“We need a hope, otherwise, we cannot make sense out of our loss. We were motivated to bring our normal life back, but it is getting so hard to keep motivating ourselves lately. We just need tangible changes that we can see to keep us motivated to bounce back.”

A Japanese woman who donated her old farmhouse for the Ibasho cafe project quietly spoke to me one day. She lost 8 family members as well as her house at this incident, and living in a temporary housing ever since. She and her husband are rebuilding their house, but it has been delayed for a long time. I have also heard the similar comments from many other local residents who have been living in temporary housing community.

When I go back to the disaster area, I am always impressed by the progress of the disaster area . The vast area of the Tsunami affected area is “nicely cleaned up.” On the other hand, it is actually also mind boggling for me to see the “clean,” yet “nothing but flat land.” All I see in these areas are many heavy machineries and mountains of debris.

I fully understand that the reconstruction in this scope of disaster takes for a long time, however, well-being of local residents should also be taken care more sensible manner. They should able to envision their future throughout this process.

I have been hearing from many friends and colleagues that “Japanese people are so resilient. It is amazing to see that people lined up orderly to receive their share of foods without any arguments.”

I cannot agree more about these comments. Yes, the people whom we are working with are amazingly resilient human beings. However, I also wonder “how much more can they endure the challenging life without a sense of hope for their future?”

I strongly feel that “We should stop admiring these resilient people, and start rolling up our sleeves to take action for them. Admiring these local residents does not improve their lives.” It is our hope that Ibasho cafe can bring a small yet tangible “hope” to the local residents to see, smell, and touch…

On the day of 2nd memorial of the earthquake/tsunami that occured on March 11, 2011, I pray for all the people who were (and have been) affected by this incident.