ByGrace

Here is the second installment of the story of Andrew’s trip to Japan. The first entry can be found here . This entry is light-hearted, recounting his trip north to the tsunami area. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tuesday morning we went down to the Harris’ house for breakfast before taking off, and at my place was half of a grapefruit, among other things - including apple juice. I ate everything on my plate and then turned my attention to the grapefruit, my very first grapefruit. I watched as 6-year-old Josiah took a half-spoon-half-saw looking utensil and with surprising ease dug out slice after slice of grapefruit. I dug my saw into the grapefruit and all I got was grapefruit juice all over myself. I worked and worked on it and after a while I had eaten quite a bit of grapefruit, was wearing quite a bit of grapefruit, and still had quite a bit of grapefruit to be dug out. Since the table was being cleared I decided it was time to give up and proudly announced that...

Andrew is safely back home in Lancaster. He slept 16 hours the first night back! He texted me last night and said he’d written about his trip, if I’d like to post it on my blog. I’d planned to ask if he’d do that for me, so it was nice that he thought of it before I even asked. This is a little long, and I’ve included a few of his pictures pertaining to this portion of his trip, but I hope you’ll take the time to read it. There will be more to come, as this only covers his flight and first two days in Japan. I think you’ll enjoy it. He writes just as he speaks, so I think you’re really “meeting” Andrew through his words! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am not sure exactly where to start talking about a trip so packed with awesome . There is so much to tell, but I do not want to bore you. Let me first say “ thank you ” to all of those that invested their money into this trip. Without your help it would not have been possible. I could not be more literal and honest ...

I’ve stolen a few more pics from Andrew’s friend on Facebook who is on the same trip with him! She has posted some from the disaster area, so I wanted to share them with you, but I’m waiting till Andrew gets his pictures uploaded before I share a lot with you. I feel better about stealing them from my son than from his friend! Many of the buildings were literally hollowed out by the force of the tsunami . . . This ship was swept from the ocean into the center of this town . . . Rachel has a video on her Facebook page of the group’s first look at the damage, but I can’t figure out how to share it here. I’ll try to get it on here, though, because it has some good footage of the first area they came to.