I got an email from a blog reader telling me I hadn’t written in a week and she was missing it, so here I am, on an Air France flight to the UK, with the first spare time I’ve had since the drive back from Oshika. (And let me just say how the loos on [...]

Today was my last day on Oshika and I spent most of it relaxing; after Saturday’s six hours of food preparation, and yesterday’s five hours of cooking I am glad I didn’t plan anything for today so I could just spend a bit of time at the Sasakis’ and watch my last Ohara sunset (at [...]

I came here to offer a bit of practical and emotional support and to maintain awareness, but I also came here to find some small projects to fund from donations I collected in the UK and also in Japan. I found three projects costing ¥75,000, ¥150,000, and ¥100,000; each making a big difference to people [...]

I’ve been rather inspired by some Tohoku before and after photos going around on Facebook and thought I’d like to start recording Oshika’s progress for the Ohara community. The photos aren’t always as uplifting as some of the ones circulating on the Internet, but that’s the reality here — the shrine is falling apart, people [...]

I knew the tears would come at some point, but I didn’t expect them to come three times in 24 hours. I’ll leave the third time for another blog entry, as it relates to the Sasakis and I have so much more to say about them. So for now….. The first time was quite unexpectedly, [...]

Happy Valentine’s Day! Even though I wasn’t with Mr W my day was absolutely filled with love! I spent about five hours handing out the chocolates and Valentine’s gifts that so many people had sent up from Tokyo (and some from overseas). There were literally hundreds of gifts to hand out — they filled three [...]

Yesterday, one of my closest friends and her husband travelled up from Tokyo to spend 24 hours with me here — she has seen me through everything that’s happened in the last twelve months (as well as everything back during the stroke years) and really wanted to see me here. It was nice to be [...]

Today was a very special day for the tiny shrine at the top of Ohara, and as such, there was a matsuri. Of all the days I’ve spent here so far, today probably provided the best evidence of just how warm and welcoming the Ohara people are, and how much the people from outside of [...]

So far I’ve been focusing my energies on the human impact of the tsunami on a very individual level; just trying to make a tiny difference to the people that I meet during my time here. Along the way I have discovered quite a few things that simply don’t make sense to me, and make [...]

Sasaki-san has invited me to her home for a sleepover tonight. I pop in on her every few days to say hi, drop off some things she might like, and have a chat. Today she happily showed off the shoes and fingerless gloves she was wearing; I gave them to her on a previous visit. [...]