Two Quotes from the Periphery of German Idealism

One of the great things about philosophy texts is that they are not ashamed to make use of big abstract notions and dive into generalizations. In the reality I live in, so much of the common talk is centered upon the most insignificant minutiae of our adolescent everyday dealings. Remember that face he made the other day? That was hilarious! You know what she told me the other day? That's sexy! In cheap television dramas, these moments of idle talk are portrayed as a kind of epitome of a happy life.

And yet, these trifling pleasures numb the imagination. It becomes more and more difficult for us to imagine the horrors, the struggles, the pains, that necessarily happen elsewhere for the sake of our privileged happiness here. The invisible links do not surface into our consciousness. With each trivial remark, a moment of opportunity, a moment of giving a prayer or letting our imagination soar towards the other, is lost. Philosophy reminds me of this loss. This is because of philosophy's shameless use of its own particular language that forces me to think in this way, to bring the wings of my imagination outward.

That is of course not to say that everyday talk is always silly. One needs solace. The point is that there is overabundance. Just like eating too much ice cream makes one fat and weak, so does idle talk numb the brain and waste our privileges. This was the point I wanted to make as a precursor to two quotes.

The first quote is from Mourning Sickness: Hegel and the French Revolution by Rebecca Comay:

Captivated by the prospect of easy intimacy, the confessant tries to draw in the other through his own disingenuous display of candor. This is the seductive allure of all confession -- its theatricality and chronic tendency to hypocrisy; it always risks succumbing to the lure of narcissism.

Comay, Mourning Sickness, 122

I see this aspect of confession quite frequently these days. In this short passage, Comay does a good job in capturing the disgusting and perverse pleasure of a naive confessant. I show you my wound, now you show me yours. As if the mere revealing of wounds would lead to their healing! Action is always required for forgiveness. There is no forgiveness via an idea. Yet through the confession, there is a collective illusion that something has been done. This pseudo-religious experience is severely criticized by Comay's reading of Hegel.

Just to be clear: this does not mean that confession is wrong or bad per se. Confession plays a part in getting me out of my slumber and solipsism. Only through experience do I learn the hypocrisy of confession, that confessing is chronically insufficient for good to be on earth. The worst is to let all my hopes float "up there," to mystify the causes of the pains in the world, to refrain from acting and to give in to a mental idleness. In order to resist this "seductive allure" and to keep in mind that action is always called for, it is important to first and foremost go through the experience of bad confession, in order to develop an anti-bacterium against the "lure of narcissism."

The second quote is from The Grounding of Positive Philosophy by Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling (yes, Germans had ridiculously long names back in the days!):

Therefore, if this becoming [of nature] has achieved any kind of purpose it is achieved only through humanity, but not for humanity; for the consciousness of man does not equal the consciousness of nature. But, one answers, of course the ultimate and highest purpose does not lie in the human faculty of cognition, since if nature is impenetrable to man, conversely, man is foreign to a nature that indeed continues beyond him and his works, and thus for which he has no significance. ... Man was a goal of nature only to the extent that he was destined to sublate [aufzuheben] nature within himself, to continue beyond nature and to begin for himself a new chain of events.

Schelling, Grounding of Positive Philosophy, 7

I think that this is the uniqueness of Christianity, and also the essence of the famous words of Jesus, that he brings a sword instead of peace on earth, that one must hate one's blood ties and love one's surroundings as neighbors. The Holy Spirit is the "new chain of events" which originate out of nothing. It is something that magically transforms the radical savagery, hatred, and antagonism of nature into a harmony of believers. This aspect of the Holy Spirit is not understood properly by some self-proclaimed "believers." Holy Spirit is not nature: it is not something which is laid before man so that man has a purpose without his acting for it. Holy Spirit is something which exists "for humanity."

These two quotes are peripheral remarks of German idealism. The essence of their philosophy is in their works. The above remarks are nothing but the skeleton of the substance of their ideas. But even the skeleton of German idealism is better than the "substance" of so many different schools of thought, who emphasize this or that without noticing the poverty and limitations of sticking to a single, primitive, undeveloped Notion.

