Actually, there’s still a few weeks to my “official” first time came to Tohoku date. So why even make this post, when I’ve obviously been so cavalier about not making blog entries (NOT CAVALIER, BUSY!).

Here’s why:

Recognize these ladies? No? Shame on you. Please read this blog post from my first trip volunteering in Miyagi. 

Ever since I came back to Tohoku after my first trip, I had wanted to visit the Sato’s. I passed by their home many times, as the bus which goes to Sendai from Ishinomaki passes it. But I was always on the bus, always on the way to somewhere, and never had time. Which was sad. But I happened to go to Higashi-Matsushima to visit the citizen support center there a few days ago. The meeting there was finished in 30 minutes, and I was there in a car, just a few minutes from their home.

It was lunch time, so I didn’t really want to intrude, but I wanted to say hello, so I asked my friend to park nearby and just give me a few minutes to go and say hello.

As we parked the car, I noticed how nice their garden was looking. The trees we had trimmed in front of their property were still in good condition (and well pruned), the garden and greenhouse was full of color, and the damaged wall had been repaired.

The Sato’s are not a family I know particularly well. Unlike some of the friends I’ve made in Ishinomaki, I just spent two days working with them, and since last May, have had no contact with them. So as I started walking towards their house, I started thinking about what I would say to them. I’d explain that I had met them last year and had helped clean their garden as part of a large group of foreigners, most of which were marines. I thought that if nothing else, they would at least remember the marines. If nothing else, those guys are memorable!

As I was almost at the house, they noticed someone was outside. The family were having lunch, but could see me through the large living room windows. I was clearly not a postman or anything like that, as I was dressed very casually, so Mrs Sato stood up to get a better view.

And then something which, to me, was unbelievable. Mrs Sato tilted her head to the side in a quizzical manner and said (I couldn’t hear, but could clearly see what she was saying) one word.

Jamie?

She hurried out of the living room and opened the front door, with a huge smile on her face. I spoke to her and her mother, and caught up. They were understandably surprised to see me, and couldn’t believe that I had been in Tohoku since last summer. They told me off for not coming sooner, as they had said that I should come and stay over and eat if I was ever in the area again. They said the same thing again, but this time it was more like an order than an invitation.

Today I was talking with Masae, and she said that maybe I should try to do more work “in the field”. Not a literal field (although sometimes it’s a literal field), but stuff outside of the office. It’s very tiring always sitting at a desk. If you think otherwise, I invite you to give it a go. If I had a choice, I would just do fun stuff with power tools and never write another email again!

 But you must be tired, because you are always doing administration stuff, you don’t get to see any people we help.

Which is pretty accurate. Sometimes I’m lucky enough to get to really know the person we are helping, but more often than not, I will just meet them briefly once or twice, or sometimes not at all.

But it doesn’t get me down. Maybe I’m just that much of a realist. I know what we do helps people, I don’t need to be the one who personally receives their thanks.

But meeting the Sato’s after such a long time reminded me that I too have made a difference to someone on a personal level.

Even now, a few days after the event, I can’t believe she remembered my name. As a foreigner in Japan, I’m used to non English speakers forgetting my name (it’s hard to remember a name you are unfamiliar with). I’m even more used to it in Tohoku. So the fact that this woman remembered my name after almost a year meant and still means a lot to me.

Maybe this is why I’m still here. Because of people like the Sato’s, Hashimoto’s, Matsumura’s and Ishikawa’s of Tohoku. They make it very easy to stay, and very hard to leave.

The original entry from Brent’s blog (along with it’s intended formatting) can be found here

THE PROGRAM:

It’s Not Just Mud (INJM) is an NPO started by an Englishman-turned-teacher-turned volunteer leader who upon seeing the extent of the damage to the coastal city of Ishinomaki decided to start an organization to support a grass-roots rehabilitation effort in the community. Although only recently developed, the power of social media and the positive reputation of the program created a steady flow of volunteers. Focusing primarily on rebuilding, there is also a strong community aspect and the very presence of the volunteers can help give hope. INJM is not alone in the effort as other volunteer organizations in the area overlap and work together. The people of Ishinomaki, even nine months after the initial disaster, are still living in the second floor of destroyed houses or have not yet moved out of temporary housing, struggling with unemployment and supply shortages, while picking through the rubble to recover what they can from lost lives. There is a sadness that has settled about the area that shows signs of lifting as citizens of the city begin to reassemble, and the presence of volunteers and their efforts help warm against the winter cold. More than saying “Ganbarou Tohoku” (do your best banners displayed to support the most affected region) there are people here, taking no pay, willing to do whatever task, big or small, that will help return a sense of normalcy to an area that is still correctly categorized as a disaster zone. In addition to contributing their hours of work, volunteers in INJM give a bit of strength and spirit, as if to say “You are not alone” through their actions. Between the contributions both tangible and invisible, INJM is supporting those who wish to do their part for the affected people of Japan.

