Tsunami Relief

I was fortunate enough to spend 5 days at CRASH Japan's Sendai base helping out with tsunami relief.  The main thing we did was to try to provide encouragement to the people living in the temporary housing.  They had had their lives devastated by the tsunami and had lost most if not all of their possessions.  When I asked the CRASH staff if I could bring something with me, they suggested a small gift for about 40 people, such as quilted coasters.  Things like that would brighten up their temporary houses and remind them that they are not forgotten.  What the CRASH staff told us proved to be true - just being there was often the biggest encouragement.

CRASH Japan's website: http://crashjapan.com/

I found some quilted coasters online at http://maplewood-farm.com/  They were kind enough to rush the coasters to me so I could take them with me.  I gave them out when our team went to Soma to help out with an ocarina concert.  The vast majority of attendees were ladies and they loved the coasters.  Here are the pictures of that event.

 Tin welcomed everyone and entertained the kids with his Australian hat, boomerang, and platypus.

 Ocarina

 The ladies spent a lot of time looking through the coasters to make their selection.

 

More Dinner with Shingo Yamamoto 7/18/12

 These were the three young people Yamamoto-san raced up the rope.

 Another fan.

 One of the coaches.

 A gift from Tiger.

 Tiger also gave him a mini-poster of his Sasuke pics and a picture of Shingo the Tiger.

 Yamamoto-san and I both had tempura.

 Carol and Reina shared this colorful box.

My gift to Yamamoto-san.

 His gift to me, autographed :-)

 Yamamoto-san is the only one allowed to wear the number 1 :-)

Fun with Carol and Family

 I created a new Pittsburgh Pirate fan!

Was really bad at throwing the ninja star.

Did better with the blow gun.  Upper right dart is my first shot :-)

This is shaved ice.  Flavor was a cross between cotton candy and bubblegum.

Rio finished his all on his own!

Thought this was interesting.  Carol said it was because tattoos in Japan are very closely associated with gangs.

Photos from my visits to Miyazaki

 Makoto thanked me for bringing such a nice heavy suitcase.  Asami and I told him it was Sasuke training.

 Shopping for the barbecue.

 He liked the cars I brought him.

Makoto made this for the top of their wedding cake.  The figure on the rope is him and the one at the top is Asami encouraging him :-)

I brought them a platter from Wendell August Forge http://www.wendellaugust.com/
This is their dog Riri (pronounced like Lily).  She is really sweet.

Dueling Drummers

This is where we went to dinner after attending a traditional Japanese dance performance.  Kaiou was immensely impressed by the performance and spent the next few days imitating the performance.  These videos are based on the drums which accompanied the performance.  I believe the 2nd video is where Kaiou is asking about how the drums went.

Notice the cute kimono outfit Kaiou is wearing.  I loved it.

Jet Skiing on the river with Makoto Nagano - 'nuff said