The student who has not passed time in intimate allegiance with like-minded youth in a shared striving for conviction and clarity in important matters has not enjoyed academic life. It is becoming of noble-minded youths to concern themselves with sunshine and even mindless merriment, to which they are to a certain degree still entitled, but they are to search the darker shadows of more serious matters as well, and it is essential that such gravity does not assault the manner or the subject matter they pursue. That teacher is no friend of youth who attempts to fill them with grief and sorrow for the ways of the world or the course of politics when they must first acquire the strength of guiding convictions and beliefs. ... If the German academic life maintains a lasting worth in the memory of many, if the faces of the oldest men still brighten with the recollection of the university and the life there, then this is certainly not due to the memory of sensual pleasures, but is chiefly due to a recollection tied to that consciousness of a shared, courageous struggle for intellectual development and higher knowledge.

Schelling, Grounding of Positive Philosophy, 25

母校へむけるほころびた刃先としての心象スケッチ

バンクーバーは交通の街、世界中の空気を身体にためて、生徒たちは歩く。口を開けばその空気は言葉となってこぼれだす。とどまらない。４年目の滞在になる僕は、築１００年の切妻造りの家の二階の部屋の、天井の窓から入る陽光でベッドが静かに温まっているところをみつめながら、風鈴が飛ばす銀色の音雫を身体のなかに響かせている。窓は通りに向けて開け放たれている。大家さんと、ルームメイトとで計三人の共同生活は新たに始まったばかりだが、落ち着いた時間が常にこの家には流れていて、街道の熱気から自由になりたいときに逃げ込める場所を確保できたことがうれしい。

この国での様々な民族の衝突の痕跡は大学の人だかりの内に漂っている。その人だかりの中に歩いているとき、僕は僕の血筋、日本人とアイルランド人という血筋を想い、両方とも、２０世紀まではカナダで度々差別や迫害を受けてきたのだということを意識する。その人だかりの内の一個人と親しくなり、一緒にお昼の食事とコーヒーを飲むくらいの時間をすごせば、その人から伸びる人伝の鎖でみるみるうちに知り合いは増えていく。それが、ブリティッシュ・コロンビア大学での人間関係の広がり方。英語を話し、そこそこの歴史と文学の教養があれば、どの大陸から来た生徒であろうと会話が成立する。ただし、本当に一生涯の友となりそうな人はほんの３、４人。

自由の森での生活は僕の記憶にはもうほとんどない。卒業生と会うときも、自由の森の、というよりは、個人として魅力を感じるから、という動機で会うのがほとんどだ。同窓会などが開かれても、僕はまず他のことを優先するだろう。ただし、一つだけ、自由の森に関連付けられることとして、今も非常に深く印象に残っているのみならず、思い出すと身体に新しい力が駆け抜けるような話がある。

４月に高校を卒業して、同じ年の８月にブリティッシュ・コロンビア大学の寮へ移り、初めて顔を合わせたヨハンという名の友人（彼はナノテクノロジーとビジネスを学ぶのだと胸を張って、ツルンとした笑顔で握手を求めてきた、それに応じて内心とてつもなく僕は萎縮したのだが…）と、夕方のキャンパスを歩いて夕食を食べるところを探していた。ヨハンの知り合いで、僕にとっては初対面となる人（のちにヨハンのガールフレンドになる人）に、そのとき出くわした。社交辞令に忠実なヨハンは、そのときその女の人に僕を紹介してくれたのだが、そのとき、彼は僕を示してこう言ってくれた：「This guy has a beautiful mind」。Mindという言葉をbeautifulと形容し、それを僕に当て嵌めてくれた、それも、何も考え込まずに自然にそう言ってくれたのだ。そのときまで、僕の生真面目すぎる口調の英語に劣等意識を抱きつつすごしていた僕は、その生真面目さがバンクーバーにおいては希少な天分のように思われていることを学んだ。それは自由の森で身に着けたスタンス、相手の言うことが完全に我が一部となるまで辛抱強くコミュニケーションを続けるスタンスを、海外に渡ってからもとり続けたことによる成果だったのだ。