THE CITY:
Ishinomaki is a coastal area big enough to get its own stop on the bus line from Shinjyuku to Sendai. Even 9 months after the highly destructive combination of earthquake and tsunami, the damage remains evident. With limited funds and resources, the slowly progressing process of cleaning up and rebuilding is still the daily task for a majority of its people. Before, in the area based near the volunteer organization, there were about 1000 families living in an area of the city where there are now less than 200 remaining. Some parts of the city have been rebuilt, some businesses have reopened, and vending machines again line the streets, however there is an eerie feeling when driving along the main city strip and seeing brand new buildings neighboring a shop front that is still bashed in, furniture and debris scattered and left as it was months before. There is a large ship still breached out of the port and a gigantic red oil tower barrel in the divider section of a main highway. Garbage dumps have stacked hundreds of cars in alien-like pyramids. Barren landscapes near the coasts are like house graveyards, where only foundations and wreckage are left with a few shaky but still standing structures in the distance. There is not a suburban location in the whole city where you can turn 360 degrees and not see some sign of the catastrophe that took place. The damage to the city you can’t see is left in the hearts of its people, many of whom are still living in the shadows of their formers lives. The job of volunteers is to do what they can to repair both. As time passes, glimmers of hope can be seen as well: new shipments of supplies being given away on the streets, small memorial shrines along  roads, families restanding their family’s grave stones, stores reopening, students biking on their way to refurbished schools–there is a resilience here that acknowledges the horrendous past, but continues to push forward into a better
tomorrow.

THE DESTRUCTION:

 

THE WORK:
Everything from breaking down and entire first floor’s drywall to helping a community tent lead a soup kitchen and bingo day for elderly residents, from cleaning photos of sports days twenty years ago to helping replenish the dwindled supply of shellfish, the work is varied and volunteers go wherever they’re needed. No labor skills are required to join, so those who volunteer with INJM take the jobs that simply need to be done. Sometimes volunteers may work with other organizations, be they other foreign aid organizations or local community efforts, going wherever they’re told, to do what they are requested to do, as best they can so someone else with plenty to deal with doesn’t have to. Because everyone is making this effort, it adds up little by little into progress. It can be surprisingly fulfilling to do what would even seem like repetitive work, such as taking nails out of rotted boards barely holding together a house for six hours, but because you’ve done it someone else doesn’t have to, and they will move to work onto the next stage in the larger plan to fix a house in the grand scheme project of rebuilding a city. Every strike with a sledgehammer or conversation listening to the story of loss puts repair and healing another step further. The work can be hard, but it not usually to the point of exhaustion, and always in the company of other like-minded volunteers whose positive optimism helps ward off some of the residual darkness that still envelops many corners of the city.

THE WEATHER: S’cold.

THE HOUSE:
Through the power of social networking, when originally setting up INJM they were looking for a home base to live, and through extensive tweeting and retweeting found someone willing to leave a house standing that was planned for demolition. It was fixed up along with a neighboring home and both now serve as the main base of operations. Over 30 volunteers can fit in and hopefully no one snores. Meals are done banquet style and everyone is in charge of keeping the place clean and functional. The main room is the “lounge” where most spend their time when not out working. It feels like a commune of sorts, and when you get the right sort of people together (and from my albeit limited experiences they were always the right sort) you’re going to want to put down your book or laptop and be a part of the house, and you’ll most likely not want to leave.

THE ROUTINE:
The basic procedure goes like this: wake up –> toast –> work –> get home –> chill –> onsen –> party –> sleep. Volunteers come up for days, sometimes weeks at a time, with others who came and never left. Volunteers, it seems, never really say goodbye–they most always come back. This, I would say, is due to a casual genius of the work and structure of the program. Unlike some other larger-scale efforts which develop many rules and procedures for those who come, INJM has a basic routine of working and living that gets the basics in order so that necessary things get done while leaving the rest of the time fairly free. Volunteers choose assignment crews to join and work from  about 9am-4pm. After completing the jobs, everyone eats, sleeps, and lives together in two houses. No mandatory tasks outside of work are administered to volunteers, but when you see people preparing for dinner or cleaning up afterwards, you feel compelled to assist as well, and so everyone does so without being designated to tasks. It’s quite amazing how fast new arrivals, myself included, quickly fall in line with this system of administration-free responsibility and seem to adjust to life in the house. The rest of the available time outside of work and chores is free to be used at the discretion of volunteers, which usually takes the form of gathering in the main (heated) room where everyone comes to talk and spend time with the others there from all over Japan and the world. The feeling of working with these people, all good people, and then spending the nights together in revelry is a great source of motivation; the relaxed atmosphere of the base camp allows the volunteers to unwind while becoming better friends, making everyone look forward to spending the next day of work together. Also, after most everyday of work, there is an onsen trip to relax and recuperate after a day’s work and get everyone clean at once instead of having up to 30 people lined up for the shower. This is also a… powerful bonding experience, in that you will most likely be sitting naked in a jacuzzi with friends made that same day. Lights out by midnight to be up at 8am for a toast buffet.

