also explains the unusual sight of this barge with the gigantic drill and the large cement hopper. The drill burrows under the river, and as it is pulled up, cement is pumped out of holes near the drill bit to mix with the soil and make it solid.

 

This kind of thing is usually done to prepare the ground for constructing a building. In our case, I think it's firming up the riverbed so we don't have more subsidence like we had after the March 11 earthquake. You'll find that post entitled "We are Sinking" on March 30. Perhaps they're concerned about our reclaimed island shifting sideways into the river, so they're strengthening the riverbed to prevent it. We appreciate the effort, since people in Urayasu in Chiba still don't have water or gas because of all the liquefaction of the ground, not to mention leaning homes and manholes five feet above the road!

"...and other assigned duties"

When you volunteer to work in a disaster area, you need to be flexible and willing to do what is asked of you. I had a chance to talk with one of the members of the volunteer team we drove up to Iwate a couple of weekends ago. I assumed that Lonnie had spent his time with a shovel "mucking out" houses. He told me he had done a number of things, including one that I hadn't thought of.

Particularly for the older residents of the shelters, a foot bath was a necessity, and people lined up at the shelter to have Lonnie perform this service for them. For people who have had a hot bath every night of their lives, living in a shelter is a real hardship, but the daily foot baths are meant to tide people over between real baths. We want to show Christ's love and do Christ's deeds, and sometimes do exactly the same things that He did.

Back to...New Normal

 I'm glad to say progress is being made in recovery efforts, especially at Tagajo, just outside of Sendai. The muck has been swept up, the trashed cars are being removed, and the spoiled and soiled furnishings are piled at the curb for disposal.

Trucks with cranes are hauling away the trashed cars that the tsunami deposited here and there.
Stores were emptied out and washed and disinfected, awaiting new shelving and furnishings. The first to open will do a booming trade! Nothing else in the area is open yet.

 Note the waterline on the window, and the debris washed into the fence. Cars are stacked up in the background. Tagajo did not get a direct hit by the tsunami. The water came in, but not with maximum velocity. Things were completely different in Shichigahama.

 

In Shichigahama, we came over a hill and before us was a debris field as far as the eye could see. This picture doesn't do it justice. The store was gone, but the sign stayed. We saw the store, foundation and all, in the middle of a rice field.  The debris field covered the road, and we had to detour.

This was a clam farm at the beach near our cabin. The building housing the clam farm is gone, and the foundation is undermined as sand was blasted away by the wave.

Inland from the beach the tsunami completely removed the house on the lower level, as well as numerous houses at ground level, but it did not reach the higher level houses. Location, location, location.

 

Don Love walks back from the edge of the beach. The curve of the cliffs at this point lessened the tsunami's force, sparing this house from complete destruction. Houses further from the beach had their first floors reduced to splinters, while the second floor structures would remain intact and float into nearby fields. Many of those fields are still underwater, and the salt in the seawater ruins them for growing crops. It'll be a long way back for Shichigahama.

No Need to Climb 11,000 Feet...

If you want to see in Mt Fuji's crater, just take a flight from Tokyo to Hiroshima and be sure to sit on the left side of the

aircraft

I took the flight to Hiroshima to attend the entrance ceremony at Japan Alliance School of Theology for Mr. Sakata, who had consulted with me on how to enter full time ministry in Japan.  

This is a school with a spectacular view of the Japan Inland Sea and its islands. I'd have a hard time concentrating in class with a view like this.

Mr. Sakata is front and center in this entrance ceremony. I was asked to give greetings as the one who encouraged Mr. Sakata to go to the Japan Alliance Church's seminary.

Here's the traditional commemorative picture of the occasion with Mr. Sakata and seminary professors and local pastors. You'll notice the black suit is the appropriate attire for such an occasion. My colleagues Ken and Kathy Young are in the back row.

It's great to do a blog post that doesn't have anything to do with the earthquake and tsunami!

Shovel, boots, gloves, mask, helmet...

What do CRASH volunteers do in the disaster areas of Tohoku? Whatever is needed, would be the short answer. David, in the red jacket, said that two elderly women cried when they received the curry and rice he served them at a feeding center. It was the first hot meal other than instant ramen that they'd had in two and a half weeks.

 On Friday Don Love and I drove a team of volunteers up to the northernmost base camp of CRASH. It's seven hours' drive north of Tokyo in Iwate Prefecture, near Kamaishi and Otsuchi. Otsuchi is famous for this scene, one you've likely viewed on TV.

The team joins the volunteers organized by the city and heads off with a lunch and tools for an hour long drive to the affected area. They assist people by shoveling the mud, dead fish, seaweed and debris out of their houses. This is of course for the people who still have houses left to clean.

After a hard day's work, they return to the base camp, which was a local house hastily rented to provide a place for volunteers cycling through the area, generally on a two week basis.

While at the camp, we experienced a couple of Tohoku style aftershocks. I've mentioned our apartment sways from side to side like a ship on the sea in an earthquake. In this house, the shoji sliding paper doors on the left of the picture and the fusuma sliding room dividers rattle loudly for about three seconds before the violent shaking begins. The frequent aftershocks and the pungent aroma of the disaster area are two things the volunteers have to get used to as they seek to serve the people of the area. In addition CRASH is providing dosimeters to keep track of radiation exposure, just to be safe.