Nottingham Leander Swiimming Club

 Received donation from Nottingham Leander Swimming Club. They gave us all the proceeds from the Junior Gala on 10th April. Thank you very much for the support.

Entrance Ceremony 入学式 at Tomizuka Junior School

Photo is from Yasu - the cherry blossom at Tomizuka Junior School, Sendai Japan.

 

Message from Yasu, the city of Sendai

 

There have been still earthquakes, which seem to have no ending.  April started and it is the busiest time of the year to prepare for the entrance ceremony. Sorry for late reply.  The time flies quickly even without thinking how long it has been.  

Cherry Blossom in our school is in full bloom and beautiful.

Tomorrow is finally our entrance ceremony (it has been delayed by two weeks) and a new year starts. 

I look forward to seeing the children again. 

We are very lucky and happy  that we have a school building and all the children survived.

 

余震は相変わらず続いているのですが、
４月になり、いよいよ新学期の準備が忙しくなってしまい
お返事を書くのがすっかりご無沙汰になってしまいました。
でも、そんなに日がたっていたとは・・・・
日々、いろいろなことに追われているのですね・・・

いつの間にか校庭の桜も満開になり、とってもきれいです。


それにしても、
うちはやっと、というか、ついに、というか、
明日から新学期です！！

子どもたちと会えるのはとっても楽しみです。
でも、教室があって、子どもたちが誰も欠けてないだけでもものすごく幸せなことだと思います。

BBC Radio Nottingham 95.5 FM

Kiyoko Naish, Chairperson of the charity, will be on BBC Radio Nottingham 95.5 FM  Drivetime between 5-6 pm to talk about the result of the fundraiser by the East Midlands community on 9th April, which the charity supported.  Tune in!

A new academic year starts tomorrow.

I just received a message from my contact in Sendai, after about 10 days of worrying how she is.  There have been constant small earthquakes there.  Her school in Sendai is starting a new academic year (Shingakki) tomorrow.  There will be lots of smiley faces and laughter at school.  

Ganbare Japan received over 200 letters from the children and the school.  We are starting translating them into Japanese and post them asap!  At the same time, we will scan them and put them in a cd, which can be distributed to as many school as we can reach.

A message from Sendai to be translated later

仙台の遠見塚小学校の先生からのメッセージです。　この間のＭ６の地震でまた学校の天井が壊れてしまったようです。　入学式を21日に延期して、準備を整えていたときの出来事です。

イギリスの学校の子供たちの手紙をたくさん集めて、教育委員会に送る計画です。
子供たちだけでは、なく職場のお友達にも手紙を書いてもらってください。　短いのお願いします。　：）　あとで翻訳するので。　よろしく。　以下、先生からのメールです。

実は、４月７日に強い地震がありまして、

（仙台は震度６でした！）

学校の天井がまた崩れてしまいました。

子どもたちが荷物を取りに来た時のために、

一人分ずつまとめていた荷物も、まためちゃくちゃになり、ガッカリ・・・

ただ、今度は津波がなかったので、

被害はたいしたことはなかったのですけど。

１１日に始業式を予定していた学校もたくさんあったのですが、

停電になったり，断水になったりして大変そうです。

うちの学校は，２１日始業式、入学式だったので、

その予定は変えずにすみそうです。

子どもたちのメッセージを送っていただけると聞いて、大変嬉しく思います。

せっかくですので、遠見塚小学校ではなく、教育委員会の住所をお知らせします。

教育委員会では、届いた様々なメッセージを掲示して、

市役所を訪れた方々に見ていただいているそうです。

その後、時期を見て個々の学校に届けるということでした。

　仙台市教育委員会の住所です。

　　〒９８０－８６７１

　　仙台市青葉区二日町１番１号

　　　仙台市教育委員会宛

また、河北新報社で，災害１０日間の写真集を出版しました。

清子さんにも是非見ていただきたいと思いました。

良かったら，こちらからも送りたいと思います。

住所を教えていただいてよろしいでしょうか？

また、遠見塚小学校とイギリスの小学校をつなぐアイディア、

大変すばらしいと思います。

文通などできたら，嬉しいですね！！

ただ、リンクして・・・という点については、

今回の震災で我が校のコンピュータ室が大打撃を受けまして、

それが可能どうか分かりません・・・

担当の先生に聞いて、またお返事をしたいと思います。

では、これを機に様々な交流が生まれることを願っています。

どうぞよろしくお願いいたします。

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Ｐ．Ｓ．こちらもだいぶ暖かくなりました。

　　　　来週には桜が咲き始めるかもしれません！

After the event....

The fundraiser was incredibly successful.  We had 600 visitors and rose over £5000.  The most amazing thing was that the Japanese community had an idea only three weeks before the event.  There were around 60 people who participated in this most amazing event; nine people in the committee had three meetings, all the jobs were delegated to around 30 people.  The tasks include sushi food preparation, craft preparation, equipments sorted and procuring items needed for the event.  The expenses were very minimum.  Most of the food ingredients and stationary (ink, photo paper, etc) were donated from the Japanese community and the local business people.  The event organisation involved non only Japanese people but British people, Thai people and Korean people.  It was a wonderful example of diversity 'Big Society' which the Tory party would like to call it. 

Well done everyone.   There will be many more of ths to follow. 

Hang on there!

Ryuichi Kiyonari - British Super Bike Champion

We just had a phone call that Ryuichi Kiyonari, last year's British Super Bike Champion, is coming to support the event tomorrow.  It will make a media attraction.  Is he coming with his bike????  Hope so....