THE PEOPLE:
The work is the goal, and the people are the energy; volunteering is a mix of both. The people I met while volunteering were an outstanding group of positive, humorous, quirky-to-eccentric folks from all around the world. An Australian oil rig towboat deckhand, a British fashion designer, a kindergarden bus driver from Brussels, a New Yorker with a passion for roller disco working at a cosmetics production factory in Tokyo, a radio engineer from Oklahoma who came just to volunteer, Japanese company employees who take their vacation just to help Ishinomaki, English teachers from around Japan using their breaks for a purpose, a group of Japanese college students, a group of study abroad college students, and a deaf Japanese girl who taught everyone Japanese sign language during her visit that people were still using even after she left. So many people from so many backgrounds, here in Japan for so many reasons, but all of them brought here for the sole purpose of doing something for nothing, volunteering to give something back. This spinning world is powered by such acts of kindness. There wasn’t a bad apple in the bunch, even if some are quieter than others everyone will find something to laugh about, something to add to the group, and everyone works to validate their being there. What really surprised me was just how fast you could feel like real friends living with these people; I think I may have come at a particularly good time when a lot of great folks happened to show up all at once, but could scarcely believe how quickly not just a few people warmed up to one another, but how everyone came together as a group, and I’m not the only one who didn’t want to leave partly because of that. Doing good work with good people sounds a lot better than warming my desk at the office.

THE PARTY:
Upon arriving back home after the nightly onsen trip, preparations are made for dinner, and it’s a makeshift banquet hall where everyone eats together. Now properly bathed and fed, the party takes the night. As many know, when I say party, I rarely mean dancing, flashing lights, and bad club music. A party is anywhere that good people are laughing and drinking long into the night, and the parties here are every night to bond and blow off steam and rejuvenate the soul for the next day’s work. Don’t get me wrong, the purpose of all volunteers being here is to help the people of Ishinomaki as best we can, and that goal of making an outstanding contribution to the community is never surpassed by anything else. With that work completed, however, the night is your own, and spending time with these amazing members and happily chatting and laughing for hours seems to be the best way to spend time before bed. A few chu-hi Strongs from the local convenience store and laughter amongst friends is the best thing to get you into a deep sleep and avoid the chilling cold that takes the house as soon as the lively conversation comes to a close (and the heating stoves are turned off). Some of the dumbest moments led to some of the biggest laughs, such as the story of Oklahoma’s hometown single stop sign parade, or certain complications involving a virgin marriage and birthday candles, and the true nature of dance parties. The Party is where you make new friends of complete strangers and I made a baker’s dozen in only five short days.

THE RESULTS:
A feeling of accomplishment. The positive vibe from helping people through hardship. Many new friends. Knowing you’ve made a difference. Having finally been able to aid in an effort I felt compelled to assist in ever since March 11th, 2011, albeit if only in a small way for a short time. Smiles from those around you and the validation of doing a little bit to help the country you live in. Actually going to Tohoku and doing your best after reading hundreds of signs saying “Tohoku, do your best!” I was originally planning on staying 3 days, maybe four, but ended up pushing all the way into the 5th, barely catching the last train home from Tokyo so that I could be up at 7am for work the next day. Others felt the same, wishing they could have stayed longer, and entire groups revised schedules to be able to continue volunteering. Throughout my life I don’t have a history of giving back. I enjoyed it when I did, but didn’t seek out the opportunities often. Something about the work, organization, situation, and people of It’s Not Just Mud really came together to instill a sense of having done something good that I hadn’t felt in too long a time. I’m already planning my trip back when I’m back on break, and thinking about who I’m going to take with me. Volunteering in a disaster zone gave me a new look at myself, to see the things I was worrying about as insignificant, and allowed me a better look at the bigger picture. This world and the people in it thrive off kindness. Even when politics and big corporations, mother nature, and jerks-in-general seem to be making a bigger change than good actions, it is all I can do to participate in a program like this so at least I’m doing something positive to help those around me, hoping those good energies are received and duplicated. It’s motivating, and I plan on taking this as a fresh start to a new year. And I’ll be back for more. Maybe you can be too.

