"I'm just looking forward to going up again and seeing everybody," said Kirby Fukunaga, who lives on Oahu.

It will be the seventh time in 20 months Fukunaka will be heading back to Japan and back to the same areas most devastated by 2012‘s earthquake and tsunami.

"We packed a couple suitcases with toys for the kids, and lot of snacks from Hawaii, hopefully cheer them up," he said.

Weeks after the tsunami, Ishinomaki, in Japan's Tohoku Region, was unrecognizable.

KITV4 reporter Lara Yamada traveled there and met Kirby and his friends, who were on a personal mission to bring food and help.

Twenty months later, he's still on that mission, one filled with heartbreak, but not a heart broken.

"The debris is still there, piled up on the side of the road. You'll see it. mountains of debris," said Fukunaga.  "For now, they're working really hard every day."

Today, there are temporary homes by the thousands.

For each road scraped clean there was a reminder of what happened, including a clock stuck in time.

For each town cleared of debris there was a shell left behind, including a school where 89 children had died.