If you’re feeling generous, head to my Movember Page and donate to me, my team or any other team really and if you want to see what our merry band of Mo Misfits looks like, here are all of our social media hubs of glory.

Now to the MOtoshop! Obviously in chronological order.

It all started so innocently, look at Steve’s face, he just looks like he should be the girl in this right??  I on the other hand, well, look at my rippling abs!

Done by Brent

That little ditty, was followed by 2 pictures from Steve…

Damn you Steve and your American origins! Desecrating the epic Captain Canuck that every Canadian loves and adores!

MOvengers - Artist: Steven...and you know, whoever made most of the graphic....note Captain America's belt buckle

My response…

oh ya, this is some grade A quality MOtoshop work.

Steve was quick to respond with this beaut.

Epic volley Steve

Feeling the need to up my game having been portrayed as only a small “red-shirt” like soldier to Steve’s Mobocop, I have followed with this.

Still can't decide if I should have gone with The Rise of The MO, brah!

Steve’s return…

For more information about Fukushimo and what we are refer to my Fukushima + Movember = Fukushimo post.  If you’re on another team, feel free to do some MOtoshopping of your own and share on twitter, facebook, etc, I feel like this could be like, a thing…that is not just my thing, but lots of people’s things.  Yes, I read that sentence back to myself and still left it like that!  If you’re in the Ottawa area, I look forward to seeing you at the Gala at the end of the month!

Let’s kick Prostate Cancer’s ass!

Here is our Team Page Movember.com – Fukushimo Team (or donate here) (*note, if you are going to donate to the team, please spread it across all members, so we all feel the love)

Steve has offered up his own take on this…Modern Art is FanTACHEtic

And on the 7th day, he created the left handed check mark

Continuing on, here are a few random pics as my beard fights the best it can to reclaim it’s rightful spot on my face.

November 11th, my beard trying to take over again.

November 13, the checkmarks are abandoned for the more classic handlebar

Now here we sit at day 14, and with that, 2 photoshopping Mo-sterpieces if I do say so mo-self. (too much?)

Oh, who's that handsome lady? It's the Stevolution!

And finally…what’s Movember without a little western dirt.

So, if you found any of these amusing or ridiculous, I ask that you donate to myself or my team for this worthy cause that benefits Prostate Cancer Canada.  Donate to Fukushimo HERE.   If you’re not comfortable donating to a Canadian charity, Movember runs through multiple countries.  Go to Movember.com and make a donation.  It will figure out where you are and give the money to your country’s Prostate Cancer Society.  Like I said before, for a full run down of what all this is, refer to my previous blog, Fukushima + Movember = Fukushimo.

B

Update: had to add this by Steve, it is epic and he has truly upped the bar.

and my response, all in the name of charity kids.

He-Mon

Arriving in Japan felt more normal then I had assumed it would.  There wasn’t a wave of culture shock or nostalgia that swept me up in strong emotions.  Instead, it felt pretty regular.  The only difference from all other times that I’ve returned toJapanwas that I stood in the line for foreign passports, and it did make me feel like Japan was no longer my home, I was just another tourist.

While it all felt like it did a year ago, certain things stood out to me despite having been off the plane for no more than forty minutes.  When I arrived in the Narita JR office to claim my rail pass, bobble head Akabekos that are ubiquitous in Fukushima tourist spots, adorned the desk, along with a large Daruma in the corner.  I thought that this was, at the very least, a decent, understated show of solidarity with the Tohoku area.  And most likely, very few Japanese people outside of Tohoku know what the Akabeko is.  But, as I’ve blogged before, for the JET community, the Akabeko has become the unofficial mascot.  It’s the name of JET soccer teams and has become a symbol that foreigners within Fukushima identify with.

Arriving at Tokyo station, at around 6:30pm, emerging from the rather spacious and partially empty train, I was thrown in with the orderly throngs of people surging through the labyrinth that is Tokyo station.  A wash in a sea of white button up shirts and black suits, I joined the masses.  After walking through Tokyo station for a few minutes, the sheer size of it once again amazed me.  Moving through the groups of people, there was very little noise.  Outside on the street, I felt out of place without a clear umbrella to shield myself from the rain.  Here, the silence was even more deafening. Tokyo station, while being a major hub, is surrounded in tall office buildings and doesn’t have much of a night life.  People on the streets were filing out of their respective places of work looking forward to the long weekend ahead of them.

My business hotel room was, well, Japanese and by that I mean, small.  There was enough space for a bed, desk and bathroom with a tiny walkway between the bed and the desk, but perfectly suited to fit my needs.  The view from the window was the typical view that you get from most buildings in Tokyo, the wall of the neighbouring Mizuho bank.

