Today’s report is from Sam and Samantha:
Today we woke up for the last time in Montana Hotel. We mostly all agree that the Montana gave the most authentic Japanese experience yet. The rooms required us to remove our shoes before walking on the tatami mats. Only had a sitting table with a tea set on top in the middle of the room. For sleeping the table is moved and we had futons in the closet for spreading around the room.
Leah H enjoying her tea!
Our authentic room!
Since there was 5-6 of us per room, space was a little snug. Everyone got to sleep quickly last night after we had a warm cup of tea and watched a news story (in Japanese of course) about the Okawa elementary School we visited yesterday.
After getting ourselves up and showered, we went to the main hall to get our temperature checked. Now we are all used to it, it doesn’t take very long any more. We then got in line for the breakfast buffet. The Montana had the best breakfast yet. There were very cheesy eggs, bacon, potato wedges, sausage, yogurt, and frosted flakes. What made the Montana great though was it is exquisite selection of Japanese food such as fish cakes, various Japanese potatoes, miso soup, and (what we were most looking forward to) rice mixed with furikake (rice seasoning), natto (sticky beans with sauce) soy sauce and raw egg. We had orange juice, apple juice, milk, and tea to drink.
After breakfast, we headed back to our rooms and finished packing. We met in the entrance-way where many people were scrambling to enjoy the last bit of Wi-Fi that we might have for a while. We handed in our room keys and headed off for our days actives.
While on the bus, we all discussed how we were going to share this wonderful experience. We arrived at a warehouse where they were storing the toro (lanterns) we made two days ago. I was really happy to see how many people made lanterns for the anniversary. As a group, we worked on a large toro that combined many of our drawings I wish we had time to go to the festival, too but at least we are there in spirit.
Yuuya got our gifts!
We then had the privilege of listening to a tsunami survivor named Yuuya Ikichi. He is 16 years old student (14 years old at the time of the disaster). The tsunami hit on his graduation day and killed seven of his classmates. He was luckily save by his friends’ parents, who drove him to higher ground before the tsunami hit. His family was all OK as well. When they could finally return to their city, everything was destroyed. They had trouble identifying where their house used to be, and even when they found what remained, everything was too damaged to be of any use. Their livelihoods were destroyed. They stayed with a friend while their city recovered. Yuuya wanted to let people know more about his experiences, so he and his mother became storytellers.
After he was done, we thanked him greatly for this contribution and sang him a few songs. We then listened to the band that came on this trip play a concert. It really seemed to be a magical moment.
Yuuya’s story concluded our time in Natori City, so we headed back to Sendai. After another delicious obento boxed lunch, we prepared a presentation to show the Kizuna event coordinators how we are planning to spread what we have learned amongst people in our community.
We then returned to the Sendai Ark hotel and ate dinner.
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