We were in Vernon last Thursday.
Although Vernon is south of our "general event route", when Tom Ouchi, who is a member of the Vernon Japanese Cultural Society and a member of the City of Vernon Sister City Committee, contacted us we were compelled to head south! It was very nice to visit Vernon, share our message with the people and local media there, and to hear from Tom about some of the great disaster relief efforts they have done. We were also fortunate to meet some relatives who live in the area! Thank you Kathie for your kind hospitality!!
Vernon has a sister city in Japan: Tome City. Kathie showed us the sign post in front of Vernon's City Hall which shows the distance and direction to all of Vernon's sister cities. As we learned, the sign arm which points towards "Tome, Japan" is a good reminder for the people in Vernon to keep the people of their sister city in their thoughts, especially since the disaster on March 11th.
Tome (登米）is located in Miyagi prefecture, which is in the Tohoku area and one of the regions most affected area by the earthquake and tsunami. Tom told us that Vernon held a huge fundraiser and donated all of the proceeds to Tome city.
Tom took us to a very, very "oishii" (delicious) Japanese Restaurant on Main Street: "J-don". While meeting with Tom over lunch, we had a great chance encounter there! The J-don owner's son's family lives in Yamagata, Japan, and the son's wife and their baby just happened to be in Vernon visiting for 2 weeks! We were very fortunate to meet them at the restaurant by chance!
Yamagata is located just beside Miyagi. Please have a look at the Japanese map below. Miyagi and Yamagata are both in the Tohoku area (area shown in pink). Japan is made up of 47 prefectures and 10 big regions. The huge earthquake's epicenter was offshore of the East coast of Tohoku.
The couple we met in Vernon are active in a charity called the Otagaisama Project . It is a volunteer project supported mainly by individual people and companies in Yamagata and aims to help people in the affected area: Tohoku. Most of their efforts focus on providing warm food to the people there.
The name of the project "Otagaimasa" means "each other" or "one another". There is a saying in Japanese, "Komattatoki wa otagaisama", which means "When we are in trouble, let's help each other." This saying is such a common concept or word for Japanese people that the word "Otagaisama" itself implies "help each other and one another".
The son volunteers in affected areas in his free time and when he has time away from work. So even now, he stayed in Japan to volunteer rather than join his wife and child on their visit to Canada.
His wife also goes to the affected areas to serve food. It was moving to hear her stories. She told us how people there are very grateful to receive food each and every time. They always thank the volunteers from the bottom of their heart.
When she joined this project for the first time, she was worried about how people who had lost their homes in the disaster would react... What would she say if someone who had lost their home said to her: "You guys are lucky to have a house to go home to!...We lost everything!...". But in fact, she never encountered anything even close to such a sentiment. In listening to her story, again the stoic nature of the Japanese people seemed to be shining through! Surprisingly, she explained, rather than pitying themselves for their loss, the people there were struggling with the the issue of not knowing to whom they could express their gratitude. She was continually asked: "Who can we thank for this food? Who is providing this for us? We always receive food for free. Surely we don't deserve this. Please tell us who is helping us. Once we are able to resume our normal life, we want to thank them! At the very least, I would like to write a letter to express my gratitude...we are so very thankful!".
She said, "It's very important for some people to know who is providing food and supplies, just receiving such kindness anonymously can be stressful for them. So we are trying to tell those people about the source of the support goods as much as we can." I think that's why "otagaisama"is very important for Japanese people. Those who are in a difficult situation need to feel that it's ok to accept this aid and to be helped, because this is the essence of "otagaisama".
Finally, she told us: "People in the affected area are getting into the next stage. These days, they have overcome the emergent condition. Now, temporary houses provided by the government and volunteer groups are ready to accept most of the people who lost their homes. However, this is not a complete solution. Although they can move into the temporarily constructed houses, the people have to find a job to support themselves and that is not easily done. That's why there are still a lot of people living in shelters, such as the ones in school gyms.
"They are facing the next stage which is how to get back to their normal life again.", she explained.
Through the conversation with with her, we re-recognized people there are still suffering from the hardship and we are further encouraged to do this charity walk!!