The original entry from Ten Minutes of Hate (with it’s intended formatting) can be found here

There is too much to tell you and not enough words.

Everyone who was here on 11 March must have a story to make the hair stand on end, about where they were and what they saw, who they lost and where they found the strength to continue.  Every empty plot of land, ruined shop and smashed car has its own story, of the people who lived or worked there, the journeys they took together and their hopes and fears for the future that never came, washed away on a tide of mud and debris that overwhelmed manmade defences too easily.  The lines on the buildings tell their own tale of how high the waters rose.

I wasn’t even sure I should go.  I’m not strong, not good at digging, not a builder or a carpenter and worried I would get in the way of those that are.  My Japanese is so lacking that I can’t even read enough to book the bus tickets.  More than once I convinced myself I should leave it to others.  Then I read the Frequently Used Excuses page on the It’s Not Just Mud website, send some emails and almost before I know how, am getting off a bus into the crisp, cold air of the most gorgeous morning I have seen since I arrived in Japan. Taking a deep breath because here I am in Ishinomaki, the city we have all seen countless times on the news, yet everything looks – well, kind of ok.

Parts of the city are relatively and reassuringly normal.  The pachinko parlour, konbinis and petrol station are open, while the streets are full of gleaming new cars.  I come from another northern port, so when I see a broken window high on a warehouse, I don’t automatically think of quake damage.  I know the wear and tear is harder here than in the pampered capital.  As you would expect, the busy streets around the central station have been repaired first, so the first-time visitor is spared an immediate surprise.  That’s reserved for the drive out to INJM’s HQ, located in the suburb of Watanoha, where the scale of the destruction begins to make itself known with every empty tract of land.  The really dramatic damage you remember from the press –boats left in the middle of the street and broken timber strewn storeys high – has largely been cleared.  What is left is somehow worse, houses standing alone where once they would have brushed up against their neighbours, and plenty of new car parks.

But there isn’t much time to dwell on such thoughts.  The INJM day starts with the more experienced hands welcoming that day’s arrivals over breakfast.  British volunteers will be happy to note there is a plentiful supply of Yorkshire Tea and no shortage of toast and jam either.  Suitably refreshed and following a quick update on the work schedule, it is time to begin the sometimes mammoth task of getting people and equipment into one of the pool of cars the group has commandeered.   INJM works with other organisations such as Samaritan’s Purse, and has a variety of projects on at any one time, so it is only possible to give a general idea of what you will be doing if you join them.   While I was there, volunteers were cleaning a damaged community centre ready for a forthcoming concert, removing mud from documents and photographs belonging to local people and ripping out damaged parts of houses ready for rebuilding.

Cleaning mud from documents and photographs is perhaps the perfect job for a writer.  I found myself alternatively marvelling that they were intact and speculating whether a computer’s hard drive would have survived so well.  It was also impossible not to wonder what had become of all the celebrating people in the photographs, enjoying sports days and cultural events.  Or while working through a file of financial records, to keep from thinking about where the hand which had idly scribbled notes across a page was now.  In the ‘to be cleaned’ pile was a schoolbag, identical to the one that all my young students have, still with mud-encrusted toy attached to the zip.  I found myself hoping that its owner was somewhere missing it, in spite of knowing that the death toll from schools in the city must make that impossible.

There are two Japanese words quoted in Jake Adelstein’s book, Tokyo Vice: setsunai and yarusenai, which are translated as ‘a physical feeling of sadness’ and ‘a sadness that you can’t clear away’ respectively.  When working in a city which is still a disaster zone, feelings like these are never very far from you, however, I believe the most practical way to deal with them is to get on with helping the survivors.  Each person does as much as they can and tasks tend to get assigned via a process of ‘can you do…’  ‘Yes, fine!’  ‘OK then, do it!’  It works well.  Breaks crop up exactly when you feel most in need of them, teas and coffees are produced, a bag of Kit Kats handed around and there is time for a chat before getting back to it.  In a Tohoku winter, there is a lot of incentive to throw yourself into work until your muscles hum and you don’t notice the cold or that the clock has ticked around to midday.  The lunches at INJM were some of the best I’ve eaten in Japan, which should give you a measure of exactly how good they were.  Warm, nourishing and served up with good humour by Hashimoto san, whose house has become an unofficial second home to the city’s volunteers.  Her kotatsu heated table was also a joy to the toes.

