My friend Laurice invited me for a bus tour to witness the recovery of Fukushima. It was organized by a non-profit organization named Present Tree, which aims for simultaneous reforestation and regional development. The “present” in the word “present tree” means a gift to a loved one, a gift to the local forest, and a gift to the earth.
This is a project in which people in urban areas plant trees for themselves and their loved ones in places where trees need to be planted, such as abandoned forests, and disaster-affected forests, and grow them together with the local community for the next ten years.
By planting your own tree in the area, you will have more reason to visit the area. Visiting the area will allow you to interact with the local people. The mission of Present Tree is to revitalize not only the forest but also the entire region through this interaction.
Hirono-machi in Iwate Fukushima is one of the tree planting sites of Present Tree in Japan. In fact, my friend Laurice and her husband have planted their tree in this area. So this bus tour is her second time in Fukushima, unfortunately, her husband Ryu was not able to join us on this tour as he also participated in a fun run in a different NPO he belongs to. I also invited my friend Lorraine to join us on this tour.
Around 5 AM in the morning of April 8, 2018, on a cold spring morning at around 5-8 degrees, Lorraine and I headed to Kawagoe Station with our bicycles (for some who do not know yet, a bicycle is one of the basic mode of transportation in Japan for individuals when going to the station and to grocery stores.). From our apartment, it took us around 30-45 minutes to travel via bicycle to Kawagoe Station.
We were able to catch the train to Shinjuku Station, as it is the meeting place for all the bus tour participants. My friend Laurice also took the train we were on as it also passed the station near their apartment, Shiki Station is 7 stations away from Kawagoe Station when taking the Local train and is 1 stop station for Express trains.
Meeting Place: Shinjuku- Fukushima
We arrived at Shinjuku before 6:45 am, our bus departed from Shinjuku at exactly 7:00 am. Inside the bus, in the middle of our trip, the facilitators introduced the Present Tree and did a run-through of our one-day event. Around 40 participants introduced themselves (including us) one by one. We were the only foreigners in the group, we also had 7 children who participated in the event with their parents/guardians. Most of the participants are repeaters (including Laurice), there were some first timers of this tour (including me and Lorraine).
The aim of this event is not only to visit the planting site of Present Tree in the area (as most of the participants are foster parents, those who already had planted a tree in the said site) but also to support the restoration of the livelihood of the people living in the area.
Hirono-Machi Fukushima
Hirono-machi is a town located in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. It is one of the areas severely damaged by the tsunami that followed the Great East Japan Earthquake (9.0 magnitude) on March 11, 2011. The 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami triggered the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, making it a triple disaster in Fukushima. Hirono-machi is one of the towns greatly affected by this triple disaster. The government evacuated all residents as it was included in the 20 km exclusion zone.
Our bus arrived at around 10:00 am in Futatsunuma General Park. This park has been closed since the earthquake and was opened recently after the completion of the playground equipment renewal project. This park is wide and is said to be one of the sightseeing areas in Hirono-machi.
The playground was filled with the joyful voices of the children laughing and enjoying swinging and sliding in the playground equipment as their guardians watched them while relaxing with the beautiful cherry blossoms sight (There are still some trees which are still in bloom during this time.)
The building in the background of the photo above serves as a base of reconstruction work after the disaster. It is where our first activity took place. We were hosted by Hirono Wai Wai Project executives and volunteers as we began our first activity, ginning the cotton harvested last fall.
Hirono Wai Wai Project aims to accelerate recovery of disaster-stricken areas, and help various stakeholders including NPO’s expand their initiatives in the affected areas such as renovating the Futatsunuma multi-purpose parks, developing a disaster-prevention green space (Present Tree is one of the NPO’s supporting initiative), cultivating olives and organic cotton.
After the triple disaster and lifting of the evacuation directives, only 40% of the local residents returned to their homes as some were still traumatized and were still in fear of the effect of radiation following the nuclear accident. As the effect of the tsunami and nuclear disaster left the soil with high concentration of salt, which made it hard to grow traditional food crops, residents used their empty farmlands to grow cotton in the hope of upturn the situation, as consumers also moved away from Fukushima food products after the disaster.
