September Trip to Koriyama

The following post is about something that happened  last month. It should have been put on the blog then.  Instead, a post written Sept. 27 ended up getting mixed up with an article written Sept. 20.  The following trip is actually the one referred to in "In His Hands"...sorry for the mixup!

September 23-26, I made another trip to Koriyama. Our apartment there will be sold in November, and some things needed to be brought down to Iwatsuki before we let go of it. I thought I'd post some pics from that trip. The first pic wasn't actually taken on the trip but sometime last year.

pic: Townhome Daishin. We lived in apartment B for 21 years!

On the way there, as the long-distance bus was nearing Koriyama, I had a terrible longing, not to take the local bus directly to the church where I would be staying, but to walk around and see/photograph some places. But I wondered if I would not hate myself later for doing so, since I would have to lug around my baggage for over an hour. I had packed light, but still...but the matter was taken care of, when I noticed signs at the bus depot: the local buses had been waterlogged by a recently passing typhoon and were not running! That was a very good reason not to take them, don't you think? So I took out my digital camera and smiled. I could visit all those places by foot and know I had God's approval too. So I phoned ahead to say I would be a little late and started out on my trek.

The first place I looked at was Kinya's former workplace. Some of you are familiar with a few details about it. The building had been torn down completely and was now a mere parking lot. Incidentally, the place was closed down in 2009; the earthquake had nothing to do with it.


pic: place where Taishokan used to be. The building in the background with the construction girders around it belonged to the landlord now bankrupt himself.

Another place I wanted to see was the Kappa Sushi Shop. When we left Koriyama six months ago, its front corner had been destroyed by the quake, and the roof there had bowed down to the pavement. What did it look like now? Well, the building had been completely removed; there was no debris left to testify a store had even been there before. A small pond had been created where the water mains burst.


pic: no more sushi shop! No; that water was not brought by the tsunami; the earthquake did that!

Since we had shut down the water, electricity, gas, at the apartment when we moved several months ago, I could not stay at our former home, so I stayed at the Koriyama Baptist Church this visit. There are several rooms in the back of the building for visiting speakers, and I was invited to stay there for a few days.

Koriyama Baptist Church. They have been busy the past few months distributing goods to evacuation shelters and temporary housing for tsunami victims.


pic: Baptist Mid-Missions missionary, Nobby Tajima. See the white bags on the platform? They are sets of saran wrap, aluminum foil, paper towels, etc..., to distribute to temporary housing units in the Koriyama area. The goods were bought with offerings sent by concerned churches on the other side of the Pacific.

Koriyama still has occasional 余震's (aftershocks); children do not play outdoors; the church runs drills of what to do in the event an evacuation order is given (who goes on which car by what route to get to various out-of-prefecture destinations who have offered to take in evacuees if it becomes necessary).

Daily life has, however, resumed a semblance of normalcy. People are working everyday; no long lines are forming for food or gas (those were gone a long time ago...the lines, I mean; we have food and gas); plastic blue sheets are disappearing (they were used to cover up roofs and walls, etc..., where blocks/tiles had fallen); much construction is underway. Japanese people, on the whole, are very good about adapting to difficulty.


pic: construction work seen on walk to Koriyama Baptist

I read recently however (this was in a tract written by a Japanese Christian), that although there seems to be much rebuilding and exterior optimism, the core of the Japanese person has been shaken, and he has been made to think about things which before he did not have time to think about. What is real safety if one cannot be certain of it? What is the worth of labor if all can be lost in an instant? Can "hope" really be called "hope" if it is contingent on good circumstances, or might there be something else?

"...be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear" (I Pet. 3:15)