現在、一生涯の友となりそうな人たちは、そういった辛抱強いコミュニケーションを断絶させないで今も僕と続けてくれている人たちだ。その友人の一人、永林（エイリン）から電話がかかってきたのは、２０１１年９月８日の夜のこと。長い一日を終える手前ホッとしていた矢先の誘いに乗って、僕らは僕の家の近所のベンチで落ち合った。そのとき永林曰く：「Okay、言おうか言わないか迷っていたんだが、はっきり言うことにした：俺は今夜のケンジとの会話を最上のものに、そのまま小説の文体として書いても恥に思わないほど最上のものにしたいと考えている、わかった？」こうして切り出された会話は永林から始まった。５月の中旬、街道で一人の黒人の男を見た。見つめ返してくる。話しかけ、家がない男だと判ると、永林はマクドナルドを奢って、話をした。男はその短い間ですっかり永林を魅了した。それほどの教養と想像力と言語力の持ち主だった。男はJohnと名乗った。永林は、自分の借家の空き部屋に男を泊めることを提案した。はじめは遠慮をしつつ、時折永林の場所で洗濯をする程度だった男は、２週間経つとすっかり永林と兄弟同然の親しさとなり、本当の名前（「ティティ」、アルジェリア人名）を共有して、永林の空き部屋に住むことになった。それから２ヶ月以上が経った現在、ティティのことを、永林は人生の師と仰いでいる。ティティほどの知性を備えた男には会ったことがない、つい先日もカズオ・イシグロのRemains of the Dayを読み終えてその本について語ったときのティティの使った言葉ときたら天の声のごとくだったんだから。永林はそこまで語って、ケンジの東北での話を聞きたいから話せよと言い、僕は夜の街道の向こう側に立つ透明人間に呼びかけるようなゆっくりとした演説調の声で東北で会った２人の人と過ごした時間を語りにして永林に話した。「話してくれてありがとう」と永林は言った。「ケンジが、観てきたことを言葉にしようとして苦しんでいるのを、俺はArtistic Duty（芸術の、芸術家の義務）として大切に思うよ」とも言った。僕はここ３年ほど、一滴も涙を流さないで過ごしてきたが、この言葉、「Artistic Duty」という言葉を、永林が僕に課したとき、それを全うしていないことを恥に思って、勝ち将棋を逆転されて負けたあとのような悔しさが身体を走って眼から涙が数滴こぼれたが、その湿り気を感じて急いで気持ちを冷まし、ティティに会いにいこうと永林を誘ってバスに乗った。

ティティはむしろ、Artistic Dutyの最速の完了を目指さずに実験を繰り返す僕の言葉の紡ぎかたを褒めた。土に刻み脳に配列された５０年の生き様を水が目の前で無に変えて行く、その経験の真実をふさわしい表現方法で作品に昇華するには、３年は必要なのだから、今のやりかたを続けなさいと、ティティは言った。もともとは大学で文学を教えていたティティは、アカデミズムに嫌気が差して反発すると解雇され、路頭に迷っていたのだと言った。永林のいうとおり知的で鋭い紳士だった。２０世紀前半に世界中で渦巻いた文学の嵐、ジョイスから大江健三郎まで吹き荒れた嵐を、僕とティティはそれぞれ解釈して語りぶつかり、それを永林は沈黙して聴いていた。議論が終わったのは真夜中を過ぎてからだった。ティティと握手をして家を出るとき、永林は、「すばらしい話だった。一語たりとも聞き漏らさずに耳を傾けるしか俺はできなかったよ」と言った。走ってバスに追いつくと、僕らは別れた。

