LIFETIME EXPEDITION MEMORIES
Nick Chaddock reflects on the intense impact on participants of a recent ‘DofE’ gold award trip to North East Japan.
What trips do
The Duke of Edinburgh (‘DofE’) International Award Programme is not just about checking off boxes for life skills. At its best, it is a multi-layered journey of personal discovery based on direct experience. There is no passive learning, but an active engagement with the natural and cultural world around you. And it’s not necessarily just about camping and compasses, as a recent Gold level Exploration to the north-east coast of Japan shows. On this trip in late spring 2025, students and leaders had a chance to discover its people, history and cuisine and to hear first-hand how the 2011 tsunami has impacted the landscape and the lives of the communities there. It was an opportunity for my students to apply all the skills and knowledge they gained throughout the programme in a new and exciting context, forging memories that will last a lifetime.
Tokyo
The Gold Exploration started in Tokyo. Why here? The travel writer and chef Anthony Bourdain sums up Tokyo and the challenges it presents:
Mesmerizing. Intimidating. Disorienting. Upsetting. Poignant. And yes, beautiful
Imagine going deep into the heart of a 37 million-strong megalopolis of people with a group of students who are leading the way from the airport to the multi-layered 28-platform Tokyo station, collecting tickets and food as they go along. Imagine the feeling when you find the right platform and your 320km/h Hayabusa bullet train approaches. The sensory smorgasbord that is Tokyo station at rush hour is something nobody forgets. All this, and the Assessment part of the trip has not even started yet.
North East Japan
Our Exploration began in the back streets of Hachinohe amongst excited Japanese school children on their morning commute and the fishmongers skilfully dismantling Bluefin tuna in their workshops. The trail out of town and along the coast is sometimes paved, sometimes barely a path, that clings to the untamed edge of Japan’s Tohoku region. Along the Michinoku Coastal Trail, the air hums with the constant, rhythmic crash of the Pacific Ocean against ancient cliffs that plunge hundreds of feet into turquoise depths. Often hidden by overgrowth, scars of the tsunami in the form of abandoned hotels or guesthouses haunt the coastline.
Primeval pine forests offer shelter from the sun and wind with their dense canopies filtering sunlight onto the forest floor. Time and again the path spills out onto secluded, shell-strewn beaches where the ‘singing sand’ actually squeaks underfoot with each step. You pass through tiny, resilient fishing villages where weathered faces offer a warm, polite welcome, and the simple beauty of everyday life in rural Japan unfolds against a backdrop of rugged grandeur. The local people are always willing to engage and all of a sudden, a classroom textbook case study comes alive and is real. The tsunami took nearly 20,000 lives and displaced half a million people – 45,000 of them never returned. We are here to explore what remains, meet who is left and learn what has happened since.
Stunning beauty
The Michinoku Trail straddles bear country, so as well as signs pointing you in the direction of higher ground in the event of a tsunami, there are also plenty of warning signs regarding the estimated 10,000 strong Asiatic Black Bear population. A more likely companion during the impossibly beautiful Kitayamazaki Cape section is the Japanese Serow, a unique goat-antelope species found nowhere else on earth. It is often referred to as a ‘living fossil’ due to its ancient lineage. It is always a special moment when we come face-to-face with these timid creatures.
This section of the Sanriku Coast is often hailed as Japan’s most beautiful coastline and in my mind, there is no doubt. The most striking feature of Kitayamazaki is its sheer cliffs, reaching 200 meters high and stretching on for 8 kilometres.
However, the most exciting bit of this section has to be the hand-dug tunnels built through the cliffs to provide passage to otherwise inaccessible coves.
This is an immersive and adventurous experience for anyone. Imagine walking through cold, damp, pitch-black caves with head torches on and the sound of bats inches above your head, then emerging into bright sunlight with the roar of white waves crashing onto the pebbled beaches. The experience is breath-taking.
Tragedy
The magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck at 2.46pm on March 11, 2011. The first of seven waves struck Miyako and Yamada just 40 minutes later. We spend a night in both of these towns that the tsunami tore apart. It is in these places that my students, perhaps for the first time, feel the true sense of the tragedy that occurred. The tsunami YouTube videos of these towns, of which there are many, do not convey the true horror of the loss that took place and the time it has taken to rebuild life there.
In Miyako we sit down in a café with people who lived through the tsunami, who generously give their time, though some are more comfortable than others to go into detail. Everyone knows where they were at 2.46pm. Everyone has their own story. Everyone was deeply affected by the disaster. Miyako lost over 500 of its citizens. Yamada over 700. The café we sit in was completely submerged. A high proportion of elderly victims reflects the challenges the emergency services faced in evacuating quickly.
For the fishermen out on the ocean, their lives were saved as they turned their boats towards the waves and rode each one as they rolled in. In the ocean each wave would have only been around a meter tall. However, when the waves start to compress on shallow land the energy surges and the wave height and volume dramatically increases. The ‘peak run-up height’ is the maximum vertical height above sea level that the tsunami reaches on land – it is how high the water surges up hills, cliffs and structures. In Miyako it reached a staggering 38.9 meters. From their vantage point at sea, these fishermen witnessed the unimaginable destruction of their homes, ports, and communities.
Many families were wiped out, with generations perishing together. Parents lost children and children lost parents. Listening to an individual recount their experience of using their own vessel to recover the bodies of friends and neighbours from the water is an emotionally profound and harrowing encounter. It is a truly horrific yet indelibly unforgettable testament to the depths of the human tragedy in Miyako. We leave the town feeling humbled, profoundly affected, and solemn, yet unequivocally enriched by the depth of human connection experienced. It is the Duke of Edinburgh International Award at its finest.
Memorial
The town of Rikuzentakata was almost entirely wiped off the map. The human toll was catastrophic. Over 1,700 people lost their lives. We finish our journey with rucksacks on our backs and flowers in our hands. We join the Japanese school children at The Iwate Tsunami Memorial Museum. Through damaged artifacts, powerful photographs, videos, and the poignant voices and memories of victims and survivors, it presents the heart-breaking reality of the 2011 tsunami. But it is more than just a place to learn; it’s a place for remembrance, reflection, and a solemn commitment to rebuilding a future for the people who remain.
Rethink
This Gold Exploration proves that if planned carefully, the International Award can offer more than just personal development; it can provide unparalleled opportunities to connect academic learning with the real world, fostering a deeper understanding and a lifelong passion for exploration and discovery.
It is an investment in the whole child, an adventure that will shape them, stretch them, and ultimately, enrich them in ways they never thought possible. I think the challenge for schools is to be ambitious and rethink what they can achieve through the International Award.
Nick Chaddock
Nick is from York in the UK. After eight years at North London Collegiate School on Jeju Island in South Korea, he moved to St. Andrews International School, Green Valley in Thailand as Outdoor Education Lead this summer.
Feature & Support Images: With kind permission of London Collegiate School, Jeju Island
Jodogahama Beach, Miyako, by gyro on iStock