First Activity - Cotton Watakuri
The first activity was Cotton Watakuri or cotton ginning starts from removing fine debris from the harvested organic cotton. It is then followed by separating the seeds from cotton fibres using a roller-type cotton-ginning machine. To produce a fluffy cotton wool, beat the separated cotton using a cotton bow. They also introduced to us their new device called charkha (spinning wheel) used for spinning thread or yarn from fibers. Japanese organic cotton is said to be more labor intensive than white cotton. It is more difficult to spin and requires great skills to shape it into strong, resilient threads and fabrics.
Their traditional cotton production greatly helped to regenerate land and livelihoods in Fukushima with the hope that the world to recognize and use their organic cotton.
After the activity, we were served by the women volunteers with a delicious Japanese meal followed by a sweet dessert called Shirasagi no Sato.
There is also a store inside the park where they sell local products such as pure fruit juices, jam, candies and even fresh vegetables. I bought candies to share to my friends at work and also pure mikan (orange) juice.
Present Tree - Tree Planting
Before we say goodbye to the volunteers and proceeded to the next destination we took an anniversary photo of Present Tree under the cherry blossoms in from of the activity building.
At 1:00 pm our bus headed to the disaster prevention green space, the planting site of Present Tree, around 5 -10 minutes drive from Futatsunuma Park. It is near the Kashima Shrine, a shrine near the coast, and was greatly devastated by the tsunami. Although the main prayer hall was rebuilt, the Torii gate has not yet been reconstructed.
At the planting site, we were welcomed by Mayor Endo with his heartfelt thanksgiving for the people who helped to reconstruct and bring back the liveliness and livelihood of his town and asked for continuous support of the town’s regeneration.
Mikoshi
Meanwhile, we heard the sound of drums approaching from afar. And then, the procession of portable shrine (mikoshi) come into our sight. It was an honor to witness the revival of the town’s spring festival called “Tantan peropero”, which name comes from the sound of drums and flute.
On this day, “Tantan peropero” a festival that prays for the abundant harvest and good fortune was revived after 8 years after the disaster. It was also covered by news outlets and was one of the talks in the newspapers around Japan.
The Mikoshi was paraded around the area as the parishioners carrying the Mikoshi performing their rituals with their heroic shouts. After the Shinto ritual was performed, the portable shrine went down to the beach over the newly developed green space for disaster prevention and the seawall. The ritual ended as they carried the Mikoshi to the mouth of the sea for purification.
Witnessing the Recovery of Fukushima
After witnessing the revival of the festival, we rode back to our bus as we headed to our last destination, Tomioka Town. On our way, we passed by one of Japan’s hubs for soccer the J-village which became the frontline base of the operations for the revival of Fukushima after the disaster.
There is still a lot of decontaminated waste in the town of Naraha, which we passed through, but the number has been greatly reduced. We were told that a large amount of the waste had been transferred to an intermediate storage facility, and work has begun on restoring the farmland that was used as a temporary storage site.
We arrived in the best cherry blossoms viewing sight in Yonomori District, Tomioka. Before the disaster, this area used to attract thousands of visitors because of its impressive 2.4km tunnel of sakura tree. This once a tunnel of beauty is one of the difficult-to-return area after the disaster as it is situated about 7km southwest of the crippled Nuclear Power Plant. But due to the continuous effort of recovery some part of the area has been accessible to visitors for sakura viewing. A gate has been set up to prohibit entry in the restricted area.
We saw the abandoned houses and businesses as we walk under the tunnel of sakura tree (only few trees left on bloom). There were also a lot of abandoned cars outside each houses.
As I saw the abandoned houses, still standing strong after the great disaster, my heart ached as I imagined how this area turned to be a lonely place from a place that brought happiness through its beautiful flowers to the people that once gathered and even those who once lived here.
As we headed back to Tokyo, I was lost in my deep thoughts as I thanked my friends Laurice and Ryu for inviting me to join this tour. Most especially I am so much grateful to all the people who organized these activities. I realized that the activities would not only help rebuild the destructed town but also give strength to the local residents even those who once lived here but still fear returning back, that even though their homes and livelihood were destroyed and rebuilding is still a long way to go but what really matters is they see hope.
They might not be able to return to how it was before, but they are still capable of building and creating their community again a livable one.
After this tour, I know I have the responsibility also to tell as many people as I can what I saw and experienced. I will let people know how the people in Fukushima work hand in hand to stand back again. Because of this responsibility, I decided to publish this as my first article in this blog. You can also watch a glimpse of this experience below.
