tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55842696416300041732024-02-19T23:59:19.183+09:00School Cones for JapanSchool Cones for Japanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110355381837044613noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584269641630004173.post-5609621796041075422012-01-10T23:28:00.001+09:002012-01-11T00:13:41.127+09:00From the Beginnings til the Delivery of the School Cones<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzMRYgKkIn70AjH-7rU3ZpXslGe6SAfhsaTaTxhq4upzr4jC1li4589zcFwi-8EqXK5dX3AFm5IsgWcpdvOzw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Thanks to Aaron Yamashita for the creation of this Video.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>School Cones for Japanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110355381837044613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584269641630004173.post-6505030897624045302011-12-22T19:32:00.000+09:002011-12-22T19:32:06.599+09:00Delivery of 951 School Cones to KamaishiOn the 5th of December, we delivered 951 filled school cones to 9 elementary schools in Kamaishi. Kamaishi is in Iwate, which is one of the poorest regions in Japan and approximately 500 km North of Japan.<br />
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The children and teachers were very happy to see us and enjoyed very much the Magic & Clown Show of our Partner "Let's Party Tokyo". After that we gave them the school cones and received "high fives" from the kids :-)<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">You can find some pictures from that day below as a good impression...</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3I8Ha3RxWcVTgX79S0TVhtd0fdd1WuPUO8ND3RHcgn85opVsKJzKbJG1vS96aHmGguDnF5kGy1FQYxxJvHDssJURFkJ-qrJ-r4lw6L41DRdDXKu6fGarGYNXntAsvho6C38EMDbGzHEWt/s1600/DSC_0624.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3I8Ha3RxWcVTgX79S0TVhtd0fdd1WuPUO8ND3RHcgn85opVsKJzKbJG1vS96aHmGguDnF5kGy1FQYxxJvHDssJURFkJ-qrJ-r4lw6L41DRdDXKu6fGarGYNXntAsvho6C38EMDbGzHEWt/s320/DSC_0624.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div>School Cones for Japanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110355381837044613noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584269641630004173.post-20763440914767653302011-12-02T18:52:00.001+09:002011-12-02T18:54:14.602+09:00Filling & Packing the School Cones Today was the day on which we filled the school cones. Together with 40 school boys and girls of the German School in Tokyo, we filled 951 school cones within 90 minutes. The filling is: school supplies of Herlitz (pens, pencils, eraser, etc.), Japanese and International candies (like Haribo, Ritter Sport, or Jelly Belly), one toy (which could be magic tricks or group games like DokiDoki Gorilla), a funny looking eraser (like McDonalds Burger, Coca Cola Cans, etc.), and a Heating Pack for cold days. You can see some of the items on below pictures.<br />
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It was an activity full of joy & pace. At the end our NPO/NG<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">O <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; line-height: 16px;"><em style="color: black; font-style: normal;">Kokkyo naki Kodomotachi (Children without Border) did a short thank you speech with little presents for the kids at the German School as well. I also like to thank Mr Karl Stigler & Mr Harald Gauss from the German School for all their help during the last days and today. We also appreciate the support of the DHL employees and Sam Matsuoka san, the event organizer of "Let`s Party Tokyo".</em></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; line-height: 16px;"><em style="color: black; font-style: normal;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; line-height: 16px;"><em style="color: black; font-style: normal;">Now we will bring the school cones and as well all the created photo books and collages with drawings/ postcards from all over the world to Kamaishi, Iwate together with "Let`s Party Tokyo". Monday is the big day and we will report back right after that...</em></span></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; line-height: 16px;"><em style="color: black; font-style: normal;"><b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgYg1bDAMxa22tVaMzWY8-cBXMNuWexVQLlLVgiKTGAWWBKTG7G9v2z7_vaoPWpvUNqlH1leFU2KEn1zf2vmKhFzk09HiEv1Uu9ghXiVBUkYblrPhavtcMuGjq-iPk5Kq6F0pRiMO2N2pQ/s1600/DSC_0499.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgYg1bDAMxa22tVaMzWY8-cBXMNuWexVQLlLVgiKTGAWWBKTG7G9v2z7_vaoPWpvUNqlH1leFU2KEn1zf2vmKhFzk09HiEv1Uu9ghXiVBUkYblrPhavtcMuGjq-iPk5Kq6F0pRiMO2N2pQ/s400/DSC_0499.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 16px;"><em style="color: black; font-style: normal;"><b><br />
</b></em></span></div>School Cones for Japanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110355381837044613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584269641630004173.post-1129080514018869212011-11-20T12:41:00.002+09:002011-11-20T12:44:28.977+09:00A BIG Thank you & Next StepsA few weeks ago (on 1st of November), we closed all the accounts for the donation collection, but it was a tremendous success and we like to thank all private persons, schools, clubs, organizations and corporate donators!<br />
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We collected 6,876.14 EUR on the donation account in Germany, received 4,000 EUR from Deutsche Post DHL, and as well have received ca. 160,000 JPY (~1,500 EUR) from the photo exhibition of Markus Grasmueck and his friends. Only a little bit will go into the coordination and logistics, but probably 95% will go into the fillings of school cones (teachers requested some small toys, school supplies and international candies). We will report later with the exact financial statements in order to show clear transparency.<br />
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Now we are in our final steps before delivering the school cones to 9 schools on the 5th of December. The schools are all located in Kamaishi, which is a town that was terrible hit by the tsunami.<br />
