Hi everyone! I hope you're doing fine!!
After the 10 day volunteer program in Yamada Machi and a very relaxing day at beautiful Miyako Bay, it was time to continue my journey to my final volunteer work location: Kesennuma!
The trip was divided into 4 main courses from Yamada to Kesennuma. First I took the bus for Miyako with Anita and Nobu , this was a short 20-30 minute ride. From Miyako we took more time until we arrived at Morioka which is a bigger city than the previous ones.
The second part of the journey was silent. Few people were on transit that day and we were tired. I could think about a lot of stuff in the train. I had a mixture of feelings and emotions from long ago... The whole journey in Japan was coming to an end and it was until this moment, on this train that I had some time to think deeply about everything that happened and what was left... Obviously the ride was not enough to think about everything but two feelings were always present during this journey to Kesennuma: happiness and nostalgia.
Some pictures from the second train, as you can see it was practically empty...
The destinations were different for each one of us, so once in Morioka I had to say goodbye to Anita and Nobu. At the station I waited a few moments for Tomoko. She was coming to the station to help me with the next trains and to give me some instructions for the next days. When we met we had some free time so I decided to wash some cloth and have a nice special Ramen from this region, it tasted so good! It was sometime with no Ramen and I was starting to miss this kind of food!
I spent half of the second train ride with Tomoko. It was great to travel with her! Most of the maps here were only written in Japanese and sometimes just Kangi with no Hiragana like the one below... So her company was very fun and helpful!
After Tomoko's main instructions, taking a lot of notes and doing a lot of questions about the next train I had to ride for Kesennuma, she left and I was on my own. I was tired but it was impossible to sleep because if I missed the stop I wouldn't be on time for the next and last train for Kesennuma and I would have to find a place to stay in a totally unknown place, the good thing was that I was not stressed at all, I knew everything was going to be nice and fun!
I got off at the right station. This was a relatively big place, I searched for the train I had to take and after checking that everything was in place I got on waited for the little train to depart for the last and long ride. Here's a shot from the moment...
Besides thinking of many things, I had a lot of time for taking some landscape pictures... I felt I was traveling in another time, this place had a very special vibe that I will never forget!!!
I was very careful... I checked each station's name and grew nervous as I was getting near the final stop. After a very long but awesome journey, a unique experience in Yamada and a lot of expectation about the next and last days in Tohoku we arrived at the station before Kesennuma...
Just minutes after arriving at Kesennuma I realized I bought the wrong ticket for the train! I had to talk to the staff at the station and explained what happened. Everything was fine, I paid the ticket and this was the only small problem I had during the whole trip...
A unique experience and a lot of special people were waiting for me in this new place!!!
A unique experience and a lot of special people were waiting for me in this new place!!!
Next time I will talk about what happened in Kesennuma!
Be happy!!!
