August 6, 2011, Saturday

Psalms 122:8-9 – For the sake of my brothers and my friends, I will now say, “May peace be within you.” For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good. NASB

Today the Iwate campers made their triumphant, though quite bug-bitten return. Their 10:00 AM arrival got pushed back to 1:30 PM, but it gave me a chance to cool off from that morning’s expedition into the depths of the futon closet by taking a short nap. I’m only being a little facetious when I say that the church has nearly enough blankets to keep the whole neighborhood warm. Before the Iwate team got back, we gave the church a thorough cleaning and as I said, reorganized the tatami room. I’m sure you’re getting sick of hearing this, but it was pretty sweaty.

We were happy to be reunited with Maki, Tomo, and Sarah. It had been so lonely! I’m still working on getting them to write up a post about their experiences. I’ll share it with you as soon as I’ve twisted their arms sufficiently.

The afternoon was ours to do with as we pleased, so we decided to take a trip to Matsushima, but before we could get out, four of us were whisked away on a secret mission. We’re pretty used to going places without knowing where or what we’ll be up to, but in this case, Tomo, Maki, Meggie, and I walked outside to answer a muffled call for help – and then got loaded into a car. It was an, “Oh, okay” moment. Instead of getting deported or shoved off a cliff, we ended up helping move a room full of boxes and miscellaneous house items into a moving van. Not sure where they were going or why they were there in the first place, but we’ve learned not to be too concerned about the “whys.” We made it back to the church alive and then took off with Hiroe-san (the volunteer coordinator) for Matsushima.

 Matsushima is the town that I mentioned earlier with the beautiful pine-covered islands. It’s quite a touristy area. Hiroe-san’s fancy connections with a hotel right on the coastline gave us the chance to enjoy a stunning view of the bay while relaxing on a bamboo balcony. Meggie and Hiroe-san used the open-air onsen, and Tomo went after them. The hotel was under construction, so we were the only ones there. I felt so pampered sitting there with a cold glass of tea, listening to the gulls. It was really lovely. Afterward, we strolled down the main touristy street by the water. Since it was getting late, most of the stores were closed, but we visited a couple and lightened our coin purses buying omiyage – gifts for the folks back home. Many of the shops were closed because of the earthquake and tsunami damage, but this area was far better protected because of all the islands that acted as breakers for the waves.