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First, we will plan a small activity in the morning of the 2nd of December at the German School in Tokyo, Yokohama. The students of the elementary school and their teachers will help us to pack the ca. 900 school cones. Our partner organization <a href="http://knk-network.org/">KnK</a> will present their other activities for kids. And the pupils will create small/ big photo books out of all received drawings and post cards from other schools worldwide.<br />
We hope that it will be a smooth and fast activity - but especially the wrapping/ packing and loading of the DHL truck will be a small challenge. At this point we like to thank Mr Karl Stigler and Mr Harald Gauss for all their help, suggestions and support. This entire project would not be possible without them.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBT5Rc9QdeoqhIz9sU6eVDzI4WFRGmb1urs9PxDXCvcYHsS1XuWKuW-Stnzl1-CK_sxE5dcDAYrG3Q-WP93EyTcOJilaHtrVNtLHeNqF_74H6dfrj4_7bJ6PB6egLEXqfMmmtMY7azUQy-/s1600/schule-panorama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBT5Rc9QdeoqhIz9sU6eVDzI4WFRGmb1urs9PxDXCvcYHsS1XuWKuW-Stnzl1-CK_sxE5dcDAYrG3Q-WP93EyTcOJilaHtrVNtLHeNqF_74H6dfrj4_7bJ6PB6egLEXqfMmmtMY7azUQy-/s320/schule-panorama.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">German School in Tokyo/ Yokohama</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">If anyone of you is in Tokyo on that day and like to help - please let us know! We need any help!</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo3r9SLUhjeq5q2wSJGilmGtafkyHFEJwvq6fbpEhzv5bP0lpCMztdK2EG6id15o0Ja8YGOdccBlopasRr5yM9StgI0ARS0acEiOmHt9vapc5cX1fbY30mFvWTv_RbwUYgdzq5dLlhbEFJ/s1600/Kamaishi3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo3r9SLUhjeq5q2wSJGilmGtafkyHFEJwvq6fbpEhzv5bP0lpCMztdK2EG6id15o0Ja8YGOdccBlopasRr5yM9StgI0ARS0acEiOmHt9vapc5cX1fbY30mFvWTv_RbwUYgdzq5dLlhbEFJ/s200/Kamaishi3.jpg" width="200" /></a>After that the DHL Supply Chain truck will departure to the North and deliver the school cones to 9 elementary schools in Kamaishi, which is North of Sendai. It is a coastal city with 40,000 citizens. One fifth of their houses and buildings got destroyed by 10 meter high tsunami waves.<br />
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Many people do not see the long term perspective in their town and we found articles which explain their serious situation:<br />
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<i>"Don't talk about the future!" says Emiko Gotoh, who runs a public bath severely damaged by the tsunami. "There's no place with work, so young people might well leave. It would be great if another big company came, but who'd come here after such a big tsunami?"</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg9xZBwveX0qY8IlCn4cZykt7U4_0ujSViII5R2Ympc4pFM3ADmKJxhtV7kJohpC83E9tsrViP0QxAWHJj6wrpAPot01NL090S4Jkxot2aGKNl2zI3YBXyyP8Oi_1Zx6O0EbG7Id1lOo4E/s1600/Kamaishi2-420x0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg9xZBwveX0qY8IlCn4cZykt7U4_0ujSViII5R2Ympc4pFM3ADmKJxhtV7kJohpC83E9tsrViP0QxAWHJj6wrpAPot01NL090S4Jkxot2aGKNl2zI3YBXyyP8Oi_1Zx6O0EbG7Id1lOo4E/s200/Kamaishi2-420x0.jpg" width="200" /></a><i></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><i>(pictures and quote taken from: http://tuoitrenews.vn/cmlink/tuoitrenews/features/ageing-town-facing-reinvention-or-death-after-tsunami-1.43836)</i></span></i><br />
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Maybe our small project can put smiles on the faces of the kids and then they can spread this little joy in their town. It is not a big help in their situation, but we hope that it will be a small one and that the colorful school cones can make people happy. We received good feedback and grateful comments about our activity & the worldwide care already.<br />
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Hence, together with the educational board and the help of Mr Katsumi Yokote san we identified 2 schools in which we will deliver the cones personally and conduct a small magic show (with our partner "<a href="http://letspartytokyo.com/">Let's Party Tokyo</a>"). After that we will meet the principals of the other 7 schools and hand over school cones for the children in the 1st to 3rd grades. Altogether we will bring them approx. 900 school cones and the 9 created photo books (by students of German School in Tokyo) with more than 800 drawings and 500 postcards by kids from all over the world (Scotland, USA, Singapore, China, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Egypt, Kenya, Malta, etc.).<br />
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A special thank at this point goes to Gesa Neuert and Professor Hashimoto san, who helped us very much in getting in contact with the schools and the educational board of Kamaishi. Thanks a lot for all your help during the last two weeks.<br />
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If you will be in Tokyo on the 4th and 5th of December, you are very welcome in traveling with us to Kamaishi and hand over many school cones to the kids. We do not want to finance the transportation, as we like to give all the money into the school cones (or the left overs to other meaningful projects of our partners), but maybe you are interested and join us on our trip - please let us know and we can plan together in order to keep the costs for everyone very low!<br />
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Next time we will report with many pictures and a small video, which will be created by "Let's Party Tokyo".<br />
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Now we are looking forward to the special days and of course we have to do a lot of shopping before that...School Cones for Japanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110355381837044613noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584269641630004173.post-28057888223976455072011-09-25T12:36:00.000+09:002011-09-25T12:36:49.424+09:00Updates & New Partner...long time has passed since our last update, but we have some good news.<br />