I arrived at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 30 minutes late, after having figured I could make it through Tokyo station fast enough to get to the hotel and try and clean myself up a bit so that I didn’t appear to be the dishevelled human being that had spent the last 20 hours in transit.  After sorting out where MOFA was and where I was supposed to be I was escorted to a small room on the 3^rd floor by an employee and a woman from the Japanese Tourism Board.  It appeared to be your average Japanese government office, but again, with a small difference in that very few lights were on.  “Setsuden,” the MOFA employee explained was the reason for the eerie lighting.  Once again, another sign that the disaster and it’s after effects are everywhere and that must be a constant reminder to the Japanese people even far away from Fukushim in the offices ofTokyo.

After going over travel documents and the like, I told the MOFA employees what I had planned.  When I asked what they wanted out of all of this from me they said that they want people to know that Japan is safe.  I told them that I didn’t think all of Japanwas indeed “safe” they responded that, well, most of Japan is.  And that made me think of a of the first contribution in Reimagining Japan by Yoichi Funabashi, the former editor of the Yomiuri Shimbun.  He says that Tohoku, “has always served as a power source, manufacturing supplier, breadbasket and labor force for Tokyo, functioning essentially as an outsourcer supporting Tokyo’s prosperity.”  It seemed to me that this was potentiallyTokyo using Tohoku once again.

The sheets that were given to me outlined that the other participants and had been invited to Japan to “deepen [our] understanding on the current situation in Japan…and to communicate what [we] see and experience in Japan on [our] return home.”  And that’s what I planned to do, little did I know how the coming days would effect me and how little I was prepared to deal with the seriousness of what was going on.

After my meeting with MOFA, I headed straight to a convenience store to quickly purchase everything that I needed.  By needed I mean, WANTED!  The things that made me feel like I was in Japan: canned cold coffee, Aquarius, an Asahi tallboy, a “genki drink,” an onigiri and some Japanese cigarettes.  After successfully opening the onigiri without tearing any of the seaweed, I drank from all of these things.  Coffee, followed by a genki drink, then a bit of Aquarius and from there onto the beer.

After relaxing for a few minutes and sending emails, tweets and facebook updates, I headed out and met up with another former JET that just happened to be in Tokyo for business.  Tucked into an izakaya on the 5^th floor of a building that we had arbitrarily chosen, after meeting at Ochanomizu station, we started our nomi-houdai (all you can drink) and began reliving our past lives as ALTs.  It has only been a year since I had seen Keith, despite him having left Fukushima 3 years ago.  We met in Denver last year to attend the wedding of former JETs that had lived in Fukushima.  And just like it had been in Denver, it was if we had never parted ways and never had to say goodbye to each other.

That is one of the truly beautiful things about the JET programme, it seems like no matter where you go in the world, there’s someone there that you used to live in Japan with and it’s easy to fall back in to being friends.

As the night grew on and the beer flowed, I realized that the Japanese language is not exactly like riding a bike.  I’d liken it more to that sport you played through high school.  You used to be decent at it and you assume that you still will be, even though it’s been numerous years since you’ve even played.  That amazed feeling, when you realize how horrible you have become at it is exactly how I felt sitting across from Keith, who is Japanese-American, listening to him throw out blazing fast Japanese with ease and finding myself struggling for the words to order a beer.

We parted ways after a few hours of discussions of past JETs and what they’re doing now or where they’re at and just catching up on life.

I went to bed thinking about how I had traveled so far, but that it felt like a strange version of home, where everything was as it always had been, but was just shrouded in a light haze.

While I continue to procrastinate about writing the blogs detailing my trip back to Fukushima (sidebar: it’s actually less about procrastination and more about the fact that I’ve talked about it so much already with media, friends and family that I’m on a bit of an overload), I figured I’d at least share some of my words in audio format.  Here is my interview with the CBC Radio One show Ottawa Morning.  They were nice enough to send it my way.  I’m pretty sure it’s the best interview I’ve done to date.  Although, I was a little thrown off by the first question.  I didn’t think we were going to dive into Soma that quickly.

Ottawa Morning Interview – Tuesday October 11th – Brent Stirling

Thanks again to Ottawa Morning for having me on.

______________________________________
Image via Wikimedia Commons

So, on my last night in Japan, sitting in my hotel in Tokyo, I’m going to give the reason for my lack of posting up until now, other than an excuse for not blogging blog (see, Return to Tohoku #3).  And this very well may turn into another excuse for not blogging blog, but hey, you’ve read this far and look how much more there is to go!

