This morning, many people in Tohoku got tense when quite a big earthquake hit Miyagi coast area. I'm getting used to earthquakes, but this one scared me...
Today, 10 volunteers from my hometown, Hijiori Onsen went to serve food for the evacuees in Tendo city, which is about 2 hours away from Hijiori, where many people from Fukushima are staying.
We went to Tendo Sport Center to serve soup for 150people staying there. On the way to Tendo, we saw many many many cars queuing in front of gas stands...
Today's menu is our specialty "Nameko-Jiru", or sticky mushroom soup. We took a big gas canister to cook outside.
Truth is, we were told about this the day before. We weren't sure where we were going to cook, or how. But everybody in Hijiori is quite experienced in holding events. All the Okami-san are experts in cooking "Nameko-Jiru" so my team was quite reliable! I didn't have to do much. I just helped them wash dishes and serve soup :-)
When I went inside to serve soup where people are sleeping, I felt quite uncomfortable. It was like peeking their private life. I didn't know how to act...
But many people liked our soup and they wanted more.
Our first Soup Kitchen was a success. And we are having a second one in one week in Yamagata city. This time, we'll serve 800 people!! So that's gonna be a challenge!
On the way back, we stopped by at Seven Eleven in Tendo city. We were all shocked to see inside. One third of the shelves were empty!! Somehow I had an illusion that there were supplies at convenience stores in Yamagata-ken, but I was very wrong.
One lady wanted to buy 2 bottles of water, and the shop clerk told her that she is allowed to buy only one.
Another guy wanted to buy some cigarette, and he was told that he couldn't buy more than 3 packs!
Today I realized how detached I was from the reality.
We live in this small village where nice neighbors sell us small amount of gasoline, where local shops have some supply of food.
Somehow I was thinking the situation in the city was better. But it is worse. Much worse as a matter of fact.
The best thing is to invite more evacuees to a place like Hijiori. We have hotels, we already have rooms and Futon, bath and food. But the negotiation between municipalities only allow them to provide shelter in public facilities like this sport center, where there is no privacy.
To me it doesn't make sense to use money to prepare gym and community centers to accommodate for the evacuees when there are plenty of empty hotel rooms.... My village, Okura mura is going to shelter about 200 evacuees to same kind of facilities (some facilities don't even have shower! What are they gonna do? Take a bus everyday to Hijiori to take a bath??)
But if people like us, Ryokan owners say that out loud, some would criticize us for being selfish and thinking about our own business.
In fact, a couple of days ago, the government's Tourism Agency has announced that they will provide subsidy of 5,000yen per evacuee per day to stay in a Ryokan or Hotel. I'm not well informed how our village is going to react to it yet... But if they really think of the true necessity of the evacuees, the answer would be very simple...
Today, 10 volunteers from my hometown, Hijiori Onsen went to serve food for the evacuees in Tendo city, which is about 2 hours away from Hijiori, where many people from Fukushima are staying.
We went to Tendo Sport Center to serve soup for 150people staying there. On the way to Tendo, we saw many many many cars queuing in front of gas stands...
Today's menu is our specialty "Nameko-Jiru", or sticky mushroom soup. We took a big gas canister to cook outside.
Truth is, we were told about this the day before. We weren't sure where we were going to cook, or how. But everybody in Hijiori is quite experienced in holding events. All the Okami-san are experts in cooking "Nameko-Jiru" so my team was quite reliable! I didn't have to do much. I just helped them wash dishes and serve soup :-)
When I went inside to serve soup where people are sleeping, I felt quite uncomfortable. It was like peeking their private life. I didn't know how to act...
But many people liked our soup and they wanted more.
Our first Soup Kitchen was a success. And we are having a second one in one week in Yamagata city. This time, we'll serve 800 people!! So that's gonna be a challenge!
On the way back, we stopped by at Seven Eleven in Tendo city. We were all shocked to see inside. One third of the shelves were empty!! Somehow I had an illusion that there were supplies at convenience stores in Yamagata-ken, but I was very wrong.
One lady wanted to buy 2 bottles of water, and the shop clerk told her that she is allowed to buy only one.
Another guy wanted to buy some cigarette, and he was told that he couldn't buy more than 3 packs!
Today I realized how detached I was from the reality.
We live in this small village where nice neighbors sell us small amount of gasoline, where local shops have some supply of food.
Somehow I was thinking the situation in the city was better. But it is worse. Much worse as a matter of fact.
The best thing is to invite more evacuees to a place like Hijiori. We have hotels, we already have rooms and Futon, bath and food. But the negotiation between municipalities only allow them to provide shelter in public facilities like this sport center, where there is no privacy.
To me it doesn't make sense to use money to prepare gym and community centers to accommodate for the evacuees when there are plenty of empty hotel rooms.... My village, Okura mura is going to shelter about 200 evacuees to same kind of facilities (some facilities don't even have shower! What are they gonna do? Take a bus everyday to Hijiori to take a bath??)
But if people like us, Ryokan owners say that out loud, some would criticize us for being selfish and thinking about our own business.
In fact, a couple of days ago, the government's Tourism Agency has announced that they will provide subsidy of 5,000yen per evacuee per day to stay in a Ryokan or Hotel. I'm not well informed how our village is going to react to it yet... But if they really think of the true necessity of the evacuees, the answer would be very simple...
0 件のコメント:
コメントを投稿