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The school cones from Germany are on their way to Japan and will arrive in October. DHL Supply Chain confirmed that they will deliver the filled school cones to Tohoku for free. We received more postcards and pictures from many countries including African countries as well a nice pack of postcards from Ireland.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL6SHbIw5d0pztBh5XpZ4pBnMcSYR7jHz-6r9arw26jDHPcGqMbeQ9XDrSlFeyILEng1Cmb8YgsaEd4VIyvS5aMLEH8NNw4I8_ab4K8gbtPBX5loV41XAf_q6LabydpijsxXqckYv0YWoG/s1600/partylogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL6SHbIw5d0pztBh5XpZ4pBnMcSYR7jHz-6r9arw26jDHPcGqMbeQ9XDrSlFeyILEng1Cmb8YgsaEd4VIyvS5aMLEH8NNw4I8_ab4K8gbtPBX5loV41XAf_q6LabydpijsxXqckYv0YWoG/s200/partylogo.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>A<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">ND, we have a new partner: <a href="http://www.letspartytokyo.com/">Let's Party Tokyo</a> </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>"Since 2000, Let's Party Tokyo has been providing excellent party entertainment for the international community in Tokyo and Yokohama. With over 10 years of experience Let's Party Tokyo performers have performed at hundreds of parties and events bringing smiles, laughter and lasting memories to children of all ages.</i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i> </i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>...</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>impressive magic tricks, funny costumes, cutely painted faces, and active games." (Source: Let's Party Tokyo Homepage)</i></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">What we like about them is that they were already very active in Tohoku and that they have the same objective: put a smile on children faces and create with this some fun moments not only for the kids, but the entire community.</span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaHwFc75n0vSLLzvXMvUxXT15qGhLnlXzpXY1DM_c-JdvIEcHhniLcLe2Ny0nWnJLq6gOWVR8pNQHoC1k8A5uNrcYg-pnLcL8SjdLPcxDt3WgWBDvOsqSbhGSOBKNlnSQZHxHfvY4CH7-G/s1600/party1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaHwFc75n0vSLLzvXMvUxXT15qGhLnlXzpXY1DM_c-JdvIEcHhniLcLe2Ny0nWnJLq6gOWVR8pNQHoC1k8A5uNrcYg-pnLcL8SjdLPcxDt3WgWBDvOsqSbhGSOBKNlnSQZHxHfvY4CH7-G/s320/party1.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj170lf4BFd2bjg72opiIYbdQ6qInobysfVPO01fYU63eBVdupqgyDjvthhwFXmTRJClO_S7ew1VFWGAiZSA4HZLAFl8hfeLZXCJaPpIOnF_jYjtmSWOJ2cNFYEcwE9uADn1TT8Z7NekJaq/s1600/party2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj170lf4BFd2bjg72opiIYbdQ6qInobysfVPO01fYU63eBVdupqgyDjvthhwFXmTRJClO_S7ew1VFWGAiZSA4HZLAFl8hfeLZXCJaPpIOnF_jYjtmSWOJ2cNFYEcwE9uADn1TT8Z7NekJaq/s320/party2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">On their <a href="http://letspartytokyo.com/blog/">Blog</a> or <a href="https://www.facebook.com/letspartytokyo">Facebook Page</a>, you can find more reports and information about their activities and engagement in community work in Tohoku as well.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">One week ago, we met Sam Matsuoka san (who is one of the co-owner of this company) and we explained to him that we like to deliver the school cones to three to four schools in Tohoku in beginning of December, but it would be nice to have some program around it. He liked the idea and suggested either small clown activities with magic or a small Christmas Party with Santa Claus. Both sounded very nice and now we feel honored to work together with them.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">He also recommended a friend who might take small video spots which we can send around the world then, to all participating schools globally. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">We felt really happy after the discussion with him, who is truly an inspiring person, and now we are looking forward to the delivery date - maybe on the 5th or the 6th of December. </span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><b>Thank you, Matsuoka san and "Let's Party Tokyo" in advance for all your help and making this project even more meaningful and hopefully even more enjoyable for the kids.</b></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><i><br />
</i></span>School Cones for Japanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110355381837044613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584269641630004173.post-86788521948708393662011-09-02T15:01:00.000+09:002011-09-02T15:01:44.717+09:00Internal Newsletter at Deutsche Post DHL<br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><a href="" name="kinder"><span style="color: #d40511; font-family: Arial; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #d40511; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18pt;">Kids Helping Kids in </span></span></a><st1:country-region w:st="on"><span style="color: #d40511; font-family: Arial; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #d40511; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18pt;">Japan</span></span></st1:country-region><span style="color: #d40511; font-family: Arial; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #d40511; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18pt;"> Transition Back to <st1:place w:st="on">Normal</st1:place> Life<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_kd3J2TcVWKusFAfpkC1220iCMLbsfpPgxk-9DFYAyPMzZHxEq9DGPETbpwDPTd-pRXzZv1OW4EAVttkYBXdqTOcNlO359qr-SMAwFSOW3Q4sT74_JeuxcrAEkGr-1cnKoKoQOieyrNBT/s1600/pic1.