Today marks the three-week anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake. In these three weeks so much has happened and still much remains uncertain. However, with the start of the new fiscal and academic years here in Japan, today seems fitting to turn the page and really move on. The country has begun its recovery activities with temporary housing under construction and people being disbursed. This article from today's Japan Times, which describes the current state of a town in Miyagi prefecture says it all.
Elsewhere, as much as possible, school is starting as usual. Kids who literally lost their schools are being re-routed to other schools and gifts of uniforms and school bags have been pouring in for them from around the country. Though it is just a dint in things, progress is being made!
April's calendar photo and phrase: "It looks like being a good day!"
Here are three images from a collection appearing at random on google.co.jp's top page today: illustrations by elementary and junior high school students archived from 2009 for a project called Doodle 4 Google 2009 "The Japan I love." Please enjoy this creative celebration of things that these artists hold dear about their country.
Tea bushes in Gunma bearing the next cuppa
An alphabet soup version of udon
Celebrations of the four seasons:
the new year,
spring o-hanami, summer fireworks, and
autumn moon viewing
The Japan Times piece was interesting. The spirit of the Japanese people reflects the blooming-forth of the cherry trees, as indicated in the article's last sentence: "But I'd like the rest of the nation and the world to know that Ishinomaki is going to be OK, that we'll survive."
ReplyDeleteIf past is prologue, and it usually is, we can be confident that the spirit of the Japaneese people will come out ahead of the present circumstances that are more difficult than we can quite imagine.
I like reading newspapers from around the world, have added Japan Times to my list.
Thanks for these pieces you write.