Japan News (4/5) [Part 2]
Apr. 5th, 2011 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mbarker4/4 (continued)
In Iwate, some of the teachers have gone ahead and organized a new kindergarten. They're calling it the Blue Sky Kindergarten, and they're meeting on the playground. They've also gotten volunteers organized to give the kids haircuts, and they show everyone getting a haircut outside. And the graduating sixth-graders cleaned up their randuseru -- leather bookbags -- and made a little ceremony of giving them to the new class. They had 180 to pass on.
The dog that was found after three weeks out at sea? Incidentally, I've now seen video of the mass of timbers and stuff that he was on -- it wasn't a simple piece of wood. Anyway, his owner turned up. One very happy dog! The owner says she saw him on TV.
Ibaraki -- the peach blossoms are out there. Beautiful dark pink clouds. They normally have a festival at this time, but I'm not sure what is going to happen with that. They do have people from Fukushima who have evacuated there, and are admiring the view.
Dead or missing 27,000. Dead 12,752.
In one of the videos scanning across the debris, there's a large pile of debris with one of the red girder frameworks in the background. I chuckled because there was a badly bent "men working" sign laying near the front of the pile of debris.
Iwate prefecture, Ofune -- they've got bus service running. They talk with an old woman in the bus who says she's going shopping. She says she doesn't have a car, so she was very glad they got the bus running. It's snowing outside the bus.
There's a special about the children involved in the disaster. They said 273 dead, and over 800 missing -- I'm not sure what area that was. They showed three kids, two sisters and a boy, whose single mother died. The 67-year-old grandmother is taking care of them. I think the two sisters were 12 and nine years old, but I missed the boy's age. The older sister's graduation album -- elementary school graduation -- has a picture with the mother, which is the only picture they have of her. The grandmother says that one of the girls, I think the younger one, keeps trying to call the mother's cell phone on the telephone in the shelter. The 12 year old shows her treasure -- a small key case with a couple of keys in it. This was the keys to the car which was found somewhere in the wreckage. They think the mother was trying to drive to where the children were. One of the girls refuses to talk about the mother.
There's a clinical psychologist on this show -- he's wearing what I would call a fishing vest that says clinical psychologist on the shoulder, and on the back it says Japan clinical psychologist in big letters. He says that refusing to talk about the mother is a good sign, it means she's moved to the next stage. He gives kind of long rambling talks about all this, eyes half-closed, pausing to think every now and then.
The beginning of school throughout the disaster area is going to be delayed or problematic. Miyagi Prefecture has 182 schools that are wrecked or being used for emergency shelters. There's a lot of scrambling going on, trying to decide how to merge schools or what to do.
4/5
There's a short piece about three kids. The 13-year-old girl, 12-year-old brother, and nine-year-old brother are living in a shelter. They have a small picture of their 40-year-old mother, kept carefully in a blanket, with plastic wrap around the frame. There is a young woman with a vest that says police talking to them about her. Apparently the police woman is a specialist in kokoro no keya (care of the heart, literally), which I think is probably grief counseling.
There was a short piece about what's called "Room Donor." This is a web service that someone has put up allowing people who have extra rooms or houses that they are willing to let people from the disaster stay in to register the availability of their rooms, and for people from the disaster of are looking for places to stay to find the rooms and make contact with the donors. They showed one family, a mother and three children, going to look at a cottage that someone had offered. It was several rooms, and they were thrilled. However, the report went on to explain that on 4/4 (Sunday) the system had 1580 places to stay registered, but had only put 10 families. There are at least two possible problems -- one is simply that people may not know the system is available, while the other is that people in the shelters may not have computer connectivity to use it. They had the young man who put up the web service on the program, and he explained that people can call to use the system. Still, expecting people in the shelters to use computer services is a little difficult. The reporter had checked out another service called mama-to-mama which offers similar service. They have 849 places to stay, with only one family placed so far. Still, they're hoping that talking about these on the news may help let people know that such services are available.
There's a little bit more about the soy sauce manufacturer. Founded in 1807, so just over 200 years history. One of the brothers died. According to some of the workers, after he had gotten them to safety, he went back to check if anyone else was left. However, one of the other brothers is shown finding and scraping something from the inside of the big barrels that have been pulled out of the factory and left by the tsunami. He shows the scrapings that he is carefully putting in plastic bags. I thought he said, "Moromi" but I'm not sure what the right word was. Whatever it is, he says it's still alive, and that as long as he has some of that, they won't be starting from zero.
In one of the towns, in the middle of the debris, there is a white statue of liberty, with a red flame held high. The statue is little bit cracked, but it still holding the lamp up. Apparently this was a statue in a park. They talk with one of the local residents, who says it's really good to see that still standing. I thought it looked good, too.