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_kd3J2TcVWKusFAfpkC1220iCMLbsfpPgxk-9DFYAyPMzZHxEq9DGPETbpwDPTd-pRXzZv1OW4EAVttkYBXdqTOcNlO359qr-SMAwFSOW3Q4sT74_JeuxcrAEkGr-1cnKoKoQOieyrNBT/s1600/pic1.bmp" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: bold;">While children all over the world are getting ready to go back to school, some kids in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Chicago</st1:city></st1:place> were already hard at work. </span></span></b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Earlier this week, students at the German School of Chicago were preparing “KinderCones”, a unique back to school gift filled with treats, sweets, school supplies, journals and letters – for school kids in Japan still coping with the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunamis. Nearly 100 of these special gift packages were picked up on Wednesday, August 17 by DHL Express in Chicago who donated its shipping services for the charitable cause.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Dating back 200 years, the tradition of the Schultuete or “school cone” is one of the most celebrated and long<st1:personname w:st="on">-</st1:personname>standing traditions in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region></st1:place>. At the beginning of every school year, children all over <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region></st1:place> set off with their large and shiny Schultueten, also called school cones or sugar cones by many. These large, colorful school cones, purchased or home<st1:personname w:st="on">-</st1:personname>made, sweeten the child’s first day of school as they come filled with little gifts, school supplies and sweets.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The <st1:city w:st="on">Chicago</st1:city> project is actually part of a larger DHL cross<st1:personname w:st="on">-</st1:personname>business unit initiative spearheaded by <st1:personname w:st="on">Andreas Baller</st1:personname> of DHL Global Forwarding in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Japan</st1:country-region></st1:place>. Andreas is coordinating the collection of over 1,000 of these school cones from 10 countries, as well as pictures and postcards – all intended for schools and youth centers in Japan located in areas hardest hit by the earthquake and Tsunamis. Andreas has received support from all DP DHL divisions, including EXPRESS, GLOBAL FORWARDING, FREIGHT<span style="color: #1f497d;"><span style="color: #1f497d;">,</span></span> MAIL and SUPPLY CHAIN.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7wYexs5TWgSixjRw6aRnnrAwOWNCwL2SWmQxdhe_loR8GqB37VbDScOEP9E0nV1E5gJTmMJioJHfZVIDMVReYu_YDkCquwb3kW7TI6Jg27MCoD4VVjviFm8bZ78LJwgb85cjBeSZnGHzi/s1600/pic2.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7wYexs5TWgSixjRw6aRnnrAwOWNCwL2SWmQxdhe_loR8GqB37VbDScOEP9E0nV1E5gJTmMJioJHfZVIDMVReYu_YDkCquwb3kW7TI6Jg27MCoD4VVjviFm8bZ78LJwgb85cjBeSZnGHzi/s1600/pic2.bmp" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">“The project is under the umbrella of the 150 years of German – Japanese friendship which is being commemorated this year,” said Baller. “It’s an incredible gesture of goodwill for schoolchildren that have had terrible traumatic experiences during the big earthquakes and all of its after shocks. We work together with the <st1:placename w:st="on">German</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype> in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Yokohama</st1:city></st1:place>, and parents of the students and DHL employees. It’s great for bringing all DHL business units together for one important cause, terrific for the kids as well as improves cultural understanding.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><st1:personname w:st="on"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Andreas Baller</span></span></st1:personname><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> was recently awarded €4,000 by the Living Responsibility Fund for this project, under the partner organization “Kokkyo naki Kodomotachi” (KnK) or Children Without Borders. He has also received a sizeable donation, 1000 school cones, from Herlitz AG, <span class="st1">the leading producer of paper, office supplies and stationery articles in <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>.</span> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">More information about the project can be found<span style="color: navy;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"> at</span><span style="color: navy;"> <a href="http://www.schoolcones-for-japan.com/" title="http://www.schoolcones-for-japan.com/">http://www.schoolcones-for-japan.com/</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>School Cones for Japanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110355381837044613noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584269641630004173.post-25048317653831489232011-08-11T22:22:00.003+09:002011-08-11T22:26:36.660+09:00Updates & News<div style="text-align: justify;">Today, it has been exactly 5 months after the big Earthquake hit in Japan. Still a lot of help & support are needed, but it has become less and less obvious in the news. Today, I'd like to give an overview of where we stand and what has happened since the last update. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">We received a confirmation from the <a href="http://www.dsty.jp/">German School in Yokohama</a> that they will organize a small event for filling the school cones together with their pupils and the parents. Another confirmation was from a high school in Yokohama (next to Tokyo), which will ask their students to create the photo/picture books for the kids in Tohoku (out of the more than 400 drawings and maybe 150 postcards which we have received from all over the world).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Vivian Lie in Chicago has started a small activity at the German School in Chicago. Together with DHL Express US and her company <a href="http://www.kindercone.com/">Kinder Cone</a>, she is organizing a special event on 17th of August 2011.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of our project members, Pierre is running Sydney marathon and hoping to collect some money/ donations by a small bet. Also, we still have some charity parties in Italy and France coming up.