大学の外では魂の交流が日常的に行われている。大学でのディスクール、大学での言語政治が、いわゆる「勤勉な」大学生たちを、このような交流に参加できなくさせている。自由の森で養った言語感覚を今でも頼りにしている僕は、大学のもはやルーティン化した化石同然の教育の貧しさを見破ることができ、永林のような、論文では赤点しかとらないすばらしい友人と対等に時間をすごせる。

太陽が消えるとき、バンクーバーの下街（ダウン・タウン）は最後の一筆が入った絵画のように完成する。人工的な光、建物、道路、食べ物、化粧、服、叫び、楽器音、靴音。人が動けば動いただけ世界が動き、人が止まると世界も残念ながら止まってしまう、そういう下街の正体、そのエッセンス・本質は、自然の明るさと熱気が消え去った夜に出現する。にぎやかな大通りの一本横の道には、昼間はにぎわっていたが今は閉店した数々の店の中を、モップで磨く労働者たちが揺らめいている。その一人として働いた経験のある僕は、かれらの背中にのしかかる疲労が伝染してぐったりとし、足枷をはめられたような歩調で、知り合いの待つところを目指した。

東北からの手紙／Letters from Tohoku

また宮城県南三陸町へ行って町の人々と米国からの訪問者との間の通訳の仕事をしてきた。１５日の夜から１８日の朝までは東京で過ごし、１８日の夕方から２１日の朝までは仙台と登米市とで過ごした。この一週間でやったことを逐一羅列しても仕方がないのでそれはしないが、もし気になる読者がいたら、また改めて書こうとは思う。人がこの世界に生きることには二つの側面があり、この二つの側面は和解できないテンションを含んでいる。一方では、何万遍かの食事と性交と睡眠と労働を繰り返すだけの実に馬鹿馬鹿しい側面があり、その馬鹿馬鹿しさはそのまま人生に対する虚しさの引き金となる。他方では、そういった馬鹿馬鹿しい繰り返しを人任せにして自由に夢想することを許された特権階級が存在し、かれらの言葉は人生の馬鹿馬鹿しさをときには超越してみせるために多くの労働者からは神々しくすら感じられ生きる希望となる。今回の震災で南三陸町の人々が一体何を失ったのか、的確な言葉で表現している人を僕は大手メディアにも親しい友人の中にもみつけることができない。かれらはなんだかんだ言って紋切り型の言葉に安住し、身体を動かしつつも今回の震災の本当の被害を認識することができないままに足掻いている。僕は今回の震災で生存者たちが何を失ったのかを的確に言葉にするという課題を負っている。


I have once again visited Minami-Sanriku in order to work as a translator between the survivers in Minami-Sanriku and the people from New Orleans. From the evening of the 15th to the morning of the 18th we stayed in Tokyo, and from the evening of the 18th to the morning of the 21st we stayed in Sendai and Tome. I feel that there is little meaning in just cataloguing the various things we did during this past week so I will refrain from doing that, but if you reader would like to know the details then feel free to shoot me an email and I will be more than happy to write about it sometime else. There are two sides to the flow of human life in this world that are irreconcilable and yet exist in tension. On the one hand, for the millionth time we eat, fuck, sleep, work, and the stupidity and patheticness of this repetition triggers anxiety towards living. On the other hand, some of us are people who belong to the privileged class of not engaging directly in the toil of producing the necessities for survival and thus are free from the stupid aforementioned repetition, and the arts and poetry of some of the members of this privileged class sometimes transcends the sheer stupidity of life and are almost godlike or divine and may become the hope to live for the workers. As to what exactly the survivers in Minami-Sanriku lost in this disaster, I am unable to find a single media person or a friend who is able to nail it in the right words. They all work hard but at the end of the day they choose to remain snug and comfortable in the already existing cliche phrases and thus they work in desperation while they fail to directly cognize the thing which the survivers lost in this disaster. To express the loss of the survivers in precise words is my assignment.

Miyagi Volunteer Report (3)

I am writing this entry from a farm in Ibaraki. The rain is roaring outside. Sunday. Our boss works seven days a week, but we ordinary hired hands get to take a day off each week.

