Dedication of Church Donation of Ice House to Fishermen AND a get away with the Grames

Gary was asked to represent the Church at the dedication of an Ice House donated by the church to a Fishermen's Co-op near Ishinomaki (north of Sendai on the coast) Gary and President Sugawara, Sendai Stake President, are ready to cut the ribbon with their white gloves on.

The head of the co-op making a presentation (plaque) to the Church as a thank-you for the donation that has helped them get on their feet again after the tsunami last year.

Pres. Sugawara spoke about the love the Savior had for Fishermen. He did a masterful job.

The Ice House

The ceremony was on the water front. The shore has been cleaned up and looking more normal now but beyond the shore are many foundations left from homes that were destroyed.

Heading to the car after the ceremony.

Gary talking with Pres. Sugawara, and his couselor, President Tanaka and Elder Halvorson (Temporal Affairs for the Church in Japan)

After the ceremony, we left with Elder and Sister Grames in the car to visit some people they have met and learned to love as they have worked as the Directors of Public Affairs for the Church in Japan. Their mission ends in a couple of months and they wanted to have us meet these people so that we can maintain contact with them. We visited the Elementary School where Gary presented sport bags to the 5th and 6th graders last September. This school is the only one still standing of the three elementary schools in the area. The other two were destroyed in the tsunami. Many children were killed in all three schools. These are the Principals showing us pictures of the three schools after the devistation and telling us about how the disaster happened in their area.

The church donated storage sheds to this school. This is one of the sheds.

This picture isn't great, but it is a path leading up the mountain behind the school that was prepared since the tsunami last year. It's purpose is to help children move to higher ground in case it happens again in the future.

These are stumps of trees at the beginning of the path that have been carved into animals~something happy to look at for the children.

This heart was on display in the hallway of the school. I'm not sure what it said as it was all in Japanese, but it just shows how nice and thoughtful people are to these children who have suffered great loss.

Walking down the hall of the school.

Some of these sheds were donated by the church to the school. The man on the left is the principal of a Jr High School a few miles away. He lived at his school for several months because his home and car were destroyed. For all he has been through, he is such a happy man. He loves to speak English. Elder and Sister Sakamoto are speaking to the Principal of this Elementary school. Also, Sister Grames is on right.

A picture hanging on the wall outside the fist grade classroom. Cute!

This is a clock that is still attached to the destroyed Elementary school telling the time the tsunami hit the school and stopped the clock.

This is what the elementary school looks like that was destroyed. You can see the clock on the wall at the top.

We visited Sato san in his temporary housing unit where he lives since his home was destroyed. He is a fisherman and lives on the waterfront. He told us about how he knew there was a tsunami coming so he took his wife and 6 year old grandson up the hill to a place he thought they would be safe. He returned to the village where they live to help some others get to safety by actually driving them to another town to their family. When he returned, he saw that his home was totally destroyed and the place where he left his wife and grandson was devistated, too. He spent days looking for them but never found either one. They were probably washed out to sea. When the Grames met him, he was feeling like taking his own life because he had nothing to live for. The church has helped him and other fishermen get their jobs going again. The Grames have become very close to him and he is doing pretty well now. We hope the Sakamotos can stay close to him because they live near him.

He has a life sized picture of himself. We all got a laugh out of it!

At the end of the day, we checked into this Shokan (Inn) on the water front to enjoy a get-away and celebrate our 39th anniversary coming up in a couple of weeks.

We enjoyed a typical Japanese seafood dinner. Just look at all of those dishes on that table and that was just for the 4 of us. Each of us had over 20 different dishes of food. One of them was a live abalone that was cooked in front of us. Sorry, I couldn't eat it but Gary loved it.

These pictures were taken from our room window at 5 AM. This truly is the land of the rising sun!!

We slept on futons on the tatami mat floor.

Beautifully painted large plate in the Inn.

We stopped in Matsushima on the way home which is considered one of the three most beautiful spots in all of Japan. It has over 200 Islands all around the shore. (you can see some of them in this picture) All of the islands are covered with pine trees. Some are so close that you can walk over a bridge to them. Others you would have to take a boat out to them. This little village has beautiful temples, gardens, museums, etc. We saw enough to know we need to go back some day and spend some hours looking around.

The Grames and us standing in front of a Shrine in Matsushima.

A very old Shrine with a thatched roof.