Lunchtime on Cleaning Day 2

During lunch on the second day in Ishinomaki, Jason decided to go on a little explore.  #1 and I joined him.  Although I wasn't going to at first, I was really glad I did.  I appreciated Jason's adventurous spirit.




Ishnomaki was a ghost town.  It was pretty silent the entire time.  Off in the background, you could hear some heavy machinery going--probably taking apart the houses that were unsalvage-able.


At one point during this day, we heard a man walking up the street with a bullhorn or something.  We couldn't make out what he was saying, but we had been warned that there would be an earthquake everyday we were there.  We wondered if maybe he was warning us of something.


As he passed again, we learned that he was telling the residents that food had just come in and if they wanted some, they could go get it.

Some places were cleaned out beautifully, but I can't imagine how scary it must have been to clean here.

No one had returned.  This was a haunting reality.

We were told that this little shrine was probably made to honor someone who had died here.

One of the many boats we found up on land.

The bathroom had been blown right off the front of this house.

A baby shoe.

A view into the upstairs of a very old Japanese home.

Do you see the car?

Work continued on the apartments.

First apartment cleaned out.

Everything down to the toilet--gone.

We quickly found that the worst part of the clean up was anywhere where water had been standing--the washing machines and bathtubs were the WORST.  The water was black and the odor was indescribable.  Jason and Joey became pros at getting rid of these things.  They'd throw them out the back window.  We also learned not to save them to the end.