This past Sunday, I went with a bunch of foreigners to go and volunteer with Hearts for Haragama, a group I’ve blogged about before.  After spending the day with children from different kindergartens in the Soma area, they took me out to the coast.  The JETs that have been out to Soma a few times decided to take me out to Tsukasa’s (the owner of the Haragama kindergarten) house.

As we began to near the wreckage I had my camera going and got Jay to shoot a video with my Xacti.  At first, it was just as I had seen in the news.  Pictures of buses in the water and some buildings.  But as we got closer and closer to the Pacific Ocean, the utter destruction began to take over.  At first I was amazed at how different everything was, giant concrete tetrapods that had lined the coastline were now gone, washed away by the sheer power of the tsunami.  Cars, still lay smashed at the side of the road, in parking lots and beside the shells of buildings that the tsunami left behind.  We couldn’t even return to the beach that I had gone to almost every weekend of every summer for four years because the bridge that would take us up and over the cove that I had always used was no longer safe to drive on.

As we pulled up to where Tsukasa’s house had been along with his entire community, the pictures stopped.  The video stopped.  As we got out of the car and I stood where once houses had been and was told that it looked so much better than it had before, I had this surreal feeling.  It was like standing on a movie set.  It couldn’t be real.  And as much as seeing pictures gives you an idea of what’s going on, it doesn’t compare to standing there amidst remnants of houses, smashed cars and debris, the shadows of people’s entire lives…gone.

Danny explained to me that Tsukasa’s two story house had been smashed by the tsunami and the first floor had been annihilated.  While the second floor, they had found, still intact about three kilometers away, carried there by the tsunami.  Still intact, but with someone else’s refrigerator inside.

Danny told us Tsukasa was even able to retrieve his coveted bottle Tequila from the second floor still intact, which we all had a little chuckle about.  But as I wandered away from the group the enormity of the situation took hold and I broke down.  It all just hit me like a ton of bricks.  As much as this trip is about promoting Japan and all of the beautiful things about it, standing there, alone, I began to feels waves of horror and sadness.  It was the worst I have ever felt and now attempting to use words in order to describe a feeling that is truly indescribable seems somehow wrong.  Even the feeling I had, standing there, eventually made me feel guilty.  Even as attached as I am to Fukushima, how could I be so affected by all of this when the people around me had gone through so much more.  The people that lived in Soma had gone through so very much, even with the radiation aside.  They’ve all had time to sit back and process it, but the entire ordeal became very real.

After getting it together, I went back and said I was done.  We went down the road to another spot where cars had been piled on top of each other and drove by slowly like you would if you were driving through a graveyard.

To my friends in the car with me, I just kept saying, “This is so messed up.  What am I going to do with these pictures?  Why am I even taking pictures?”  The enormity of the entire situation was more than I could comprehend.  Brian told me, “You have to take pictures, so you never forget this, so this feeling stays fresh in your mind.”  And now I’m going to share a few of these pictures here, to demonstrate why this trip fundamentally changed in the middle.  It was no longer about blogging or radiation or anything for that matter…it all faded away for a time.  I told my friends I was done and we headed back into Soma.

So, I’m going to post a few pictures now.  This place is what made me realize I needed to go back and review my whole trip and what I wanted to say about it.  I don’t know if I want to change anything or not.  But in that moment I knew that I was changed and that the emotions I had felt in returning to Tokyo, Aizu and Fukushima city were nothing compared to what I felt in Soma.  I didn’t want to post anything until I had come to grips with everything.

I will roll out my travel blogs in the next few weeks with a few longer posts about everything following that.  But for now, I hope these pictures of what happened along the coast in Tohoku will suffice.  I debated using these at all and I’m still kind of wondering why I’m going to do so.  But this was the biggest part of my trip.  The most life altering and like Brian said, you take pictures so you don’t forget and I’ll never forget standing in Soma for as long as I live.

UPDATE: Just came across this article on bloomberg.com that seems to outline everything I experienced in my trip.  Fukushima Desolations Worst Since Nagasaki as Residents Flee 

For the first time in as long as I can remember, I was nervous while heading to the airport today.  Maybe it came from drinking a little bit more wine then I should have last night with friends.  But nonetheless an anxious nervousness swept over me as I loaded my bag in the car and grew as my girlfriend, dog and I, sped towards theOttawaairport.  Thankfully she talked and I was content to listen while I pet the dog in my lap.