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">DHL Global Forwarding Japan & Germany have agreed to support the transportation of school cones from Berlin to Tokyo, and we have also received the positive feedback from DHL Supply Chain Japan that they will deliver the filled school cones from the German School in Yokohama to these affected schools in Tohoku.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to all the above, we have received a nice letter from the German Embassy that they would like to include us in the event list of their "150 Years German-Japanese Friendship" Project. We are one of their official partners now. The <a href="http://www.sccij.jp/about-sccij/initiatives/">Swiss Chamber of Commerce and Industry</a> also listed us on their web page for initiatives and activities for Tohoku, which is a real honor for us.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZjFsKLJq2lIxgmT1ZfPi3-oHv3cSoYJJc4-CZk8hXqO9N6TyTjeDAK1V54sthGq1h7UovuSzIQOVZhsVBiPY9hoHM0IF-6qxGt2HlxtfnFvol3xdBDaoldaRXM97shuopQboAOSf_jqCG/s1600/150Logo2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZjFsKLJq2lIxgmT1ZfPi3-oHv3cSoYJJc4-CZk8hXqO9N6TyTjeDAK1V54sthGq1h7UovuSzIQOVZhsVBiPY9hoHM0IF-6qxGt2HlxtfnFvol3xdBDaoldaRXM97shuopQboAOSf_jqCG/s640/150Logo2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">More than 6000 visitos have visited our homepage, more than 250 friends and follower on our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/schoolconesforjapan">Facebook Page</a>, more than 8,000 EUR collected, over 700 drawings, art works and postcards have arrived.... which is more than we expected when we initiated the project. Thank you.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now you are probably wondering when the distribution to Tohoku will take place. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">During the last meeting with <a href="http://knk-network.org/">NGO/NPO KnK International, Children without Borders</a> in July, they suggested us, if we can postpone the delivery of the school cones to a later date due to the following reasons:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">a.) Many children received gifts and toys during last months and schools are concerned about children being too spoiled. They want to encourage children to stand up by themselves.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">b.) As mentioned at the beginning of this blog: the consequences of the big earthquake are disappearing from the news. Maybe you hear something about the nuclear fear, but nothing about the situation in the tsunami hit areas. BUT help is of course still needed (for instance we organize a company trip to Tohoku next week and will do cleaning up for three days). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Their suggestion was to spread the help over a longer period for better sustainability, as psychological help will be needed in long term. Originally we wanted to distribute in September when the school resumes after summer holiday but these two reasons made us think that December might be a better timing and we will comply with the recommendation of our NGO Partner, who is experienced and better informed. It also gives us the opportunity to possibly combine it with a small christmas or year-end party at the schools, and also to extend our deadline for donation and support from schools all over the world. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">We are very happy and thankful to all your support. We still have a long way to go and we do not stop or slow down. We still need your further support! Please help to spread the word even further and promote our web page. Please write to us, we are always open for any suggestions or ideas!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I am sure that the children in Tohoku will have a big smiles on their faces when we deliver your warm support filled in School cones!!</div>School Cones for Japanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110355381837044613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584269641630004173.post-8627193652159211682011-07-12T15:41:00.000+09:002011-07-12T15:41:18.473+09:004 months after Disaster<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7MlmSBlRCk7bYofdUr37k7jbaIhq67T0c9eANTtLD5sWPy_UNCIl9aL8a6qimuhTqiEGAHxTCXIBTJyvRR8vO4xV364mNpMF6Rbp2b6kArhyPu5lkAUvQwGk65-surhlgJUbpeaZQIC01/s1600/0711028-thumbx300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7MlmSBlRCk7bYofdUr37k7jbaIhq67T0c9eANTtLD5sWPy_UNCIl9aL8a6qimuhTqiEGAHxTCXIBTJyvRR8vO4xV364mNpMF6Rbp2b6kArhyPu5lkAUvQwGk65-surhlgJUbpeaZQIC01/s320/0711028-thumbx300.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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Buddhist monks offer prayers near the ruins of Okawa Elementary School (back R) in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, as Japan marked four months since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Some 70 percent of pupils at the school died or went missing in the disaster.<br />
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<a href="http://english.kyodonews.jp/photos/2011/07/102268.html">http://english.kyodonews.jp/photos/2011/07/102268.html</a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNze4zBtz9cMD26CdkwHd3HH-OcG8pSevH4UFBOOLazQzD8SEK6xxOP_vCPDtKOfXqeKEVcvuZgb9NNz2_hyphenhyphenp9McCWnnA8it9gRJaf402V9RElruDPX_gK8lI6gtMJ3MKS7TozzLVA-0ji/s1600/0711010-thumbx300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNze4zBtz9cMD26CdkwHd3HH-OcG8pSevH4UFBOOLazQzD8SEK6xxOP_vCPDtKOfXqeKEVcvuZgb9NNz2_hyphenhyphenp9McCWnnA8it9gRJaf402V9RElruDPX_gK8lI6gtMJ3MKS7TozzLVA-0ji/s1600/0711010-thumbx300.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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People look at an area ravaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, from an elevated spot on July 11, 2011, four months after the disaster.<br />