Donating your time and energy to help Ishinomaki via INJM in no way means living a Spartan existence.  After the afternoon’s work, brought to an end around the time the light starts to fade, everyone heads towards the onsen.  There is running water at the INJM house, but the queues and rage that would no doubt ensue from 20 people trying to get a shower mean that it’s much easier and far more pleasant to use the public baths for a scrub and a soak.  The evening draws to a close with more eating and chatting, maybe a couple of drinks to soothe us off to sleep, without causing too much of a headache in the morning!  Then the only job that remains is to find a space to set up your own array of futons, blankets and quilts – saying a quick prayer to make sure you don’t snore please – before the lights go out ready for another early start on the following day.

If you are wavering about going, don’t.  Yes, if you are strong, speak good Japanese, can drive or dig, or have any experience of building, you should definitely go!  But even if not, go anyway.  You are needed, people will be happy to see you and you will leave feeling that you have done something, even if it is only a fraction of what needs to be done.  By everyone who can taking on a little part of it, what could appear to be an overwhelming task becomes that much easier.  A lot has already been done, but there is more still to take care of.  Maybe it will happen without you, but maybe it will take even longer.

And if you need any further incentive, did I mention how good the food was?

What I especially like about it is that it’s so honest. It doesn’t try and paint a feel good fairy tale like image of Ishinomaki (like most non news pieces on TV), nor does it have an agenda (DONATE NOW!!). In fact, there is no narrative at all. It is a documentary in the purest sense of the word. Of course it’s edited so that it makes sense, but no words have been twisted, nor do they need to be.

I have seen many short docs made since the Tsunami, and have been asked to try and spread the word on them, but truth be told, I didn’t like a lot of them, which is why I didn’t really try too hard to get people to watch them.

But this is worth watching.

Please imagine a “Jamie approved” stamp all over this video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Founding and then growing INJM into something real which can really help people has been amazing. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without M1-3. The 3 M’s do all the paperwork stuff which I don’t want to do. Without them I would have worked myself into a hospital bed. Thanks losers.

There are people who’ve spent months volunteering in Tohoku. It’s impossible to name everyone, but if you understand what “went to the sky” means, I’m talking to you. Without you guys INJM wouldn’t exist. I found the house, but you guys made it a home. You are my family. ♥ you.

We’ve had tremendous support from people across the globe. Old friends and new. Strangers too! Thank you everyone.

Together, we’ve been able to make a difference to the lives of many people in North East Japan. It’s not corny to say that. It’s a fact.

Happy New Year everyone. Let’s make it a good one yeah?

This is great for two reasons:

• Writing a blog entry takes a lot of time.
• Writing an update is really easy.

You would think they would be one and the same, but you would be wrong.

An update on news and activities is very straight forward. Who, where, what, when. “We went here yesterday and we did this.”. Easy.

Pure fact.

A blog entry is more like: “We went here yesterday, and we did this. It made me feel like <FEELING>, and I also noticed x, y and z, which is interesting because previously, z and y had been  x and then blahblahblah“.

It takes several hours for me to write one. Maybe I just spend too long on them, I don’t know. But if I put something out, I want to be happy with it. On the other hand, an update is really easy. It’s pure fact, and it feels a little bit impersonal.

Speaking generally, people don’t want to see sarcasm, humour or dare I say it, wit when they check our website.  They want facts. They want info. They want a little more INJM and a little less Jamie.

Sure, it’s more entertaining to read an account of the days events when it contains funny stories, but as INJM gets bigger (and it really has gotten bigger), it becomes less and less practical to include all that stuff.

The site is slowly getting more and more business like. Maybe that’s a bad choice of words. More professional looking. Maybe not in design (give it time!), but in content. Which can only be a good thing. If i’m brutally honest (and I generally am), it’s all about the money. Money comes from donors. And donors don’t want to see something different and quirky. They want something solid and reliable. And rightly so. If I was a donor, so would I.

The truth is, when I realized that I’d have to do away with “the Jamie-ness”, it broke my heart a little bit.

Someone said to me:

If you take away the Jamie stuff, it takes away the thing which made you guys different. That “thing” is why I wanted to get involved with you.

Which was one of the nicest things anyone has said to me in a long time. Thank you very much.

But let me reassure you:

That “thing” hasn’t gone. It’s still here, we’re still the same. We still make jokes, we still have fun, we still do good work (no false modesty here, we rock!). We just have to be a bit more serious on our website.

The INJM Facebook group has plenty of pictures and posts from our members. It is a place where we are ourselves. So there’s lots of silly pictures on here, lots of “in” jokes, and the like. The INJM Facebook page
is more serious, it will function as a news outlet, much like how the news page of this site (once it’s up and running) will do.

But Jamie’s blog? This one is for me. The 3 M’s (Manish, Marci and Masae) might think that this first post is a little bit too extreme. But I don’t really have to listen to them. This is my place, and it’s here that I can do what I want.

