Earthquake Diary 80

 This torii does not, or no longer, I am not sure which, have a Shinto shrine associated with it. The old road, back when everyone walked, passed through here and continued over the low spot in the hill in the background. Now there are rice paddies here, and the one time I tried to follow the old road, I found it unpassable.

 The one story building on the right is an old people's home and the bridge on the left leads to a large park, Mizu no Mori Koen.

 This is one of the things that I truly dislike about Japan - people just through their trash on the road. This is the remains of someone's lunch, probably thrown out of a car window.

 As you can see I am getting physically closer to the campus, but I still have to go a long distance to the right before I can turn toward the school.

 This is the back of the hospital where my granddaughter was born. The blue tarp on the left is covering some damage but from the road I could not tell how bad it was.

 This woman is picking up trash that has gone into the rice paddy from where people have discarded it by the road.

 I finally reached the campus and upon entering I found a row of trucks. A large group of mostly young men were doing the work. It was obviously relief supplies that would be taken from there to the tsunami hit areas only 10 to 15 kilometers (sorry, Pete) to the east. I was particularly surprised to find the volunteers to be all males , because both the university and the high school are for women only.

As I walked by, I could see that some of the boxes contained packaged food, others were paper goods, and others were lamps and heaters. Also the nearest truck was about half full of boxes that were labled "AmericCares".