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<a href="http://english.kyodonews.jp/photos/2011/07/102189.html">http://english.kyodonews.jp/photos/2011/07/102189.html</a>School Cones for Japanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110355381837044613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584269641630004173.post-4347525463804926962011-07-07T16:07:00.002+09:002011-07-12T17:08:10.351+09:00Trip to Ishinomaki - June 2011 (by Stephan Schmidt)A friend of mine, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/schmidt.stephan">Stephan</a>, went back to Ishinomaki as he promised in an earlier blog. I read his blog entry on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/stephan-schmidt/ishinomaki-im-juni-2011-ishinomaki-june-2011/238611579491160">Facebook</a> and want to share it with you.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJmcDH4UnjV43J7kE_PBuZXl4D8IyfT8HaCs2co94KQid8OI7G-GuPGnqQeapdyFXrfdIurCM4ScQMxhkTr2O5h4QhL1kS5zdkUyxl_bwyvJMNxPD3I4Zcm_Nw7ZjLphAsn-Htx7oVT9vv/s1600/ishimonaki.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJmcDH4UnjV43J7kE_PBuZXl4D8IyfT8HaCs2co94KQid8OI7G-GuPGnqQeapdyFXrfdIurCM4ScQMxhkTr2O5h4QhL1kS5zdkUyxl_bwyvJMNxPD3I4Zcm_Nw7ZjLphAsn-Htx7oVT9vv/s320/ishimonaki.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Pictures: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/39919624@N02/sets/72157626958145461/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/39919624@N02/sets/72157626958145461/</a></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">After three months I return to Ishinomaki. Every day I followed the News about the relief work in Tohoku. Volunteers helping out, companies emphazising theire staff members to volunteer and a Japanese government try to help out with dragging eagerness. </div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The french community organizes every two weeks a weekend trip to Ishinomaki and offers volunteers a short-term period working in the affected areas. We stay in the Minato elementary school which still hosts over 250 evacuees. The school character has shifted towards a home for social disadvantaged groups. Up until now the temporary houses situation is insuffiecent. The residents mostly aged people wait, smoke, receive three warm meals a day and take everyday a bath in the ofuro (Japanese public bath) infront of the school building. </div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The entrances and windows are covered with close-meshed nets. Flys are everywhere. Copulating they sink down on my sleeping bag. They find the ideal environment. The schoolfloors smell is a mixture of stale food and self-pitti. </div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The feeling-well program for the evacuees is completed by a variety of cultural entertainments. It’s comfortable and an easy to obtain living. The people sharing one room becoming closer friends now. To live in a temporary house they need to pay rent or have some savings they could live off. Most of the residents can’t and won’t afford this kind of living. Another problem for the Ishinomaki commune. </div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Maruyama-san plays cello and is on tour through Tohoku. For two evenings he stops at Ishinomaki. What else can I do, he says, the people are happy about me playing for them. Accompanied by the piano he plays for two hours in the music classroom which is used by the volunteers as the resting spot for the night. </div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The same effort shows the Russian Community in Japan and came to Ishinomaki for a weekend. They brought toys for the children, food and russian folklore. Lech asks me why it seems that he sees more foreign volunteers arround then Japanese. I do not know the answer. The japanese people I spoke to explained me, they would love to volunteer but they do not get vacation or are afraid of loosing theire jobs. And so it won’t have enough volunteers until university ends for this semester. </div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Ishinomaki receives a lot of media attention. Alone four media teams have been to the Minato elementary school in one week. Constantly new gifts and commodity contributions reach to the Minato elementary school and therefore the evacuees. Onagawa or Ogatsu city are located 20 km north east of here and they draw a whole different picture. Malnourished evacuees, the sight still covered with heaps of debris and a major lack of future perspective. The natural hazard becomes a logistical challenge. Hindered by a hierarchical society struggle to accept aid from outside the national boundaries. </div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">What remains are the private initatives. Like the one from the Association des Français du Japon. The group is attended also by Japanese, Russians and Mike from Naumburg/Germany. Finally I am able to talk to somebody in my mother language about the local situation. He concludes after the weekend: I am coming back... There is a lot to do for another five years. He likes to propose further initatives to his company. </div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Three more days to go after the weekend. The team is set up new under the leadership of Masumi-san. She coordinates the local enterpreneurs and privates who are asking for concrete help and deliver them with volunter teams. Masumi-san is the boss of Team Kobe. She lost her school in the Kobe earthquake and since then she takes care about the affected people at that time. She knows exactly the problems and sorrows of the people in Tohoku. Everything seems to repeat, she says but this time in another scale. The locals trust her as well as the allocated Peace Boat Team. And so we continue working with a catholic group from Himeji, Kohe-san from Osaka who acts as our team leader assisted by Chun-san from Kyoto. Nearly invisible but diligent Matajoshi-san from Okinawa completes the team. He will stay for another three months. </div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The tasks haven’t changed much since my last duty. Removing mud from peoples houses, pile up the washed ashore trash for the dustcarts and cleaning the drains. We are in the middle of the japanese rainy season. The mountains are greened but there is the thread of landslides caused by the tsunami and the daily heavy rain. Every day climbing workers try to brace the slope with cement. My clothes and my cloves hardly dry. On top comes the humidity. Day 5 brings the sun back and Cedric and me the first sun burn.