Let’s just call it one of the perks of being the boss.

We are all doing well here in Ishinomaki, and working hard! Maybe too hard, because the “very little” time I had for blogging has been reduced to “very little time to think about blogging”.

So why the exception?

It’s for Christmas!

I’m not a Christmas person, but a lot of Children in Ishinomaki are! Well, I say they are, they are probably big fans of getting presents more than anything. Either way, they definitely like toys.

So when one friend contacted me about wanting to do a kind of fundraiser, I suggested collecting toys!

So that’s what we’ll do!

The fund raiser will take place in my old hometown of Osaka! You can find all the details to the INJM fundraiser by clicking on this link, which takes you to the facebook event page. But if you’re lazy, I have shamelessly copied all the info below! Big thanks to Linda, Silvia, Verity and everyone else who has worked so hard on this event. 

Hi everyone!(日本語は下段にございます。無料イタリア料理食べ放題で東北ボランティアに参加しよう！詳細を是非ご覧ください）

The end of the year is approaching, and traditionally it’s a time to think about others. But this year let’s send our thoughts a bit further than we might usually do so, towards Tohoku.

Although all shelters are officially closed now (some remain open) and everyone has SOMEWHERE to live, that somewhere isn’t necessarily a nice place. Employment is also a very real problem. Many businesses were damaged, and while some have been able to get back on their feet, unemployment is incredibly high. Which means that many of the luxuries we normally take for granted have to be put aside.

Luxuries like Christmas presents for kids!

There will be a Christmas event in Ishinomaki on the 24th of December.

Won’t you help fill Santa’s sleigh full of presents?!?

The aim of this event is FUN. Not just for you, but for the Children who will receive your presents too!
PLEASE BRING A PRESENT SUITABLE FOR A ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENT TO THIS EVENT! If you can, please attach a note with a personal message. Doesn’t have to be poetry, but something! (PS. If presents could be wrapped that’s good too:)

It’s a 3 day event, so if you can’t make it in on one day, you have two others to choose from!

SCHEDULE:
Dec. 16th (Friday) and 17th (Saturday)
7pm-2am
*11pm-2am: DJ Party!**
Dec. 16th (Friday)
DJ MILK BRO.(MASK. MaGnEt):
DJ GENKI (SONUS):
House, Techno, etc
Dec. 17th (Saturday)
DJ BoDiPi:
House, Progressive, etc.
December 18th (Sunday)
3pm-10pm

Sole Luna 800yen special drinks menu:
All shots, Vodka Tonic, Vodka soda, Moscow mule, Black Russian, Gin tonic, Gin soda, Gin back, Cuba liber, Rum back, Fruits cocktails, Italian soda, Juice, Ginger ale, Coke, Red bull, etc.

Special offer by Sole Luna:
Free Italian buffet! Pizza, Pasta, Antipasto, Focaccia, Salami, Contorno, Tapas, Italian snakes will be served on the counter. And Sole Luna will donate 300yen to INJM per drink!

After Christmas I will make sure to put up many pictures of the kids receiving your presents, with hopefully many happy faces!

WANT TO VOLUNTEER?
There will be information available at the event for anyone who wants to come up to Tohoku and volunteer! In the meantime, you can find lots of information about it on INJM’s website @http://itsnotjustmud.com/want-to-volunteer-just-do-it/

INJM (It’s Not Just Mud) is an NPO based in Ishinomaki, whose main aim is to promote volunteering. There are many people who want to volunteer in Tohoku but don’t really know how to do that, or don’t have the confidence to do it without some help. WE CAN HELP YOU!

If you want to make a donation to our organisation, there will be a donation box present at the event, or you can visit our donation page @ http://itsnotjustmud.com/cant-volunteer-donate/ .

We are currently raising funds to pay for a large van (capable of seating at least 8 people), something which we desperately need in order to transport our ever growing number of volunteers. Any funds raised at this event will go towards purchase of one.

Thanks for taking the time to read this incredibly long event info! If you actually read it all, congratulations, and I love you!

