What an exciting day! After enjoying the sights and sounds of Tokyo for the past 3 days, Alvin and I were going to meet the rest of the team at the Tokyo Station to make our way up to Ichinoseki. I really have no idea what to expect up in that region. Tokyo is a big city, with an excellent (but expensive) transport network, and food places that stay open even till late at night. My greatest fear is that in the countryside, we wouldn’t have these luxuries, together with a whole host of inconveniences. I might sound spoilt, but these are legitimate concerns and apprehensions that I have prior to making the shinkansen ride up north.

After a little difficulty with navigating the massive Tokyo Station, Alvin and I finally managed to meet up with the rest of the team in time for the shinkansen. The ride was scenic and beautiful, and at 2 and a half hours, was just nice for a short nap. After another hour in the local train, we were finally at our destination -- Senmaya.

At the station, Burton and Emiko-san were there to receive us. We stuffed our luggage in the 2 vehicles that were there, and some of us had to walk because there wasn’t enough room in the cars! The CRASH base was a beautiful place located right in the middle of a rural area where most of our neighbours were farmers. There was a school located further up from us on the top of the hill. When school was out, the kids walked by our base and were so lively and cheerful that we couldn’t help but come out from rooms to play and take photos with them! That was THE highlight of my afternoon.

At night, we had a tour of the place led by Kat, followed by an awesome dinner prepared by Emiko-san. That night, we retired early, which was really welcome as I was quite burnt out by all the travelling we did today.

Morning started a little early (worship was at 7.45am) because the three girls doing hula classes (Serene, Danielle and Joelle) had to meet at 8am to move out. The rest of us responsible for distributing flyers to the Senmaya katsesu moved out only at 9am.

Today I paired with Jesse to distribute the flyers. It was cool that he could speak some Japanese, so he did the first few doors while I covered the rest. At first, it was pretty intimidating to knock on someone’s door and invite him or her to the mobile cafe, using whatever little (if any) Japanese that I knew. But thanks to some help and encouragement from Jesse, I managed to knock on doors, blurt out “Ohayo gozaimasu, cafe de aimashou, zehi kitekudasai. Arigato gozaimasu!”. It was quite cool to see everyone smile at my rotten Japanese, take a look at the flyer, listen to Jesse expound on the details further, then wish me “Arigato gozaimasu”. That was a very unusual experience for me indeed. After we completed our rows, we joined some of the other team members who were chatting with an old lady at the common area. She was quite the feisty one, talking loudly and gesticulating furiously as if to get her point across better. After hearing her poke fun at some old man’s big belly (poor thing, he was just passing by), we decided that it was time to head back to camp.

After we had lunch, all of us moved out to give out more flyers. This time, we gave them to 3 different katsesus. The weather was quite nasty, raining heavily and all. We trudged out with our umbrellas and posters, and did what we had to do in spite of the rain. Quite a pity that the weather wasn’t so good for us today.

Along the way, we stopped by the ship that was washed aground. The scene of a ship so far inland really blew my mind. It reinforced the fact that nothing can stand in the face of Mother Nature’s fury. What was poignant was also the fact that there were several cars crushed under the ship. Houses nearby were all wiped off; all that was left were their foundations. It was truly saddening to see the state of damage in that town. The poor weather was even more annoying when it came to the night. We had our dinner back in camp, and were raring to go to the once-a-month night market in Senmaya itself. Too bad the rain was still quite heavy, so we went there armed with umbrellas in our hands. It was still quite a sight to behold though, with a very interesting procession going on, and lots of great street food to boot. Nari-san in particular was pretty impressed with our appetites as we kept buying plate after plate of food. All in all, I really enjoyed this experience as I got a chance to experience life in Senmaya.

This morning, we piled into two vans to go down to the church in Sendai. It was my first time in a Japanese church. Since I don’t really understand much Japanese, I was pretty much clueless throughout the entire service. It was, however, an eye-opener for me as we had a great opportunity to experience a Japanese Christian service. There was even lunch after service!

Following service, we drove down to Matsushima, a town by the coast. I really enjoyed the ride there, because it took us through many small towns along the way. By the time we got to the coastline, we could see the many beautiful islands dotting the water along the coast. We seized the opportunity, since the weather was fantastic, to take a ferry to tour the islands. The gulls and the sea breeze, together with the bright sun, made the ride extremely enjoyable.

Following that, we drove down for a while and went for onsen, my first ever. Since it was my very first time, I just followed what every else was doing. Dipping into the hot pool for the first time was such a great experience! Even more so since the weather out there was so cold and frightful. Soaking in there for close to an hour, it was one of the best experiences I have had so far.

Today was Monday, which was the second of our 2 rest days that we have. We took advantage of this by deciding to meet only at 1130am to move out to Rikuzentakata. So in the morning it was pretty much free and easy for us. Four of us (Wei Ming, Alvin, Yukiha and myself) decided to go for a run in the morning.

