On Saturday, Mr and Mrs Osada from Sendai drove all the way from Sendai to Ofunato just to come and support me in my journeys and to feed me meat. They have already made one such journey thus far and it is always with awe and gratitude that I look at this couple and think about all the trouble they willingly went through just to come and support me!

To have a long story short, Saturday they came to meet me and then drove me to Ofunato Catholic Church; my accommodation for the night. It was then I realised with horror, with just 14% of battery life, that my phone could not be charged. No matter the myriad ways I plugged the cable in, different cables, different sockets, my phone could not be charged. On the other hand, my other electronic devices (yes yes I really am a child of the Modern Times) could be charged easily enough. With just 2% of battery left to go, I did a factory reset..1% restarted the phone, tried to charged it with no effect, 0%, my phone gave its last bright signal and went to sleep. If I was a swearing person (and I am, just in my head) all manner of expletives would have come out.

There goes my phone, my map, my way too search for accommodation and to book them, my camera to take pictures and record videos, my entertainment device, in short my one and everything this trip. Many things went through my mind, and dismay shrouded my heart. I thought of several possibilities a) get a new phone in Ofunato and continue the journey b) continue the journey without a phone (highly unlikely), c) go back to Sendai, get a new phone and come back again d) end the whole trip.

It was tempting to call call it quits there and then. Or even just to buy a cheap phone, and continue the journey without much updates. However what immediately solidify my resolve to get a phone with good camera capabilities and carry on despite the cost it would take was the desire to share the stories of the people in Tohoku. Everyday, I have many encounters with people, and most tell me their story, their memories of the tsunami and express gladness at meeting a person journeying through their area despite how inconvenient/devastated/isolated it is. 6 years on, most of the world, even the Japanese, would have moved on, however for those who have experienced the Disaster, they are not able to forget. They still live and work from temporary shelters, or have businesses affected, or still just remember the fear as if it was yesterday. Waves that can destroy buildings cannot destroy the memory. And it was in this moment, the reason why I am walking became even more clarified. That I really want to continue walking all the way to Fukushima because I want to meet, share and show my support for Tohoku in my little way, just like how the Osadas drive hundreds of kilometres on weekends to come meet me. Because of that human thing call connection.

So as a Catholic, even from a little personal disaster of a damaged phone I learn to give thanks. So I counted my blessings a) my phone died when I was safe in church with accommodation for the night, and not in those scary forests I had to walk these few days. B) the Osadas were there! They could help me with accommodation new phone and basically their presence just lighted my heart a lot c) I need not worry about finding accommodation the next day because, I had already booked it in advance and I rarely book accommodations a few days in advance, usually on the day itself or the night before. D) all the photos and videos I've taken that day of the people I've met were already automatically uploaded to cloud. E) suddenly my walk became a mission I wanted to complete

So despite the sadness of having lost my trusty phone to technological illness, I still felt grateful. I left the charger plugged in for the night, morning came. Phone was still dead.

I told the Osadas and we had a morning meeting in the car and they told me their plan, I will attend Mass, and Mr Osada will go looking for phone shops. I had hoped they would attend Mass together with me. Just for a last check, Mr Osadas wanted to see if he could charge my phone, so I gave him my phone to let him see how it was with it. He plugged it in, and I said, "there you see it is not cha--"

A green charging signal appeared in my phone. If I was a swearing person (and I am, in my head) I would have let out all manner of disbelieving expletives. No..freaking...way. And there you have it. My phone managed to charge.

And I will still tell you that it is still super ridiculous because it is not as if I suddenly turn stupid for that day and cannot charge my phone, because I am not one to panic, and I already tried everything and Mr Osadas just plugged it in casually and there it goes.

So....

OK 2nd day, after the Osadas were gone, and late at night, my phone screen suddenly went black and could not even be shut off. It was still running applications, still making sounds, but the screen just wouldn't turn on (except display a little white X at the corner) and I could not even shut it off. So again I resigned myself to stopping the journey and find my way back to Sendai in the morning (feeling like I want to stop this walk completely) and getting glum again. At daybreak, my phone was still black and even when the alarm rang I couldn't find a way to stop it since there are no keys to press and the home keys do not work.

I randomly pressed all the keys, and suddenlythe phone managed to restart itself and tada! The phone screen became normal again! Like. What the €=@£×&$ ok so now I seem to have my phone back to normal again, but I really don't know when there will be a relapse and how long my phone will remain with me. I also lost my messaging apps, WhatsApp and Line because of the restarting so even if my friends want to contact me, they can't via WhatsApp or LINE. And I can't even tell my Japanese friends that I can't use LINE anymore! But all these is part of the journey. So please keep me in your prayers (and your pockets). *wink*

Here is a picture of me and the Osadas at the Goishikaigan Coast.