How TOUCHING the Dinghies Destroyed by the Tsunami Made Me Feel.

May 18th. This morning, I met the people of Iwaki Kaisei High School yacht club and Iwaki Junior Yacht School. First of all, Saito-san, the teacher who is also the adviser for Kaisei High School gave me the opportunity to touch the dinghies (1 to 2 man yacht)  and boathouse that was destroyed by the tsunami. When I was still in San Diego, Saito-san sent pictures of the damages caused by the tsunami and I had someone describe the pictures to me so I thought I had a good idea of what the damage was like but when I actually touched the damages, I realized that it was far worse than I had imagined. There were yachts with 15 cm holes in the front and sides, there were yachts that were so damaged they no longer looked like yachts...I was really shocked. Many old member of the yacht club came and told me stories of what it was like at the time of the disaster. They had to start from removing sand that was piled up 30 cm high inside the boathouse, then they had to build a simple wall and then they start repairing the dighies. It took them over a year to finally be able to practice sailing again. But no matter how dire the situation, no one stopped coming because they couldn't sail anymore and they all continued to work to rebuild/restore everything. Their efforts paid off and now they are able to practice in the waters of Onahama again. For a while after the tsunami, the radiation level was too high so they had to go to Innawashiro Lake which is about an hour away to practice. Saito-san quietly expressed how grateful he is that they are now able to practice in the waters of Onahama as he remembered how horrible things were back then.  The Iwaki Sun Marina, where they used to practice has still not been repaired and is not scheduled to be repaired any time soon. They told me that they have been using a slope that is in the area where abalone fishing boats are anchored to bring the dinghies in and out of the water. Ohira-san who is a representative of the junior yacht school also told me stories about what it was like 2 years ago. Unfortunately, there was a sports festival at the local elementary school so not many people were there but I was able to talk to a junior high school student. He spoke passionately about how he wants to be in the National Athletic Meet and the Olympics in the future. It is very lucky to be able to start sailing from elementary school. I hope that there will be more junior yacht schools and that it would become more common for kids to sail at an early age. I am leading a drive on behalf of See What I Sea (SWIS www.seewhatisea.com) an organization of volunteers that is backing me up from San Diego to collect money to donate 420 dinghies. We plan to present them with a list of our donations when we leave Onahama Bay in Fukushima to head for San Diego. This is a plan I thought up when I first heard of the March 11th tsunami when I was in San Diego. I wanted the children who have come to fear the ocean because of the tsunami to remember how wonderful the ocean is throught sailing and I wanted to find a way to help them do that. We've received many donations from many people and we have been able to reach our goal to get 420 dinghies. I thank all of you who have donated for your generosity. I can't wait to see the kids sailing on the 420 dinghies. The junior yacht school members made me (Tonjiru-pork miso soup) and onigiri (rice balls) which were very tasty. It was important to me to reconfirm how much the students at Iwaki Kaisei High School and the junior yacht school are looking forward to the SWIS dinghy donations. Today was another wonderful day. Tomorrow I will return to Osaka.

Originally posted by Hiro in Japanese on 5/19/2013
Translated by SWIS Project