In Iwate, some of the teachers have gone ahead and organized a new kindergarten. They're calling it the Blue Sky Kindergarten, and they're meeting on the playground. They've also gotten volunteers organized to give the kids haircuts, and they show everyone getting a haircut outside. And the graduating sixth-graders cleaned up their randuseru -- leather bookbags -- and made a little ceremony of giving them to the new class. They had 180 to pass on.
The dog that was found after three weeks out at sea? Incidentally, I've now seen video of the mass of timbers and stuff that he was on -- it wasn't a simple piece of wood. Anyway, his owner turned up. One very happy dog! The owner says she saw him on TV.
Ibaraki -- the peach blossoms are out there. Beautiful dark pink clouds. They normally have a festival at this time, but I'm not sure what is going to happen with that. They do have people from Fukushima who have evacuated there, and are admiring the view.
Dead or missing 27,000. Dead 12,752.
In one of the videos scanning across the debris, there's a large pile of debris with one of the red girder frameworks in the background. I chuckled because there was a badly bent "men working" sign laying near the front of the pile of debris.
Iwate prefecture, Ofune -- they've got bus service running. They talk with an old woman in the bus who says she's going shopping. She says she doesn't have a car, so she was very glad they got the bus running. It's snowing outside the bus.
There's a special about the children involved in the disaster. They said 273 dead, and over 800 missing -- I'm not sure what area that was. They showed three kids, two sisters and a boy, whose single mother died. The 67-year-old grandmother is taking care of them. I think the two sisters were 12 and nine years old, but I missed the boy's age. The older sister's graduation album -- elementary school graduation -- has a picture with the mother, which is the only picture they have of her. The grandmother says that one of the girls, I think the younger one, keeps trying to call the mother's cell phone on the telephone in the shelter. The 12 year old shows her treasure -- a small key case with a couple of keys in it. This was the keys to the car which was found somewhere in the wreckage. They think the mother was trying to drive to where the children were. One of the girls refuses to talk about the mother.
There's a clinical psychologist on this show -- he's wearing what I would call a fishing vest that says clinical psychologist on the shoulder, and on the back it says Japan clinical psychologist in big letters. He says that refusing to talk about the mother is a good sign, it means she's moved to the next stage. He gives kind of long rambling talks about all this, eyes half-closed, pausing to think every now and then.
The beginning of school throughout the disaster area is going to be delayed or problematic. Miyagi Prefecture has 182 schools that are wrecked or being used for emergency shelters. There's a lot of scrambling going on, trying to decide how to merge schools or what to do.
4/5
There's a short piece about three kids. The 13-year-old girl, 12-year-old brother, and nine-year-old brother are living in a shelter. They have a small picture of their 40-year-old mother, kept carefully in a blanket, with plastic wrap around the frame. There is a young woman with a vest that says police talking to them about her. Apparently the police woman is a specialist in kokoro no keya (care of the heart, literally), which I think is probably grief counseling.
There was a short piece about what's called "Room Donor." This is a web service that someone has put up allowing people who have extra rooms or houses that they are willing to let people from the disaster stay in to register the availability of their rooms, and for people from the disaster of are looking for places to stay to find the rooms and make contact with the donors. They showed one family, a mother and three children, going to look at a cottage that someone had offered. It was several rooms, and they were thrilled. However, the report went on to explain that on 4/4 (Sunday) the system had 1580 places to stay registered, but had only put 10 families. There are at least two possible problems -- one is simply that people may not know the system is available, while the other is that people in the shelters may not have computer connectivity to use it. They had the young man who put up the web service on the program, and he explained that people can call to use the system. Still, expecting people in the shelters to use computer services is a little difficult. The reporter had checked out another service called mama-to-mama which offers similar service. They have 849 places to stay, with only one family placed so far. Still, they're hoping that talking about these on the news may help let people know that such services are available.
There's a little bit more about the soy sauce manufacturer. Founded in 1807, so just over 200 years history. One of the brothers died. According to some of the workers, after he had gotten them to safety, he went back to check if anyone else was left. However, one of the other brothers is shown finding and scraping something from the inside of the big barrels that have been pulled out of the factory and left by the tsunami. He shows the scrapings that he is carefully putting in plastic bags. I thought he said, "Moromi" but I'm not sure what the right word was. Whatever it is, he says it's still alive, and that as long as he has some of that, they won't be starting from zero.
In one of the towns, in the middle of the debris, there is a white statue of liberty, with a red flame held high. The statue is little bit cracked, but it still holding the lamp up. Apparently this was a statue in a park. They talk with one of the local residents, who says it's really good to see that still standing. I thought it looked good, too.
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no subject
Date: 2011-04-06 07:32 pm (UTC)School must be a huge issue. Can they send kids to live with host families in areas that weren't devastated, like they did when the Brits sent kids to the U.S. in WWII? I suppose that would be just another trauma for the kids. What a mess.