Anyway, I will continue with my experience at Shizugawa High School.

Life in Shizugawa High School (Part II)

Day four. The fresh feeling of cleanliness still remained while we drove down once again to the high school up the mountains. ]

Day five. This was the day when I showed the letter from Los Angeles to the local people. 15 primary school students have sent cards all the way from the US to the victims of the tsunami.

Day six. Many replies came to the letters.

Day seven. The children are back!

Miyagi Volunteer Report (2)

2. Life in Shizugawa High School (Part I)

Shizugawa High School is located 20 meters above sea level in Minami-Sanriku town. When our team drove up for the first day, all the houses were totally devastated for about 5km on the way. I noticed a fishing boat turned upside down on top of a house more than 4km away from the seashore. There were a few military agents and other volunteers walking around the pile of mud and debris, but these people looked like feeble ants compared to the scale of the devastation itself. Trucks and shovel-cars were starting to enter and remove large portions of mud, but as I have written in the previous entry, this can only happen after the land is carefully searched and the precious items are retrieved.

Once arriving at Shizugawa High School on day one, the first thing I saw was a group of soldiers doing their daily morning exercise in the school grounds. This sight was followed immediately by a voice of a little girl. Five-years old Y came running towards us, and instantly grabed my feet and asked me to put her up on my shoulders. I obliged, but I was very surprised how open she was to strangers.

TDRN members are required to wear a red cap while on duty. Prior to our arrival, there were five generations of "red caps" who built a trusting relationship with the local people living in the high school. It was thanks to the positive development of the past TDRN team that I was able instantly to be accepted by the children and adults as a trustworthy volunteer. The reason why Y was so open towards us is definitely related to her good experience with the past generations of the red caps.

Day one was relatively quiet, since there were only 3 children in the high school. The rest were out watching a movie at some other location. 1 child (call her A) had a fever, and another child, M, (the first child's older sister) stayed just in case. I walked around the school with Y sitting on my shoulders, saying hello and introducing myself to the other workers. The workers greeted me kindly just like the way the children did. Many of them were intrigued by the fact that I am half-Irish and can speak English. People in Tokyo are gradually getting used to the presence of mixed-blood people, but apparently the people in the countryside are not yet familiar with people like me. I was at once a normal worker and an intriguing object for them. That's fine, since I have been treated like that for quite a while now, and thus am used to it. It merely amuses me.

For our first day, we helped carry some boxes up into the second floor of the gymnasium. I found some "ken-dama"s in the gymnasium, and decided to bring them to the children. The children loved it, and we played for a long time. If you don't know what a ken-dama is, see here.

Day two, we had many more kids running around the school. More than 10 kids, a majority of them boys, were constantly bothering us. The first thing I did in the morning of day two was to carry a 8-year-old boy on my back and run around the whole school 5 rounds (more than 1km!). Then we went into the second gymnasium, then we did some more ken-dama. We also helped supply water for the toilets and carry some more goods into the gymnasium.

On this day, I met one teenage boy and one teenage girl during lunch. Both of them were very good at music. They could play the Sanshin, the piano, and the guitar. Both were able to play by ear, meaning that they did not need sheet music in order to copy a song. Both of them were also very intelligent. In the cafeteria after lunch, I also met a local high school teacher who told me the story of the first three days after the tsunami. I need to write another long entry to do justice to the intensity of the story, but to cut a long story short, the disaster changed the perspectives of the students dramatically. Students who used to want to go to university are now considering another career, that of working for the local government. Instead of writing an entrance exam, they would need to write a special exam for becoming a civil servant. According to the teacher, this latter exam is much more difficult, yet the students are motivated to help the town.

After lunch, we played some more with the kids in another room. Ken-dama really became the coolest thing to do after this day. Twelve-year-old boy (call him T) was especially addicted to the game. It's good, since ken-dama trains our dynamic visual acuity and the balanced use of our body. T was very good at learning all the difficult moves. Just to note, the trick for becoming friends with little boys is to teach them a concrete skill like ken-dama or shogi. Once they discover that I am better at it and yet am willing to teach them how to do it, then they will show respect and follow what I say. I like this kind of friendship where we shrae something concrete (the skills).

