Tag Archives: Tohoku Donation

Kobuchihama Starting to Move into Temporary Homes

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Finally the small fishing village of Kobuchihama is getting temporary homes. From August the first could start moving in to their new, but temporary, homes. However this has some complications.

From living together in group where all costs were shared to now living with only your family or alone. It also means many people need to get hold of things all of us take for granted in a home. But without any means to pay for it since they still have not got their fishing industry going. Resulting in that the only means to get an income is to go to the mainland and clean up areas that was destroyed by the tsunami. For that each person get 2000 JPY a day.

This also means the help we provide have changed. In the beginning they did not have anything. So the most urgent and important things to help out with at that time was water and food. But now they have a small income and food supplies reach the area so there is food available in grocery stores etc. Some still need help with the basic things for starting their new life in the temporary homes though.

With the help from Ishihara-san, we have shipped a few things directly to some families that recently moved into their new temporary homes. The basic need is to be able to keep it clean so they had asked for help getting vacuum cleaners, dehumidifiers, and air cleaner. You can find the details here.

Finally!

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What the world has been waiting for, the commercial I participated in 😉 Though only 2 out of 6 episodes have been released yet, and I am not in any of them 🙁 Probably way too ugly so they cut me out 🙂

Anyway, it does not matter if I am included or not since I already got payed. Money that was donated to Kobuchihama and used as part payment for industrial refrigerators and more for the Kobuchihama fishing community.

50.000 JPY to Kobuchihama

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We have talked with Ishihara-san about the money we have collected, now almost 60.000 JPY remaining. After many thoughts back and forth about what would be the best usage we have decided to do a cash donation to the Kobuchihama Fishing Community. The cash will be used by the Fishing Community to rebuild their fishing industry, it’s a small help to make a small step towards becoming self-sustainable for the Kobuchihama people.

You can find more information here.

Party at Ishihara-san’s

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Met Chie at home after work today. 19:45 we took the car and drove to Ishihara-san. She had invited some people that have been volunteering to support Kobuchihama. It was really fun and the food was very good, especially the thin sliced meat that was grilled on a teppan (big flat frying pan).



When most people had finished eating an ad hoc meeting started. We discussed how we should continue support Kobuchihama. We all agreed that Kobuchihama need to work on getting self-sustainable since donations and volunteer work will not continue forever. But they are in a tough situation.

Basically the only income they have is from fishing, but most of their boats were destroyed along with forklifts and ice machines etc that are needed for commercial fishing. Also, it is a very small village and all governmental aid is directed towards the big towns were it has most effect. So whereas some places have got their big fishing industries going again Kobuchihama can barely manage to feed them selves with their fishing.

The only income they have today is that they every day go to another area where they will work with cleaning up debris that are still left after the tsunami. For that each person get 2000 JPY a day (~157 SEK or ~17 EUR). For that kind of money it is quite difficult to survive and even more difficult to rebuild their fishing industry so that they eventually can become self-sustainable.

Chie and I left just before midnight, but many stayed until 3 am. Chie and I could totally understand that because we are the outsiders, meaning we are the only two people in that group that have a “normal” job where you have to be at 8 or 9 am in the morning. The rest are working in boutiques, as designers, photographer, chefs in restaurants etc. Many of them also owns their own company. And one of them don’t need to work anymore… But it’s not me 🙁

Though we are different it is fun. They are all very nice people and easy going. And it is always fun to see the world from another viewpoint. Though my viewpoint is the correct one 😉