2011-05-16

Ofunato, Iwate, Volunteering ~ The Shock.

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Up until this point, the Tsunami damage I had seen was bad but it was not the worst. The evening news had shown me otherwise but I had not properly seen it from ground level. There were glimpses off in the distance. and it looked bad but it felt like it was not my concern. After all I had stuff to do, and to be honest, I felt good doing it…
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We went on a disaster tour of Ofunato… The reality of the situation was rather more horrific than anything you can truly describe, or for that matter take pictures of. “Force of nature” was given a whole new bone chilling definition, just 1km down the road.
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You get a new sense of perspective. You gain appreciation for the planet that human beings tend to ignore in favour of much more trivial matters. Its like viewing a beautiful sunset and taking in the truth of the planet that it imparts. But on an awesome scale.
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Everything was broken and dirty. So many possessions, homes, jobs, routines and so many lives. washed away. If you looked closely at the piles of stuff you could make out the occasional item that you recognised but almost nothing can be salvaged.
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This is the entire coastline of North East Japan. A total reshaping of millions of people’s lives. Decades of human achievement junked in minutes. absolutely mindblowing.
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And this was not the worst we would see. No. It is would get a lot more shocking than this…

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