I don’t know where this nervousness came from.  I’ve done this trip what seems like a million times.  Although, now sitting here rocketing above the Earth, north ofYellowknife, I am a little bit more calm and nervousness is slowly building into excitement.  I can’t see sleeping in the 9 hours I still have left, but we’ll see how I’m feeling in 5 or 6.

This trip is different then all others.  It’s not strictly business or travel for pleasure; it’s a mixed bag of everything.  It’s a trip that is a homecoming with business, reunions, government employees and tourist adventures all added in for good measure.  While I don’t expect a ticker-tape parade or anyone to even notice, for me, it will be huge.  Getting off that train inFukushimacity will probably be the best feeling I’ve had in awhile.

The nervousness I’m feeling may stem from my uncertainty.  What am I really going to find?  Is this place that up until a year ago was my home, really that different?  And what is expected of me?  While I understand the overall concept of having former JETs return to Japan, I’m not quite sure what I can do.  What can one person accomplish for a country they don’t live in?  I’m still trying to figure that one out, but in the meantime, I’m just going to write down everything that happens and whatever I do or come across and put it out on the internet.

Long Awaited Return

Fukushima will always be my first home.  It’s not my childhood home or where I first lived on my own in university, but it was the first place that I ever considered to be my home.  I made it my home and the people there: JETs, non-JETs and Japanese people became my family.  I know that sounds sappy, but it’s true.  I remember, being very very sick in my first year as an ALT and my Mom emailing and calling me to ask if she should fly over in order to take care of me.  No matter how I tried, I wasn’t able to convince her that I would be fine and that I had a network of people to help me.  Luckily I got better and she didn’t end up coming.  But when she did eventually arrive in Fukushima a few months later, and met the people around me, she realized how ridiculous the notion of her coming toJapan to take care of me had been.  She even commented that it seemed as though the JETs in Fukushima city had created a little international family.  And that’s what JET was and I assume still is.

There are most likely similar feelings felt throughout the worldwide JET Alumni community that have lived in the affected prefectures post March 11^th.  I remember realizing how lightly I had taken other disasters that had happened the world over.  Prior to the Fukushima disaster, other disasters had just been passing thoughts.  I read news articles and discussed them, but never had something so horrific occurr anywhere that I could picture in my head and that I had so many memories from.  And I honestly don’t think that people can ever know how it feels until you go through it.

Not being in Fukushima, a place that I’m so attached to I had the prefectural symbol tattooed on my body, while it went through a gut wrenching triple disaster brought feelings of guilt, relief, fear and anger. It wasn’t long after the disaster, that I vowed I would return to Fukushima, to see the people that had been part of my extended family there.  While emails and pictures are all well and good, nothing beats a solid hug, or in the cases of some school principals, a sturdy bow.

I never thought my return would have anything to do with the Japanese government, but I’m glad that it does.  The schedule that I posted in my last blog is pretty much exactly what I would have done had I returned on my own and is pretty much how I lived while I was in Fukushima.  I look forward to the cultural exchanges I will have while I’m there, no matter how awkward they get and I’m looking forward to enjoying whatever Fukushima has become in the last year.  I do truly wonder if there will be an evident difference in the people or the landscape.  I’m also looking forward to meeting the new JET community in Fukushima and seeing them bond and mesh with each other, hopefully creating memories like I have with the people that I shared my time with in Japan.

I’m hoping my blogs of this trip not only engage the general public and give a different look at what Fukushima and Japan are about, but I also hope that they serve as peace of mind for the JET Alumni that I’ve talked to since the disaster and even those that I haven’t, those that like me, just want to go and see people and the places they used to call home.

Really quickly, below is a brief itinerary of my return to Tohoku trip.  I will be blogging all of it under the category of Return To Tohoku.  So, I guess this is the first entry.  I do still have a half-written blog, but given how busy I’ve been this last month and a half, I feel like the next time I’ll get to sit down and finish it all will be when I get on the plane that will take me from Toronto to Tokyo.  Below, I’ve mashed down the 8 page itinerary I created for myself to the bare bones skeleton, just to let people know where I’ll be at.  I’ve also added some links and facts that I honestly ripped right off of the websites sited.  Like I said, I just don’t have time.

Day 1: Wednesday September 21st
Depart from Ottawa for Japan

Day 2: Thursday, September 22nd
Arrive in Tokyo. Go straight to MOFA, then check into my hotel.
(Spend the night in Tokyo)

Day 3: Friday, September 23rd
Tokyo to Koriyama city, then travel to Aizu-Wakamatsu to see Enzo-ji, Iimoriyama and Tsuruga Castle.
(Stay in Aizu-Wakamatsu)

And here’s a bit of history on a few of the places I’m going.