After running for a while, we ended up at Value supermarket, but we wanted to go to Maiya to meet the rest of the team who were doing their laundry over there. However we kind of lost our way.. So we asked a kind soul to point us in the right direction. At first she thought we were driving, so when she asked us to follow her car she was so shocked when we ran after her! In the end she was nice enough to offer to drive us down to Maiya. Turns out that she was a regular participant in CRASH’s programmes, and that she was very interested in learning English. What a great blessing for us to meet a fellow Christian who blessed us with her generosity.

So in the afternoon we made our way up to Rikuzentakata to visit the disaster zone. To me personally, it was a very sombre experience. The scenes of the battered gymnasium was especially difficult for me. It was sad to know that in fact, the gym was used as a tsunami evacuation zone. The people huddled there would have had no chance at all, judging by the ruins the place was in. There was even a car in the middle of the hall. The scene is deeply imprinted in my mind, and it would be something that I won’t forget in a long time. It was during this time of walking the ground of the disaster zone that the true magnitude of the earthquake really struck me, and how as humans we are totally defenseless against such brutal forces of nature.

This morning we started the day with a bit more menial labour. Since the time allocated to us was for the cleanup of the base, we all split up to get our respective tasks done. It was wonderful to see all of us volunteering out efforts wherever the need called for it. Some of us repacked the medicine box, some of us washed cars, some of us swept the staircases.. It was beautiful to see all of us working together as one in the body of Christ to accomplish the task at hand.

In the afternoon, all 10 of us went down to the Senmaya kasetsu to conduct English lessons. The lessons were carefully prepared by Siew Lan, and included phrases like “Hello! How are you?” and “What is your birthday?”. The turnout was quite good, with about 15 people showing up. They were all very responsive and willing to learn, which made the teaching all the more enjoyable. Indeed, it was a very fun and boisterous atmosphere in there. Many of them indicated that they would be back the next day.

At night, we had some spare time after dinner and briefing. It was the perfect time for us to begin jamming with whatever instruments that we had. I really enjoyed the time that we had jamming to Christian and non-Christian songs alike, even hooking up the projector so everyone could see the the chords and the lyrics. I praise God for the opportunity to be able to enjoy music as we had that night.

Morning time was dedicated to base area cleaning again. It was mentioned in a meeting before we left that we should be a blessing not only to the people whom we minister to, but to the CRASH staff as well.This time round, we made sure that we finished up whatever that was not completed from the previous day. However, we had to have an earlier lunch, as we had to move out earlier to our locations.

Today we were split into two different groups. 5 of us were allocated to do crafts, and the other 5 of us were tasked to give the English lessons again. I was part of the English team, so I went back to the same place, Senmaya kasetsu. Although the turnout was slightly smaller as compared to yesterday, all of the students (except one) were from yesterday’s class. It was another round of enjoyable teaching on my part, with lots of laughter all round again as the teachers tried to communicated with the students with broken Japanese, and the students trying to respond in broken English.

At night, we trooped off to a nearby restaurant for Korean barbeque. It was such a great dinner, in terms of food and fellowship. Once again, I really thank God for blessing us so much with good food and fellowship.

This morning, after breakfast instead of having the usual devotions, we did things slightly differently. Burton (base camp leader) and Kat (his wife) led us on a prayer walk around the neighbourhood. The steps were simple: Adoration, Waiting, Confession, Intercession, Petition and Adoration (again). To me the prayer walk was quite refreshing as we would actually walk around the houses and pray for the people living there. On top of that, we were enjoying God’s gift of Nature whilst praying.. It was something that engaged my senses and I found that really helpful.

After that, some of us helped out with the preparation of the Hokkien Mee and pappadums. Since I know my limitations in the kitchen, I opted to help out elsewhere where I could be of more use. I ended up helping out in the sorting and resorting of the books that CRASH received. Together with Alvin, Siew Lan and Karen, we managed to tidy up the place by quite a fair bit!

After lunch, we headed to the kasetsu for our final English lesson with our students. What was super cool was that our students were outside the community hall, waiting for us to arrive! Once we were there, they eagerly helped us unload our stuff and subsequently helped out with the setting up of the cafe. It was a beautiful sight to behold, seeing our students so enthusiastically helping us out in the setting up of our cafe.

Lesson itself was fun; but the cafe provided a better opportunity for us to mingle with the people. We sat around the tables, served them Hokkien Mee, and at the end of it all we sang for them and got them to participate with us in the singing of “I’ve got peace like a river”. You could tell by the smiles on their faces that they were really enjoying themselves.

Today was a bit more relax for myself, at least in the morning. The team today was split up into two groups; one went out to be involved in the hula ministry led by Kat, and the other went to a local church group to help out in English classes. The other half of the group which was not involved in the activity stayed behind at the base to help out with either cleaning up or other miscellaneous duties.