Although Vernon is south of our "general event route", when Tom Ouchi, who is a member of the Vernon Japanese Cultural Society and a member of the City of Vernon Sister City Committee, contacted us we were compelled to head south! It was very nice to visit Vernon, share our message with the people and local media there, and to hear from Tom about some of the great disaster relief efforts they have done. We were also fortunate to meet some relatives who live in the area! Thank you Kathie for your kind hospitality!!
Vernon has a sister city in Japan: Tome City. Kathie showed us the sign post in front of Vernon's City Hall which shows the distance and direction to all of Vernon's sister cities. As we learned, the sign arm which points towards "Tome, Japan" is a good reminder for the people in Vernon to keep the people of their sister city in their thoughts, especially since the disaster on March 11th.
Tome (登米）is located in Miyagi prefecture, which is in the Tohoku area and one of the regions most affected area by the earthquake and tsunami. Tom told us that Vernon held a huge fundraiser and donated all of the proceeds to Tome city.
Tom took us to a very, very "oishii" (delicious) Japanese Restaurant on Main Street: "J-don". While meeting with Tom over lunch, we had a great chance encounter there! The J-don owner's son's family lives in Yamagata, Japan, and the son's wife and their baby just happened to be in Vernon visiting for 2 weeks! We were very fortunate to meet them at the restaurant by chance!
Yamagata is located just beside Miyagi. Please have a look at the Japanese map below. Miyagi and Yamagata are both in the Tohoku area (area shown in pink). Japan is made up of 47 prefectures and 10 big regions. The huge earthquake's epicenter was offshore of the East coast of Tohoku.
The couple we met in Vernon are active in a charity called the Otagaisama Project . It is a volunteer project supported mainly by individual people and companies in Yamagata and aims to help people in the affected area: Tohoku. Most of their efforts focus on providing warm food to the people there.
The name of the project "Otagaimasa" means "each other" or "one another". There is a saying in Japanese, "Komattatoki wa otagaisama", which means "When we are in trouble, let's help each other." This saying is such a common concept or word for Japanese people that the word "Otagaisama" itself implies "help each other and one another".
The son volunteers in affected areas in his free time and when he has time away from work. So even now, he stayed in Japan to volunteer rather than join his wife and child on their visit to Canada.
His wife also goes to the affected areas to serve food. It was moving to hear her stories. She told us how people there are very grateful to receive food each and every time. They always thank the volunteers from the bottom of their heart.
When she joined this project for the first time, she was worried about how people who had lost their homes in the disaster would react... What would she say if someone who had lost their home said to her: "You guys are lucky to have a house to go home to!...We lost everything!...". But in fact, she never encountered anything even close to such a sentiment. In listening to her story, again the stoic nature of the Japanese people seemed to be shining through! Surprisingly, she explained, rather than pitying themselves for their loss, the people there were struggling with the the issue of not knowing to whom they could express their gratitude. She was continually asked: "Who can we thank for this food? Who is providing this for us? We always receive food for free. Surely we don't deserve this. Please tell us who is helping us. Once we are able to resume our normal life, we want to thank them! At the very least, I would like to write a letter to express my gratitude...we are so very thankful!".
She said, "It's very important for some people to know who is providing food and supplies, just receiving such kindness anonymously can be stressful for them. So we are trying to tell those people about the source of the support goods as much as we can." I think that's why "otagaisama"is very important for Japanese people. Those who are in a difficult situation need to feel that it's ok to accept this aid and to be helped, because this is the essence of "otagaisama".
Finally, she told us: "People in the affected area are getting into the next stage. These days, they have overcome the emergent condition. Now, temporary houses provided by the government and volunteer groups are ready to accept most of the people who lost their homes. However, this is not a complete solution. Although they can move into the temporarily constructed houses, the people have to find a job to support themselves and that is not easily done. That's why there are still a lot of people living in shelters, such as the ones in school gyms.
"They are facing the next stage which is how to get back to their normal life again.", she explained.
Through the conversation with with her, we re-recognized people there are still suffering from the hardship and we are further encouraged to do this charity walk!!
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