One more day to go to a fundraising event

My car has broken down in the middle of a road this morning.  There were so much to do for a tomorrow's fundraising event, which Ganbare Japan is supporting.  I need my bicycle now!

It's amazing to see every single person working their parts to make this event successful: preparing for teriyaki, sushi, making origami crane, making cards, collecting items for the flea market, baking cookies, cakes, cup cakes.  The weather is absolutely gorgeous.  I am just hoping this is going to last for us.

We are about to go to the venue to set up a tent, set up table and chairs for tomorrow.  All the support not only from the Japanese community but also from other Asian communities such as Koren, Thai and Japanese have been very encouraging and helpful.  

Wish us the best.

Street Collection

It was a busy day.  My children finished the school and now officially 'Easter holiday' for next three weeks!

I've got a permission for a street collection on Saturday in Beeston. Everything is new to me.  I'm going through a huge leanring curve.  The staff at Broxtowe council was very helpful.  It usually takes four weeks to get a permission but they did it for us in just two days.  She said 'You cannot plan for something like this in advance, can you?'  That is very true.  I was very grateful for the efficient process.

Linda Button at Oban House, who is Chairperson for the charity called Voluntary Action Browtowe, makes our preparation as easy as possible.  She is the one to quickly have responded to my appeal to offer the venue to run a fundraising event on Saturday.  Without her support, the event would not have been organised. 

All the helpers for the event have been working day in day out now for the last three and half weeks.  But compared to what the people in Japan suffer, it is nothing.  Three more days of hard work....

Ganbatte!

Japan Day on 9th April

Ganbare Japan – Go Japan Go!
 

FREE ENTRY

Place: Oban House, Beeston, Nottingham 8 Chilwell Rd, Beeston, Nottingham NG9 1EJ
Next to the Beeston Central Post Office Date: Saturday 9th April Time: 10 am - 3 pm

At this Japan tsunami fundraiser, we will have:
 Origami, Manga and Calligraphy Workshops
 tasting Japanese food including sushi, tempura and yakitori
 trying on Kimono
 Flea market and a lot more.

Do come and join us.

Japan Day at Nottingham High Junior School

I had a very good and fruitful meeting with Miss Walster, a teacher at Nottingham High Junior School. I already visited the school to give a talk about Japan very after the tsunami.   She is very passionate about language and cross culture.

The school was originally planning for a multi language day but decided to focus on Japan this time. They would like to organise a Japan Day in June for the boys to learn more about Japan.  The event will be full of activities such as calligraphy, language learning, history, geography and food tasting. 

Looking forward to preparing for the day.

School visit

the photo: University of Nottingham

I am visiting Crossdale Drive Junior School in Keyworth in Nottingham, UK tomorrow.

I am updating my presentation material to reflect on what is happening in Japan now.　

Later this week, many school are going to have their first day ceremony (called nyu-gaku-shiki 入学式）. The cherry blossom is full in the most of the places in Japan.  It is a happy event for may children and their parents.

But many children and schools in the affected areas are not having normal ceremony this year. Many of them are not in their schools but somewhere else.  If they have a room to study, they are lucky ones.  Their friends and classmates are not always altogether.  Some go to one school and the others to go to a different one.  Teachers at the schools which escaped from the damage need to accommodate these children in their classroom.  I am hoping that many smiles come back to the children through going to school.

And tomorrow's presentation will raise awareness to the children at Crossdale Drive Junior school about Japan.

Our New Adviser

I have a wonderful announcement to share with you.   

Mr Malcolm Cargill, who is Principal of South Nottingham College, and also in charge of Castle College as interim Principal, has accepted to be our adviser to the charity.

Young people in both Colleges will get involved with us to achieve our common goals - to help the children and the young people in the most affected areas to be encouraged and inspired to continue their education. 

The length of the day is no longer the same; the axis of the globe has shifted 15cm.

This is a brilliant programme to understand what has happened in Japan.  It's BBC Horizon by iplayer. 

Watch this while it's still on.

A dog rescued after three weeks

A dog has been rescued off the coast of Japan after surviving the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and then a further three weeks alone at sea.

Click here to see a Reuter news.

What is really happening now? Natori City in Miyagi Prefecture

Put this in Google Map:  

Natori, Miyagi Prefecture

Japan

There are 1700 homeless and live in a refuge camp.  There have been shortages of food and other things.  The city council is asking for the following items:

Electrical pot, a laptop computer, humidifier, tin food which can be opened without a can opener, confectioneries, pot noodles, vegetable juice, vinegar, sesame oil, mayonnaise and ketchup.  

They seem to be essentials for their day to day; they politely ask for only these things but nothing else.  

Nottingham Evening Post article about the Japanese community

Did anyone see an article about our Japanese community in Nottingham Evening Post on Thursday? It is online now.

Economic impact

I came back home last night from Brussels after a long day at conference 'The EU-Japan Business Forum' - it's my real job - a management consultant helping EU companies doing business with Japan. At the Brussels airport, I was greeted by an immigration officer with a very spontaneous and kind question 'Is your family OK back home?'. I was very touched and tried to hold my tears....

At the conference, all the speaker addressed their sympathy and condolence to the victims of the disaster.  There has been a rumour that G8 would be G7 for a while as Japanese economy is strong enough to sustain their contribution.  Having said that, the cooperation from all G8 countries right after the tsunami was overwhelming.  They tried to support the Japanese yen, which managed to raise the yen, which is a reverse result!  

In the last big'Hanshin Awaji ' earthquake disaster in 1995, a British company offered immediate support to build pre-fabricated houses.  There must be many things that companies in the private sector can do and help Japan rebuild the affected areas.