{"id":17178,"date":"2014-07-14T09:37:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-14T00:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/?p=17178"},"modified":"2016-10-14T10:21:05","modified_gmt":"2016-10-14T01:21:05","slug":"providing-continuing-support-suited-to-oneself-publicizing-the-attractions-of-fukushima-from-a-student-viewpoint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/attention-en\/2014\/07\/14\/17178\/","title":{"rendered":"No.595 Providing continuing support suited to oneself! : Publicizing the attractions of Fukushima from a student viewpoint"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Emi Kanari<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fourth Year, School of Political Science and Economics<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI was never very interested in volunteer activities.\u201d That is what Emi Kanari, deputy representative of the Fukushima revitalization student support group, the Aibe Fukushima Project, told us. Approximately 15 people, primarily university students from the metropolitan area, participate in the organization, promoting the attractions of Fukushima Prefecture from a student viewpoint over social networking sites such as Facebook. Their motto is to express things in a form that will appeal to people of their generation.<\/p>\n

\"At

At the \u201cFuku\u2661Caf\u00e9,\u201d an event to be held to help promote Fukushima. With the cooperation of local farmers and others, the caf\u00e9 stocked fresh ingredients from Fukushima. The event was a great success, with the caf\u00e9 constantly filled to capacity.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

When the Tohoku Earthquake occurred, Kanari was at her family\u2019s home in the city of Sukagawa in Fukushima. However, as Kanari was scheduled to enter Waseda University next month, she traveled to Tokyo a few days later. Of course, even after entering Waseda, Kanari constantly searched for ways to help Fukushima. Although she was invited to volunteer in areas struck by the disaster, the idea just did not click with Kanari. \u201cFor some reason I didn\u2019t want to participate in those activities, but rather, exactly because of the fact that my home town was struck by the disaster, I wanted to do something which would resonate with me. I searched for a long time for volunteer work which suited me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Project

Project members are mainly university students from the metropolitan area. They strive to create plans that will resonate with people the same age as themselves.<\/p><\/div>\n

Kanari first learned of Aibe Fukushima around one year after the earthquake during her second year at Waseda. An acquaintance working at the municipal office in her home town told her that there were university students in Tokyo engaged in activities to promote Fukushima, and encouraged Kanari to take a look. \u201cThe idea of Tokyo university students working to support Fukushima while in Tokyo was really novel for me. Seeing their work, I felt that I might be able to keep volunteering with them.\u201d After learning about their style of volunteering, which focused on activities suited to what university students in Tokyo could do, Kanari immediately decided to join up. Kanari felt there was a need for continuous support, and, for her, being able to continue volunteering without overdoing things was very important.<\/p>\n

Calling themselves \u201cunofficial cheerleaders\u201d of Fukushima Prefecture, Kanari and the other members of the<\/p>\n

\"The

The one-night, two-day \u201cFarm Village Stay\u201d event. Participants were able to fully enjoy the attractions of Fukushima through farm work and sightseeing.<\/p><\/div>\n

organization focus on activities which will first and foremost help people become familiar with Fukushima. One such example is the \u201cFuku \u00a9 Caf\u00e9,\u201d an event to promote fresh foods and local cuisine from Fukushima. The event has been held three times to date, and through it the members of Aibe Fukushima strove to remove consumer anxieties towards Fukushima Prefecture, such as by garnishing the meals they provided with messages from the local people who had produced the ingredients. \u201cWe listened to what the local producers had to say about the ingredients we used, and we aimed to convey that properly to others in our own words.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another event they planned, the \u201cFarm Village Stay,\u201d brought people to Fukushima. Conscious of the connections between people, the event created an opportunity for university students from the Kanto region interested in Fukushima and local people living in the prefecture to get to know each other through experiences in a farm village. The centerpiece of the tour was the chance to eat plenty of delicious Fukushima food. \u201cThe happiest thing for me was when one of the participants told me that to their relief, talking with the grandmother at the home where they stayed was like talking to their own grandmother. I had wanted as many people as possible to learn, if even a little, how warm the people of Fukushima are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A

A dish served at the \u201cFuku\u2661 Caf\u00e9\u201d\u2014a hamburg steak plate cooked like a traditional miso dengaku dish from the Aizu region.<\/p><\/div>\n

Now in her fourth year at Waseda, Kanari is planning on letting a younger student take over for her, but she intends on continuing to support Fukushima in a manner appropriate to her. \u201cAlthough we call ourselves unofficial cheerleaders, I feel keenly every day how our activities are supported by the efforts of numerous people. It\u2019s almost more like we are the ones who are being cheered on. Because we are doing what we want to do, I would like to continue working to support Fukushima without forgetting my sense of responsibility and self-awareness.\u201d Continuing to provide support while having fun and without overdoing it\u2014support suited to oneself would seem to be one key to protecting against the fatigue of disaster.
\n———————————————————–
\n\u25a0Emi Kanari\u00a0 Originally from Fukushima, Emi Kanari graduated from Prefectual Asaka High School. She is the deputy representative of the Aibe Fukushima Project, which conducts promotional activities for Fukushima Prefecture under the theme \u201cLet\u2019s fall in love with Fukushima.\u201d \u201cAibe\u201d means \u201clet\u2019s go\u201d in the dialect of the Aizu region of Fukushima. Kanari\u2019s recommended local cuisine is \u201ckappa-men,\u201d a specialty of the city of Sukagawa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emi Kanari Fourth Year, School of Political Science and Economics \u201cI was never very interested in volunteer ac […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3614,"featured_media":17179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[206],"tags":[214,245],"class_list":["post-17178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-attention-en","tag-people-en","tag-news-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3614"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17178"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17204,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17178\/revisions\/17204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}