Just over a year ago, a devastating earthquake and resulting tsunami devastated coastal parts of Japan. We were all glued to the news here, wanting to make sure Neil's relatives were safe. They had some structural damage to their homes, but they were all fine. This, along with the Haiti disaster, really hit home for the boys and we tried to educate and help out how we could. We took part in the Steveston Cares walk last year and Colin and Adam participated in awareness and fundraising projects at school. This year, Adam mentioned how easy it is for the public to forget about these disasters...that people donate at the time and then they move on. I guess that is human nature. Both Haiti and Japan are still struggling and I think it's important that we remember that and provide ongoing support in the ways that we can.
When we were in Hawaii, we had some reminders about the long range effects of the tsunami. While we were hiking out to the Green Sands Beach on the south part of the island, we were a little off the beaten path and found a collection of debris washed up in a cove. We wondered if it could be tsunami debris from Japan and at first it looked could have been anyone's boat garbage but as we looked closer, we saw Japanese labeling on some of the packaging, including a Kirin crate.
We were walking along the beach in Kona and noticed this sign too.
When we got home on Friday and were reading the local papers, we were glad to see that we hadn't missed this year's Steveston Cares walk. It was a beautiful day and we headed into Steveston for the walk.
We walked the loop around Garry Point and stopped at the fishermans' memorial.
We haven't forgotten.
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