石巻の子どもたちにクリスマスプレゼントを贈ろう！

クリスマスプレゼントを皆様と持ち合って、石巻に住む子どもたちへ大阪から贈りたいとおもい、当イベントを企画しました。
私たちが子どものころ体験したときと同じように、ひとつのプレゼントで元気になったり笑顔になる機会を、現地の子どもたちもたいせつにしてほしいと考えております。
報道などで知られるように、現地では今も様々な問題を抱えております。
元気づけようという気持ちよりも、共感できる光景をひとつでも増やしていく立ち位置でイベントにご参加していただければうれしいです。

イベントへご参加される際、小学生がよろこぶクリスマスプレゼントをぜひご用意ください。１２月２４日に石巻で開催されるクリスマスイベントにて、現地でボランティア活動をされているメンバーが直接手渡しいたします。プレゼントには、男の子用・女の子用のサイン、又はメッセージカードなどを添えていただけると助かります。
※プレゼントのラッピングは、現地の子どもたちがプレゼントを開けるたのしみになりますので、ご用意していただければ幸いです。

なお、プレゼントを受け取った子どもたちの光景を下記のウェブサイトへ後日アップロードする予定です。

・INJM
http://itsnotjustmud.com/?lang=ja

当イベントは１６日から１８日の３日間の開催です。お友だちをお誘い合わせの上、ご都合のよい日時にご参加ください。

【イベント詳細】
■場所
Sole Luna Italian Bar
大阪市中央区東心斎橋2-1-14ズームビル１F

■参加費
無料（ワンドリンク注文要。なお、ドリンク代に含まれる３００円が義援金となります）
※小学生用のプレゼントをご用意ください。
※プレゼントのご用意がむずかしい場合でも、イベントへお気軽にご参加ください。

■スケジュール
・１６日（金）１９：００ー２：００
２３：００ー２：００　DJ Party（DJ MILK BRO. and DJ GENKI）

・１７日（土）１９：００ー２：００
２３：００ー２：００　DJ Party（DJ BoDiPi）

・１８日（日）１５：００ー２２：００

■メニュー
・ワンドリンク８００円（代金の３００円を義援金とします）
ウォッカ、ジン、モスコミュール、カクテル、ジュースなどを取り揃えています

・イタリアンビュッフェ食べ放題（無料）
ピザ、パスタ、フォカッチャなど数種類をご用意しています

【ボランティア活動に興味のある方へ】
INJMのウェブサイトをご覧ください。

・INJM(It’s not just mud)
http://itsnotjustmud.com/?lang=ja

（INJMとは）
石巻にベースを置くボランティア団体。来年度からはNPO法人として設立・運営します。一人でも多くの人にボランティア活動へ参加していただくために、さまざまなサポートをしています。多くの方々がボランティア活動に高いご関心を持たれていますが、実際にどうアクションをしていいのか分からないという問題も抱えています。INJMはその一助として活動しております。

（募金）
募金をご検討される方は以下のページをアクセスしてください。
http://itsnotjustmud.com/cant-volunteer-donate/

（お願い）
現在、INJMでは現地でのボランティア活動に利用する車の購入資金の調達に努めております。今回のイベントを通じて、皆様から集まったお金をボランティア活動にも役立てたいと考えておりますので、ご協力をよろしくお願い申し上げます。

The House of Stark family words are certainly accurate.

Winter is coming.

And it’s cold.

And you can’t escape that cold.

You would think that going inside would help, but no, it doesn’t really help that much. In fact it’s probably worse. Because you think “Oh wow I’m inside now, I can take off my jacket! Wonderful!”

But it’s 5 degrees outside, and I’m sat at my desk wearing my snowboarding jacket.

So when a friend asked me what kind of things people need at the moment, it was really easy to answer. Winter stuff.

Winter stuff means warm clothing, heaters, electric blankets, kerosene, that kind of stuff.

My reasonably well insulated house is incredibly cold. So I’m afraid to imagine what it’s like for the Abe family who live around the corner from me, who are still in the middle of reconstructing their homes and have no walls on their ground floor.

A big thanks to Misa and her friends who sent INJM many stoves and electric blankets to give out.

[AFG_gallery id='3']

There are three other posts in the work, some which are incredibly overdue. But this one trumps them all.

For the first time since June, I am living in a place which has running hot water! In fact, I just used that running hot water to clean my body, in the form of a Shower.

No big deal, right?

Wrong.

It’s a massive deal! Since I came to Ishinomaki bathing has always been a bit of a pain. The closest I’ve had to having my own shower was using a hose to rinse myself down by the University car park. In my pants. Very sexy.

I’ve used baths run by the JSDF, volunteer groups, baths belonging to friends, onsens, garden hoses, but never my own shower.

And while I am, of course, grateful to all those people who helped me get clean, having a shower in my own house is AMAZING.

If nothing else, coming to Ishinomaki has really made me appreciate all the things which we take for granted. Living without easy access to the everyday utilities we take for granted isn’t the same as roughing it when you go to a music festival.

It’s a reality that many people still live with. 

Seriously.

OK, I think most people have electricity and running water in their houses, as well as gas, but hot water? Many still don’t have that. Boilers and the professional installation required to use that boiler are not cheap. 

Another group, http://idrojapan.org/ contacted INJM about trying to distribute some boilers to homes which need them.