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Slowly more and more digger and debris trucks appear in the city. Most of the inhabitants ask themselves: Shall we rebuild or pull down. Nobody knows if the financial help of the government will reach them and when. Better show self confidence and ask for volunteer help. Like Toiyama-san. All his life he constructed wooden troughs in a variety from a flower pot to a washing trough. With a circular saw he cuts in the ground in the first floor of his house and lifts the floorboards with a chisel. Quickly he crawls to the buildings foundation and removes the mud. Chun-san calls him to have a break. We only hear a muffeld giggeling from under the beams which assure us, he will continue after dusk. He is 87 years old. </div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The last day we clean the yard of a weaving mill. The small shrine is moved to the side and the washed ashore trash filled up in bags. Besides we remove old branches from the grapevine. The land lady wasn’t on her property when the tsunami hit. Four of her employees piled up tatami mats to reach the rooftop before the water filled up the workshop. They are all save. The workshop wasn’t affected by floating cars or trucks and so they work in full operation sine half a month. Cedric trys out his first woven planket and squeeze himself behind the weaving loom. We collect our tools and finish work earlier due the humid weather. </div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I do have a last duty on this journey. Together with Hiroki-san from Peaceboat we bike in town towards the Sumyoshi school. The Minato elementary school and other from the Tsunami affected institutions relocated their offices temporarily to this facility. We meet Sasaki-san the headteacher of different schools. His team receives 780,000.- YEN approxemately 6,800,- EURO. That is the amount, which was donated to the donation account of my parents from family members, friends, two elementary schools from Saxony and dedicated people from all over germany and the world. Thank you, very very much. From the bottom of my heart I like to thank you all. We never expected this huge willingness to give and therefore we feel more then obliged to use the amount in a meaningfull way. Sasaki-san and his team like to split the money for three school which have lost basically everything like the Minato elementary school. They like to buy projectors, screens, school tables and tool sets as well as a school vacuum cleaners. The new school year will start in fall. Untill then they new equipment will be installed and ready to use for pupils and teachers. </div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">For the last time I use the public bath before I return to Tokyo by nightbus. It’s evening in Ishinomaki. The Isakayas around the main station are illuminated and laughters get through to the station forecourt. Two skater use the ramp to exercise. I withdraw a green tea from the vending machine. A shimmer of normality. At least in one commune in Tohoku. </div>School Cones for Japanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110355381837044613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584269641630004173.post-29366977726419921522011-06-11T18:39:00.000+09:002011-06-11T18:39:08.743+09:00Three Months AgoOn March 11th 2011 a massive earthquake happened in Japan followed by an destructive tsunami. Until today, not all is recovered and still a lot of clean up work has to be done.<br />
More than <a href="http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/06/96475.html">90,000 people are still in shelters 3 months after the massive quake</a> and <a href="http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/06/96466.html">40% of clinics and hospitals have still major difficulties</a> to rebuild their facilities. This is the same for the schools & kindergartens. If you look at <a href="http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/">NHK World News</a> webpage you will see the survey that 77% of the population in Japan is not satisfied with the progress of reconstruction and in my opinion it is connected with the still remaining challenges which we are facing in Japan: political instability, weather conditions (lots of rain), Fukushima is still not under control and the radiation fear did reach an area more in South yesterday: Shizuoka.<br />
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This all leads to change the mind set, in my opinion the only way forward: "change yourself"<br />
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In Shinjuku one - if not the largest - demonstration ever happened today. More than 20,000 people were on the street and protested against nuclear power. It is already a good way as the government is listening and they stopped all future plans on enlarging the number of nuclear power plants. The prime minister <a href="http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/06/96483.html">Kan will host a meeting about renewable energies</a> and Japanese companies are exploring more than ever before in that area as well.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBeOORI05prEasDHvWSsiH1Bc9u9tDP7Y1nKbp9uBN0RX0vclbiP1QP6eTpC_KqC0pf3uZNR_Kq7SS_6w1ixztVX9uh2yabdEZNgA25o7QLL7YURYBs3OXmZrKGBX-KKXrKxnBJAGMR-oU/s1600/demo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBeOORI05prEasDHvWSsiH1Bc9u9tDP7Y1nKbp9uBN0RX0vclbiP1QP6eTpC_KqC0pf3uZNR_Kq7SS_6w1ixztVX9uh2yabdEZNgA25o7QLL7YURYBs3OXmZrKGBX-KKXrKxnBJAGMR-oU/s320/demo.JPG" width="238" /></a></div><br />