In the morning I was not involved in the hula class. Since we had some spare time on my hands, Danielle and I decided to help out in the making of a frisbee target board. We were given a huge cardboard box with the word “Amazon” plastered across, and were told to be creative to create a target board for kids to aim their frisbees in. This was meant for the team that was coming after us, so it was really a pity that we would not be able to see the smiles on the faces of the kids who would be playing. However, we really gave it our all, and with the help of the people around who unselfishly gave their time to outline the pictures and fill in the colours, we managed to come up with 2 frisbee boards. One was a giant robot, and the other was a picture of a house with a flower and the sun.

English class in the afternoon was a blast. I honestly never expected to have so much fun today. At first it started out as an English class where the women read passages of the Bible, led by Kat. The students were really responsive and eager to learn, which really impressed me. After that, one of the ladies led us in a time of craft. She took us through making a picture holder using 3 wires and 3 marbles! Being one who is heavily handicapped in the arts and crafts, it took a near miracle for me to conjure something that remotely looked like the end product, but nonetheless I pulled through. After that was done, our team took out our ukuleles, guitars and violins to make some music (as usual). This time round something unexpected happened. One of the members took out a song book that had English songs and Japanese songs, together with the corresponding notes and chords! In no time we were sight reading off the book, and the ladies were singing along with us . It helped that they knew the tune of the song, so the music brought back the sense of familiarity. Even when it was time to leave, nobody wanted it to end. The ladies even said to us “See you next week!”, and it really made me feel so sad that I would probably never see them again.. This incident really really touched me though.

Once that was done, however, we rushed to Kesennuma to go for a worship session held at Samaritan’s Purse. Before that, however, we made a pit stop at a wonderful sushi place where 5 of us guys ate 63 plates of sushi! That set the tone right for the worship session that was coming up. What we didn’t expect was a group of people who hailed from Okinawa, who were called by God to do work in this region. Their sharing was a great encouragement, at least to me personally. It was also good to gather in the presence of other like-minded Christians, singing songs of praise to God. We also learnt more about their ministry and work in Japan.

On hindsight, today was the most unique of all days since we came to this part of Japan! Instead of interacting with seniors, our entire day was devoted to interacting with kids.

First of all, at the beginning of the day we had some spare time on our hands. Which was good, because the night before Nari found some balloons and balloon sculpting materials in his suitcase (!). We were frantically trying (by watching YouTube videos, mostly) to sculpt balloons into various shapes such as swords and flowers and poodles. It was an amazing experience to see all of us working together as a team, to learn how to sculpt and to teach others how to sculpt.

The morning session had a few hiccups at the start. First, we didn’t know where exactly to place the projector. Either the wall wasn’t a good enough screen, or it was too dark, or too far.. Praise God, eventually we found a good enough spot for the projector. Next challenge: our programme starts at 10am but there was only one kid there. The reason, as we found out later, was because school ended at 11am. However, despite that we carried on anyway.

Playing with children was (to me) easier than interacting with adults, simply because children do not really want to talk to you; they just want to play. The challenging part was in keeping up with them! For the good part of an hour, a few of us were frantically running after the children, swinging them, catching them, making balloons for them.. However it was so rewarding because the smiles on their faces and the sound of their laughter just made it all worth it. The parents were at the table busy interacting, while frequently turning around to make sure their children were safe in our hands (they were).

After lunch (a quick run to the supermarket), we ministered to children of another kasetsu. This time round, there were more kids. We did the same things with them; play with them, swing them around.. It was really good fun! At first the kids were slow to warm up to us; however as time went on they really enjoyed their time and grew quite attached to us, taking photos and all. One thing that really was so cool was that at the end of the session, we stood in a circle and danced the Friendship Dance. Now, not just the kids were involved; we managed to get a grandfather to come join us too! At first we were quite worried that he wouldn’t be able to do the twists and turns, but it turned out to be quite alright! Such a beautiful sight to behold, everyone having fun dancing around in a circle, making new friends.

Sadly, the time came when we had to go. We packed our stuff and were about to leave. As Siew Lan shared in one of the debriefs, one touching moment was when one of the boys who was in our group came up to us ask how far we were travelling. When we told him we were going to Senmaya, he told us to have a safe journey. That to me was a moment that made all of this so worth it! Dinner was at a place an hour away from base. Believe it or not, but 5 of us guys had an okonomiyaki buffet.. It was fun at first but quickly became torturous soon after! It was good fun though, eating and laughing and stuffing food down our throats.

Early in the morning, the team made our way off to the Senmaya train station. What was touching was the fact that Kat and Burton made the effort to come see us off, even though it was their off day. Well, truly this was a great experience, and is something that I would not forget in a long, long time.

But of course, before we left, we “performed” shira-kaba one last time for our audience (Marie, Jesse, Kat, Burton) who were at least 50m away, much to the amusement and bewilderment of the other passengers waiting at the platform!