A New twist On Chairs- July 5-8

Explaining chair construction.

Mr. Yamamichi; retired Jr. High shop teacher from Aomori City, came to help.

Near the waterfront in Rikuzen Takata. The tsunami broke windows to the fourth floor.

The gutted remains of Kessen Junior High School. The school moved to a recently decommissioned building in the mountains.

Since May, I have been making chair and table sets for children in shelters in the disaster area. I work in the towns of Ofunato and Rikuzen Takata. On one visit to a shelter, I met a Junior High School teacher who asked me to do chairs with the 60 first and second graders from Kessen Junior High School, as they had no money for the yearly "summer craft project'. It turns out that their school buiding was innundated, shortly after the whole student body and faculty fled up a steep mountain behind the school. He said he didn't even have time to get his wallet from the teacher's room. They stood on the hillside in the snow and watched the town wash out to sea.
The students were cheerful enough on this sunny July day; we had a great time working together.