Actually their timing in contacting us was terrible. They did it about two days after I ordered the boiler for our house, otherwise they would have given us one!! *Doh!* 

But seriously, that’s another boiler which can go to someone who really needs it. We were able to afford the boiler for our house by pooling our money (thanks a lot to the three M’s, Masae, Manish and Marci!), but that’s obviously not an option most people have. So I hope that in the near future I’ll be able to post another blog entry talking about all the boilers we have been able to distribute.

I am so happy to have hot water here, I really can’t stress that enough. When we have large groups coming through here we will still go to the local baths, but the ability to have a hot shower (or even bath) when we want one is going to be so amazing to the people who are here long term.

So think about the difference it will make to the elderly who have been living with this reality for 8 months, and not through their own choice.

You might not have.

Either way, this is a friendly nudge from Jamie. Go ahead, check out the new stuff.

The Projects tab is pretty self-explanatory. From that you can get a rough idea of some of the stuff we are doing. Unfortunately it’s impossible to have a list of every single thing that we do. But it’s better than nothing! At the bottom of each project is a very short, to the point list of stuff that we need for that particular project. Some of that stuff is really big. I think the majority of readers probably don’t have a people carrier going spare, or a 4 stroke outboard motor for a boat sitting in their shed.. Probably. But if you do…  (contact us)!

We have finally put up a new donations page. Our operation has grown tremendously in the last few months, and so have our costs! Please have a look at our new donations page!

Similar to the previous two tabs, the Supporters/Collaborators tab requires little explanation. But please indulge me.

A few (some would say an unlucky few) have followed this site since creation. Before this site I was blogging on another site. It was a shared blog which was full of all sort of stuff, and not focused on Tohoku. I wasn’t a big blogger really, but every so often I would write about some adventure I had experienced or something like that. But when I came to Tohoku, everything changed.

I felt like I needed to share what was happening. I wouldn’t be able to describe what I had seen in words, or how it made me feel, so I started blogging. So I started writing entries on my iPhone. Many friends were really interested. They said that it was very different to what they had seen on TV. Instead of a bunch of random images of shocking stuff, they felt like they were there.

So when I got back to Osaka and decided to come back to Tohoku, I started thinking about a name for a new site. The new site would be about volunteering, and contain a lot less drunken stories.

After quite a bit of time I decided on “It’s not just mud”. It was a name I came up with with some help from a few friends. While it’s not the most easy to say, for me it was the most appropriate.

When people ask me to explain the meaning to them, it’s kind of tough. But if I were to try..

1. The mud which we spend so much time moving isn’t normal “mud”. 
2. There is a point to moving the “mud”. Some people might suggest that it’s kind of a pointless task, but they’d be wrong. If nothing else, it means something to the people who live in the areas we remove it from. 
3. We do non mud related stuff!

So yeah, I came up here not having any grand design. The idea was to do what I could. I didn’t know how long I would be up here for. Some very kind friends even donated some money to my cause to help me stay up here, and it was greatly appreciated.

But it wasn’t enough.

Not the money, that was plenty. But what I was doing. I felt like I could probably be making more of a difference. But how?

I started inviting people to come up to volunteer. If I could do it, why not them? It wasn’t that hard to get here. I had an extra tent, and I could get some more from others if necessary.

Two friends from Osaka (Koka and Ryo!) came. It was great having them here. And while I think Ryo got tired from too much Jamie exposure, they seemed to really enjoy being up here. They were the first. Since the time they first came, there have been people here constantly.

So we’ve had plenty of bodies on the ground here. And while other programs are wrapping up or scaling down, INJM is busier than ever. Some of you came for the day. Some came for a month. Some came from the other side of the world. Some came from the next prefecture. But you all came.

Thank you.

Some people aren’t able to do as much of the physical work as they’d like, due to various reasons. But they’ve shared our media, passed on knowledge of our group to interested parties, liked our facebook posts, sent us supplies, given us advice, donated money, driven us around.. The list isn’t endless, but it would take more time than I’d like to spend to remember every bit of support we have got from people. Because honestly, it’s a ridiculous amount.

Thanks to you guys too. 

We have worked with a lot of different people. We’ve dug mud side by side. Moved freezers. Made food. Camped together. Delivered aid. It’s amazing how close you can become with someone after working with them for even just a day or two.

Thanks so much. 

About all of these thanks. They are all:

Genuine, without sarcasm, irony or any other Jamie like trait.

This is my chance to say a personal thanks to all of you.

So once again, to the donators, the facebook like clickers, the volunteers, the other groups, to everyone:

Thank you. これからも宜しくお願いします　（Please continue to treat us kindly).