Ishinomaki Scenery Vol. 6 – Kawabiraki Festival
Photo gallery from the biggest local festival, the “89th Ishinomaki Kawabiraki (“River Opening”) Festival,” held in Ishinomaki on July 31 and August 1, 2012.
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Aug 2012
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Aug 2012
Fukushima & Venezuela Music Youth Ambassadors – Final Performance
The final performance of Fukushima & Venezuela Music Youth Ambassadors was held on August 18 at Tsuda Hall in Tokyo. Approximately 450 people, including family members and other guests of the Fukushima TV Junior Orchestra, people connected to the Venezuelan Embassy, and evacuees from Fukushima who live in the Tokyo area, participated to see the children perform.
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Aug 2012
Ishinomaki Tea party!
Peace Boat has been providing support to residents of temporary housing including publishing a community paper, cultivating vegetable gardens, making benches and planters, and more. Communicating with the residents is one of the most important things in understanding the needs for such projects.
This is a report on “Ocha-kko (tea parties)” which Peace Boat has been organizing as a space for communication more than 600 times throughout the different communities of temporary housing in the city of Ishinomaki.
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Aug 2012
Growing sea squirts
Miyagi Prefecture and Ishinomaki in particular are famous for producing the delicacy sea squirts. However, the tsunami greatly affected this industry, with none able to be harvested last year. The Peace Boat fishery and coastal support team has conducted activities to support those committed to the coastal recovery, and reviving the fishing industry. This article explains the process to produce sea squirts.
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Aug 2012
Fukushima & Venezuela Music Youth Ambassadors Special Concert – August 18!
A very special concert to welcome back the youth from Fukushima and to welcome to Japan the Venezual youth participating in the “Fukushima & Venezuela Music Youth Ambassadors – Widened Horizons: Opening the World’s Door for Fukushima’s Youth” will be held on Saturday August 18 in Tokyo!
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Jul 2012
A day at the Peace Boat Center Ishinomaki
The Peace Boat Center Ishinomaki opened on June 2. The acceptance of the local community has been growing, and there are now around 20 local visitors each day. Including the many large-scale events, the Center has welcomed over 1,000 people in the six weeks since it opened.
This report outlines a day at the Peace Boat Center, including volunteer activities, events, and more.
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Jul 2012
A New Project in Ishinomaki – Painting ‘Tairyo-ki’ on Containers!
A new voluntary project has launched since May 2012 in Oshika Peninsula, Ishinomaki City. As a part of the ongoing fishing support, Peace Boat is assisting to paint Tairyo-ki (large colorful flags that symbolizes the wishes for a good catch and safe fishing) on the side-face of containers that have been used as storage.
As the containers are plain brown, they are not a very appealing sight on the landscape, sitting on bare soil. So, in response to a request from fishermen from Koami-Kurahama, Peace Boat agreed to help make these containers instead into a symbol of recovery.
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Jul 2012
Oraho’s Machizukuri Oen (Support to revitalize our town)
The ”Oraho’s Machizukuri Oen” programme held as part of the Ishinomaki volunteering experience offers a rich and intense two-day program to see sides of Ishinomaki which cannot be experienced in other ways.
This programme’s highest priority is the chance to meet with local people. Participants can create their visions of the future together with the local people while listening to their passions and plans to rebuild their community and businesses.
“Please come and visit Ishinomaki to find new attractions of Ishinomaki as a revitalizing town, not only as the disaster-affected Ishinomaki. You will also be able to feel where Japan is going through these two-day programs. We are really looking forward to meeting you all in Ishinomaki.”
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Jul 2012
Support for Expansion of Onagawa Temporary Shopping Avenue Completed!
The Onagawa Temporary Shopping Avenue consists of eight shops that provide support for local residents’ daily life and employment. The shops include a florist, beauty salon, electrical shop, grocery shop and others. Peace Boat’s volunteer carpenters provided support to complete the expansion of the shopping avenue, which began operating in July 2011. As time passed, additional needs for things such as outdoor display shelves and a more cheerful interior so that more customers will visit have risen, aiming for the Shopping Avenue to sustain its business.
Little by little the work was done daily, and after a few months, the Shopping Avenue is now looking like a tiny shopping mall, with even a courtyard for holding small events. Peace Boat will continue to provide regular maintenance work, as well as installing solar power panels and insulation.
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Jul 2012
Grand Opening of the Ishinomaki Peace Boat Center!
The “Peace Boat Center Ishinomaki” was officially opened on June 2, after renovation taking place since the Golden Week break in May. The grand opening for this community exchange space took place with an event in which local community members and many other people who have been involved and supported Peace Boat’s activities in Ishinomaki over the past 1 year and three months.