We Are In Ishinomaki

I'm about 6 foot tall with a long pair of arms. Remember that.

Sunday morning, we left Matsuda. I don't really have to go about my feelings for that place. We met Isami at about half 7 and wondered up to the train station, and after a series of changes, we ended up on a bullet train.

(Skip on if you don't like my child-related anecdotes) Leeds is about half an hours drive from York, so I used to go there a lot with my grandparents as a child, and one of my favourite things there was the National Railway Museum (my grandmother looked seriously saddened when there was the possibility of it being shut down), and in there, one of the focal points of the museums was that it was I believe the only, if not not, one of the few places in Britain that had a Bullet Train, and man, that thing was bad-ass. The photos are on Katie's camera. Bollocks.

When we got to the platform, I jumped around like a child a little bit and scared some Japanese people probably BUT I DON'T CARE MAN BULLET TRAINS RULE. I ate apple ice-cream (actually really tasty, I thought it would taste awful) and wrote the post about my home-stay with Jinkawas and then got sad and listened to Owen (his new album is killer) which didn't help whatsoever.

I should probably have brought a suit

We finally got to Sendai, and headed to Date FM, apparently a rather large radio company that broadcasts to about half a million Japanese people, which is alright I suppose. We went into a board room with lots of Japanese people interested in radio (a few of which are here with us in Ichinomaki <HI GUYS!>). Turns out we were getting an hour long special. Again, it was kinda alright I suppose (If you haven't worked it out yet, I'm one of the most sarcastic people you will ever meet). We went through what we'd be talking about on air, and me and Lottie would be talking about our experience with radio. So we started planning some little things, and then I had my first ever Bento Box. THOSE THINGS ARE THE COOLEST THINGS EVER (I'm looking at you Mum hint hint). 

Badass, righ?

I then started talking to Alex, and he was trying to find 5 tracks that best represented British music over the past 13 years or so (They only played one of his choices, and it was Dizzee Rascal's "Fix Up, Look Sharp" if you're that desperate to know). I then wondered into the studio to take a nosy, and I should really have expected what was there to be there, but I just guess I wasn't used to it. Back home at ELFM (www.elfm.co.uk - you're welcome, guys) our studio is about the size of a standard kitchen, probably a bit smaller. We were in this.

Hi Alex

Pretty swish, righ? So we did our interview, everything went alright, and they’re now editing it for some date we don’t know about. And then we played a song on a radio station with a 6 digit audience which I’m totally bothered about and I’m totally used to and I’m not gonna change one bit (C’mon guys, seriously?)

We've totally got groupies, man

We played Woods. I think that’s my favourite song out of our set.

We packed up, and were asked to take all the biscuits (I love Japanese people), and got on to the bus towards Ishinomaki, which took the best part of an hour. I fell asleep, and I’m about 96% sure some pictures were taken of me and I did something embarrassing whilst I slept, but I don’t know what they were (Side note – I think we’re making a behind the scenes DVD and calling it “Access Baggage”)

I woke up as the stop pulled outside some shop front that was being used as an office for the ‘Stand Up’ festival.

I should also remind you, Ishinomaki was one of the worst hit areas by the tsunami 2 years ago.

After I spoke to some of the people inside the office, we stepped back on to the bus, and we were given a tour of Ishinomaki. Downtown Ishinomaki is having to be completely rebuilt, and there are floors of stones were homes used to be. We were then taken to a park for temporary housing.

They were modern slums for a developed country.

We then started talking some of the residents. It turns out that of the 50 people living there, 23 used to be cooks, now unemployed because there places of work were destroyed.

I refer you back to my quote from yesterday, however, ‘the idea of community will be something displayed in a museum’. These people had become incredibly close to each other, It’s literally a tale of two cities – one city has been wiped out, whereas the other has become a closer bunched group of people. It’s incredibly admirable, and makes me ashamed that there is really no such thing in Britain.bA lot of communities, little cohesion.

We then went to what seemed like a cross between a temple and village hall, where we met two old men. They talked about how the fishing business had been almost completely been demolished. But where they sad and do nothing about it? No. I remind you, these are pensioners, who visibly find it harder to be active compared to us.

A ‘company’ is a bad word to use, but they started one to help children cope with the after effects of the tsunami. They said that when they were children, their parents or grandparents didn’t teach them how to play, they taught themselves. So they started a group so that children would be played with, and would be cheered up, and would lighten the effects. Someone said today “When a child smiles, an adult does too”, and this is the product of a pensioner. Even through translation, you still felt the man’s passion when he said 

“I will do this till I die”.

That's the sense of community here, its totally selfless, its all for the greater good.

We bowed and said our arrigatos, and then we hunted for some food.... and accidentally stumbled into a karaoke bar. Alex likes karaoke. However, the machine was in Japanese and Eugene put Japanese music on. We sang Christmas carols. It was bizarre. I also had cow tongue and deep fried green bean. I can't begin to explain how bizarre this was.

But then on the walk home, the reality of where we were set in again. Ishinomaki is a ghost town. Emptied buildings, no street lights, car-less streets. When we got to the bottom of the stairs of the hostel where we are staying, there was a line, where everything below was painted blue. I tried reaching for the top. I couldn't reach.

I'm about 6 foot tall with a long pair of arms. Remember that.