Day three. The primary school and high school students went to another school by bus. The place was thus once more quiet. T, A, and another boy U were running around looking for fun. I played soccer with T, U, and another volunteer. It's been quite a while since I played last time, but I was glad to notice that I was the best player in the field. The fact that I beat the other volunteer into shreds enabled me to gain even more respect from the boys. Yay.

In the afternoon, the TDRN team visited the residential area of the gymnasium in order to talk with the local people. We all listened patiently to their stories. I showed them the letters from Los Angeles. They liked them, which was good. One of the people told me that when she was gazing at the tsunami, she was unable to accept that the sight before her reflected reality. Instead, she told me that the panorama appeared to her like a scene from a movie. I was very sympathetic to this experience. I also had times when the things happening around me lost all reality. Of course, the uniqueness of her experience is that this unreal devastation was happening before her eyes on a massive collective level. Not only did her house got torn down completely, but the entire town experienced the same horror. I was unable to relate to this dimension of her story. Nonetheless, I listened carefully.

Many of the victims had the option to move down to Tokyo and have a relatively normal life with good food, private shelter, lots of water, and good hygiene. Yet all of the victims I met were determined to stay. The revival of their local land meant more to them than the improvement of they personal lives. I was unable to understand the value of this culture until now. As I reflect on it once more from a safe distance, I see clearly their priorities. And how different they are compared to mine and many of my friends! It is easy to say that their culture "values the land over the people," but it is still a big challenge for me to accurately describe precisely why their priorities work that way. This is the biggest take-home question I gained from my visit. Only a good writer can capture something completely alien to himself.

We were able to go to a community bath on day two. The next bathing opportunity will be day five. For the rest, all I got to do was to wash my feet using small amounts of water. Water is really scarce. Taking a shower everyday is a luxury right now in Minami-Sanriku. Although technically people are able to visit the community baths everyday, they refrain from doing so in order to save water.

So far, I have only written less than 10% of what I experienced during the first three days at the high school. But life is short. My real aim is to reflect this experience into my next novel coming out in English. My main task is thus to edit my manuscript as much as possible. Meanwhile, I will continue with day four and onwards in my next entry.

Miyagi Volunteer Report (1)

Overview

I have been in a town called "Minami-Sanriku (Meaning: Southern Three-Lands)" for a week up until yesterday. Today, after arriving home via the nightbus, many thoughts and ideas are still whirling around in my memory. I'll hopefully get them out here one by one. I hope that you anonymous readers find this information useful and insightful.

This series will be the sum of the following entries:

1. List of general tasks performed by the Tokyo Disaster Relief Network (the NGO I worked with.)

2. List of specific tasks performed by my group in our location (Shizukawa High School in Minami-Sanriku.)

3. Analysis of the current imbalance between needs and supply based on what I heard from the local people

4. Analysis of the relation between various other organizations and the high school

5. Personal reflections on the week

6. Anticipation of future needs and what we need to do from here on

That's six in total, but this plan might change as I go on. Today's entry will deal with theme number one.

1. About the Tasks of the Tokyo Disaster Relief Network

The Tokyo Disaster Relief Network (TDRN) is a very small organization. Before the "golden week" (a week of holidays in Japan around late April to early May) there were about 15 to 25 people going to Miyagi from TDRN every week. For the golden week, there were an astonishing 33 people from TDRN. However, in my week (right after the golden week) there were only 11 people in total. This week, there are 13 people working after us. This trend of the decline of volunteers after the golden week is shared by all organizations. However, contrary to the general sentiment, the disaster relief efforts are still ongoing. The local people need motivation to continue their efforts. For them, it means a lot that people from far away make the effort to come and support them. It's a real spiritual boost. It's a pity that the number of volunteers is declining. I hope that this trend will change...