Enzo-ji – Yanaizu from Fuku-Tabi

A symbolic temple of Aizu, Enzoji is one of the three biggest temples dedicated to Koku-zoson in Japan.

About 1,300 years ago, in 807, Fukuman Kokuzo Enzoji Temple was built by Tokuichi Daishi, a noted priest from Aizu. The main hall of the temple rises high above a huge crag. From here we can see the Tadami River flowing magnificently through the town. You can also see the various views of each season, with cherry blossoms in spring, mist over the river in summer, red maples in autumn, and snow in winter.
The temple has many highlights, such as a treasure house and monuments in memory of poets inscribed with their poems and haiku. It is saied that the statue of Fukuman Kokuzo Bosatsu (the Bodhisattva of wisdom), whom the temple is dedicated to, is a work of Kobo Daishi. There are many legends associated with the temple: When Kobo Daishi threw wood shavings from the Kokuzo Bosatsu into theTadami River, they immediately turned into countless Japanese dace fish. The story of how the red cow helped with the difficult construction of the temple. A story about Nanuka Do Hadaka Mairi (Naked Worship at Nanuka Do Shrine). The legends are many and varied.

Within the precincts of Enzoji is the statue of a cow called “Nade-Ushi” (“the cow you pet”).

Legend says that the cow helped people to construct the temple, and that if you pet the cow while making a wish, your wish will come true. This is the origin of the “Aka-Beko (“Red Cow”), which has become symbolic of Aizu.

Iimoriyama/Sazaedo from Japan Guide.com

After the fall of the shogunate in 1867, forces still loyal to the shogun were concentrated in the northern Tohoku region. They attempted to resist the new government, but suffered a decisive defeat at Tsuruga Castle in 1868. Looking out from Iimoriyama Hill, a group of young Aizu soldiers in a unit called the Byakkotai (White Tiger Corps) saw their castle engulfed in flames and committed seppuku.

The boys, 20 of them aged 14 to 16, had made a grave error; the castle had not actually been taken, the flames they had seen were from outside the castle walls. Nevertheless, the story of their loyalty and devotion has become well known throughout Japan and numerous TV, film and manga adaptations have been made.

Iimoriyama, the site of the boy’s suicide, has become a popular tourist attraction. As well as souvenirs shops and monuments, there are two museums devoted to the Byakkotai. The Byakkotai Memorial Hall is the larger and is located beside the main path up the hill. The second, the Byakkotai Folklore andHistorical Museum, is much smaller and can be found a bit off the main path.

Among the monuments devoted to the Byakkotai, there are 19 tombs for the Byakkotai soldiers. Though there were 20 of them on the hill, one of the boys was not successful in his suicide attempt. At the site of the hill that looks onto Tsuruga Castle, there is a statue of a Byakkotai soldier peering off into the distance.

There are also two monuments which visitors may find surprising. From Japan‘s fascist allies during the war, there is a column from Italy and a plaque from Germany. The column has a statue of an eagle on its top, and was taken from Pompeii. The plaque was given by a diplomat in 1935.

Down the hill there are a few other buildings of interest, such as a shrine and the Sazaedo Pagoda. The pagoda is particularly interesting because visitors can enter inside, and a ramp spirals up to the top of the pagoda and back down again.

I also happen to be going during the Aizu-Wakamatsu Autumn Festival, which is pretty awesome.

Day 4: Saturday, September 24th
Take part in the Global Citizen’s Festival in Fukushima city that the Fukushima AJET Chapter will be taking part in. There will be facepainting, games and food from all different parts of the world and this is something that JETs in Fukushima do every year.
(Stay in Fukushima)

Day 5: Sunday, September 25th (Tourist Destination) 
Volunteer on the coast in Soma.
Head to Soma to volunteer with Hearts for Haragama, a charity created by current Fukushima JETs, which provides funds and assistance to a kindergarten in Soma.
(Stay in Fukushima)
Day 6: Monday, September 26th
In the morning, visit Fukushima Senior High School with Jason Ishida (Fukushima SHS ALT) to participate in classes and conversations with his students.
(Stay in Fukushima)

Day 7: Tuesday, September 27th
Visit Nihonmatsu Adachi Senior High School to partake in their yearly bunkasai (oh ya, that’s right, who picked the best time to go?  Oh this guy…BUNKASAI!!!!)
(Stay in Fukushima)

Day 8: Wednesday, September 28th
Visit Nihonmatsu Technical Senior High School in the morning and then depart for Tokyo.
(Stay in Tokyo)

Day 9: Thursday, September 29th
Depart from Tokyo for Ottawa