Kasagi no O-kuki

"The torii crosspieces from Okuki"

Trying to pick up the blog thread...this post is the Monday after the rest of the group headed south to Tokyo, and I headed north to Hachinohe, not too far from the northern end of "the big island." And it's mostly the tale of the torii.

Torii are the large red gates that look like 'pi' to Westerners.  They're actually part of Shinto shrines, and at least two were washed away in the Great East Japan Earthquake in March of 2011 (and I hope someone will correct me where I've gone astray).  Somehow, they washed up on the Oregon coast two years later.  Through a remarkable chain of events, they ended up in the care of the Portland Japanese Garden, which spent two years discovering where they were from and getting them back.  These kasagi, or crosspieces, are considered sacred objects, and their return was kind of a big deal.  The whole story is here:

https://japanesegarden.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Kasagi-Story-July-Final.pdf

This became one of my quests not too long after deciding I was going to Japan.  Given that I've come to Japan to learn more about their experience with the tsunami, it seemed fitting to visit these torii.  And things seemed to fall into place:  the lady at the hotel tracked down all the train info, I failed to mess that up, and I got to the breakwater the shrine and torii now reside.  Ooooh, but there's a cyclone fence.  Okay, I'll check it out.  Oo, there's a gate, and it's unlocked.  Oh, but there are gulls.  And it's.....nesting season.  Actually, there are medium-aged chicks staggering around everywhere, not quite ready to fly.  That's right: it's fledge week.

Woo, and loud.  And there are a LOT of them.  Just strolling through seemed really unwise, with real risk for stepping on somebody.  Also, honestly, that many yelling birds raises the Hitchcock Factor for me.  Plus, I mean, freaking out a bunch of other critters just to get to a Shinto shrine rather seemed to miss the point of Shinto shrines.  So I shuffled along for, mm, a while, no doubt to the amusement of the fishermen who base their boats all up and down this cove, and made it about halfway to the torii.  Just close enough for a zoom photo of the words 'Portland Japanese Garden' now etched in them.

Phew.  Worth it, if a little roundabout.  I don't know how to do things any other way.

Wrapping Up the PSU Week

The last day of the program, (Saturday, 6/24), was a bit more of a blur than some other days, if maybe only because we spent less time on the bus!  In the morning, we heard from a couple of folks working on replacement housing.  Six years later, there are still 100,000 people in temporary housing!  And the social dynamics are real.  Throw a bunch of fishermen among the farmers, a crowd of folks on government assistance among the still-working...it gets tense.  The big breakthrough was assigning housing by neighborhood, rather than by lottery, which helped keep some group cohesion.  Apparently that was an important factor, although I could imagine it going the other way, too.

After checking out the early construction phase of their new development (adding layers of dirt for a couple years, remember), we visited some of future residents at a local Shinto shrine.  Then, off to the oyster farm!  I gotta tell you, I'm not much of an oyster guy, myself, but getting out on the water, and watching these guys do their thing....an excellent way to wrap up the week.

Well, not totally wrap-up.  There was a group photo or TWELVE that had to happen first....but eventually we were, reluctantly, allowed to leave.  Our hosts were very sweet.

I'm looking forward to getting everyone's thoughts and revisiting with the group, who will be presenting our thoughts at PSU from 3-4:30pm on July 15th (Smith Student Union, #296/8), if you'd like to see the song and dance version ('Tohoku: the musical!').  RSVP here:

https://app.e2ma.net/app2/survey/1743317/213080351/1a3f528a7f/1296518613/40236501/458114517/?v=a

Flyer is here:
https://www.pdx.edu/cps/sites/www.pdx.edu.cps/files/SaveTheDate%20Flyer%20Student%20Presentations%206.29.17.pdf