But there are more important things to reflect upon than the number of people on our team. TDRN is in charge of three locations in Minami-Sanriku. Just for those who do not know where Minami-Sanriku is, well, look it up on Google. It's by the ocean in Tome city, and it is one of the worst locations in terms of the amount of damage done. Within Minami-Sanriku, TDRN sends people to the "Bayside Arena," "Shizugawa Secondary School," and "Shizugawa High School." Each place has its own specific needs, and it is our job to flexibly move everyday and meet those needs appropriately.

In the Bayside Arena, there used to be more than 1,800 victims living. However, the place closed down as a victims' location just two days ago. All of the 1,800 people moved out to different locations. The main task at the Bayside Arena is the cleaning of precious goods. The tsunami has washed away more than 6,000 houses. The aftermath is a big heap of garbage. However, for the residents, this pile is a pile of their own lives. In the midst of real garbage and mud, many precious items are hidden, waiting to be reclaimed by their owners. For the people, these items are traces of what used to be a closely knit local community life. Currently, the self-defense army of Japan is patiently examining the heap of mud and garbage bit by bit in order to retrieve as many items as possible before bulldozing the whole place for cleaning.

Once retrieved, these items are sent to the Bayside Arena. At the Arena, a group of "cleaners" continue to clean the mud and dirt off the items. This is a very delicate task. The ink of a photograph can be easily removed with the mud, etc. Thus, it takes time. The main task of the TDRN members at the Arena is to join the "cleaners."

In addition, the Arena functions as a storehouse for all the goods coming into Minami-Sanriku. The TDRN team also helps with tasks such as unloading and moving boxes of goods and sorting goods into usable and unusable piles.

That's about it for the Arena team. Of course, when the local people want somebody to keep company with, the TDRN members must always be willing to go to them and spend time. Spiritual support is very important.

Next, Shizugawa Secondary School. Here, currently about 150 victims are living in the gymnasium. Each "house" is comprised of two to three futons and a cardboard "wall" of about knee height. Shizugawa Secondary School is one of those locations where self-governance did not take off smoothly. There is still a lot of organizational work to be done (who will take care of the goods? who will be in charge of water? etc.)

Basic tasks for the TDRN team include supplying water for the toilets and washing machines, supplying fuel for the room heaters, and cleaning the gymnasium. Since self-governance is not yet on track, there is not much routine work from here on. For last week, three TDRN members helped the volunteers at the school organize a basic self-government system. Also, since the goods were taken care of by only one person, TDRN helped others organize a team of people to look over the goods. TDRN also helped sort edible good from rotten ones. In addition, there was a re-entry exam for the local high schools last weekend, so the students in the TDRN team tutored the local students for preparation. Moreover, one last important task of the TDRN team is to walk around and visit the "houses" of the victims and listen to their concerns and fears. In a broad sense this is a therapeutic task, but it's more complicated than just active listening. We learn a lot from this as well, so the benefit is mutual.

Finally, there is the Shizugawa High School. I was one of the three TDRN members in charge of this location. About 60 to 70 victims live here. Routine tasks include supplying water for the toilets, helping the laundry of the victims, and playing with the kids. Playing with the kids is probably what we did most. This really helps, since many of the parents play leading roles in each section of the high school. For example, one woman had a five-years old kid. She is also the leader of the cooking team. The cooking team needs to cook food for more than 100 people everyday, so she has no time playing with her kid. Thus, we play with her kid instead.

We did many things with the kids. We went into the mountains, we lifted them onto our backs and shoulders, we taught them "ken-dama," we did music, we played soccer, we just ran around, we resolved fights, we helped them with their schoolwork...

In addition, just like the Secondary School, the High School team also visited the victims everyday and listened to their stories. We also had lunch together. For last week, I delivered about 15 letters from a school in Los Angeles. 3 people wrote replies to these kids. The local people were all very appreciative about the fact that people from across the ocean care about them.

That's about it for the general tasks. Next up, I will go into the details of each day at the Shizugawa High School. Until then!