Impermanence

August 2

Click on any photo to enlarge

We returned to the Noto area, this time to a city called Suzu. We helped empty the home pictured (no inside photos to protect their privacy) as the house suffered major damage from the Jan 1 quake. I could tell in its heyday (don't ask me what "heyday" means) this hose was a showcase of traditional Japanese architecture and design. So much finished wood, fine details in places I didn't expect, especially the exterior. The original owner was the family patriarch, we cleaned out the house while preserving some family photos and certificates.


I'm certain we've worked in similar hot and humid conditions, but I probably erased the experience from my memory. Suffice to say we were pretty soaked with sweat, yet somehow we got the job done with minimal issues. The family thanked us, staying there was no possible way to complete this task without help.

(This train stop may have been abandoned during the pandemic.)

I could easily cite 1 Timothy 6:17, about avoiding putting one's hope in wealth, yet I also recalled the Asian philosophical belief about "impermanence." Forever is reserved for the spiritual realm. No matter how finely crafted a house or anything else, like all material things it has a finite lifespan.

We continue to encounter many houses that were destroyed or at least unsafe for habitation. We also drive to Noto through severely damaged roads. If you look closely at the above pic, you'll see a car that's apparently been abandoned there since the quake.

What I'm trying to avoid is seeing all this and taking it for granted, I hope I'm humble enough to remember to pray for the families who've lost so much. I'll have more thoughts later.

We're taking the day off on Saturday to visit my parents' home village, just two hours from here. More to come, thanks for reading and stay tuned.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

August 6 - Cleanup time

Image
August 6 Hey y'all, it's Peter. It's been a week since we touched down in Japan. To keep things (relatively) short, between a lost wallet, a surprise change in accommodations, and tomorrow being our last full day in Japan, I'd say we're seeing just how far we can be stretched. The work we're doing has been the highlight so far. The days we took off weren't bad but I would rather sweat doing important work rather than sweat walking for hours trying to track down our lost money (we did find it, but boy, what a way to reach 20000 steps). I won't deny that just me and Dad feels like a Japanese comedian duo or ボケ (gag) and ツッコミ (retort) with the positions changing occasionally, but we're looking forward to having a bigger team next time (hint, hint) so it's not just two clueless Odas playing "guess or google translate" I'm turning it over to my dad now, but seriously, thank you for your support in all shapes and forms. またね、bye! Click on ...
Read more

Down and dirty day two

Image
  (click on any photo to enlarge) This is a view of the kasetsu jyuutakuu (temporary housing) that still dots the Noto Peninsula. I think each unit is maybe 200 square feet including kitchen and bath. We became familiar with these units at every place we've done our volunteer work, though so far we haven't done any community building. Not yet, anyway. This time our team was led by Egawa-Sensei, who is on staff with Noto Help and a Pastor at the Uchinada Church. We again were removing walls, this time it was a retaining wall that was collapsing. So that meant more digging and breaking down concrete. Both boys have been fantastic. They've done everything they've been asked to do and more. It's all been about physical labor. Fortunately the weather cooperated, we encountered only brief showers. This is Peter working with Choi-San, using the jackhammer to break down the wall. Let alone this is a challenging task, the jackhammer itself is quite heavy. The chunks of the b...
Read more

We've started!

Image
(Please click on any photo to enlarge.) FYI, the flight here was no problem, we flew United Airlines' partner, ANA (All Nippon Airways) who served us well. My wife Donna purchased a "newly designed" web pillow. It felt a little weird, but I actually got to sleep on the flight, something I rarely do. Getting to Ishikawa Prefecture was a bit more of a challenge, there's no direct route from the airport to our eventual destination, but we used a couple of buses and local trains to get to Kanazawa, which is the city right next to Ishikawa. After a day of settling in, we were sent out to a residence in the Noto area. It may be slightly difficult to see, this is sort of a cross betwen a curb and a ditch. Our guess is the original wall collapsed during the earthquake, but the base of the wall is still there. To rebuild the wall, we need to dig out the dirt, then remove the remaining wall. Note Peter digging out the dirt while also in his rain jacket. A jack...
Read more