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But honestly, it is only a small step. The more important is that we start acting more responsible and save more energy by ourselves. Japanese people started with it and I hope that it will continue.<br />
You can see these posters of "please save energy" everywhere at the train stations. You can hear people talking about it as the government asks to cut 15% of electricity usage during the summer months and companies are looking into new ways for daily work life of their employees (super cool business, less overtime, more shift work, etc.).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJz_H9-LgrXMK0ZUKlLn7GqZ-gc3cawywy61pI00ITu_B2V6sbm9d6GYa9-mTt0LqfMTWM591xpX_YvD6RKMvn9YFy0ePORiCZ4X9wTdhL6B6Z0FGQ-Rar1dbp9HcSAKtvp1sLMItDzyoV/s1600/savings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJz_H9-LgrXMK0ZUKlLn7GqZ-gc3cawywy61pI00ITu_B2V6sbm9d6GYa9-mTt0LqfMTWM591xpX_YvD6RKMvn9YFy0ePORiCZ4X9wTdhL6B6Z0FGQ-Rar1dbp9HcSAKtvp1sLMItDzyoV/s320/savings.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br />
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I think it is a new consciousness which this crisis has created. I really hope that this is only the start point and a double point for other countries. The picture below shows exactly, what is important to understand: "Radioactivity has no Borders"<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYe8z-OWz878iASaSraCjNVsPmiAmZBXkX97CXLXp3Y8dgc7bCG4FmvaW8_s6PIigFg13-YM8-lGTx_GDzz65GI1N-Y-dL6nh2pmCy_-ceVl2uBMmlQF6vAqIcC_FNPWFxPoUxxMkkn5t2/s1600/sorry+to+the+world.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYe8z-OWz878iASaSraCjNVsPmiAmZBXkX97CXLXp3Y8dgc7bCG4FmvaW8_s6PIigFg13-YM8-lGTx_GDzz65GI1N-Y-dL6nh2pmCy_-ceVl2uBMmlQF6vAqIcC_FNPWFxPoUxxMkkn5t2/s320/sorry+to+the+world.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">11 June 2011 - Demonstration at Shinjuku (taken by Stephan Schmidt)</td></tr>
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It does not work if only Japan and Germany are changing their policy about nuclear power, and other countries build more nuclear power plants. We all have to change and we all have to start with ourselves: Save the Energy!School Cones for Japanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110355381837044613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584269641630004173.post-31588988863764083542011-06-10T18:32:00.001+09:002011-06-10T18:37:08.079+09:00It is a long way to go - Help is still neededToday you can read on the internet page of the news agency Kyodo the following:<br />
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<b>"Three months after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and with a nuclear power plant disaster still unfolding, a great many survivors are still living in shelters as construction of temporary housing for them has made slow progress.</b><br />
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<b>In the worst-affected prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima in northeastern Japan, only half of the needed 52,000 temporary homes have been completed.</b><br />
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<b>Even after all evacuees have found temporary abode, however, there will remain the extremely testing issue of how to reconstruct permanent residential areas."</b><br />
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Source: <a href="http://english.kyodonews.jp/photos/2011/06/96238.html">KYODO NEWS</a> (You can see pictures on before/ after at this internet address)<br />
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This demonstrates that still a lot of help is needed and many people are still living in shelters. Many schools will only be renovated later this year.<br />
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I heard from several Japanese companies that they allow their employees to go to Tohoku to help with the clean up, etc. A friend of mine wrote me this week: "<i>And nicely enough my company sent a mail, asking if employees would be interested to go to Touhoku for volunteering. I'll be going this week Thu-Sat, mostly to shovel mud and to carry broken furniture... Smooth option for company employee, as company is organizing the transportation & accommodation</i>."<br />
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It is nice to hear this because "it is a long way to go - Help is still needed"<br />
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</div>School Cones for Japanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110355381837044613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584269641630004173.post-56801005249197222152011-06-09T00:50:00.000+09:002011-06-09T00:50:17.944+09:00Support from all over the World<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">During the last two weeks we have received a many emails from schools and private persons who like to help, and we just like to give a short update about it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;">Let us start with the Community Dinner Group in </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Shanghai</st1:place></st1:city></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;">. Dominik Villaret and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/nora.sun">Nora Sun</a> have contacted us, and together with the help of <a href="http://www.facebook.com/people/Britta-Lemke/655070614">Britta Lemke</a> they organized a charity dinner in </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Shanghai</st1:place></st1:city></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;">. Britta was in </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Tokyo</st1:place></st1:city></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"> during the Earthquake and she could report about her experiences and of course our project. Thanks to all of you, we have received 220,- EUR. Arigato Gozaimasu.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7wVKCLU6EwO7zqjFb8XQA4h_3rxlZxgYkLih1XHoTPMvB7cDIE8unRQBPGwJcytZry7x20_y_RGh7JQPDZwTr5kWScWFb_XQx1xN7jcPjvqScyDmFkX2GnUIfqGIji77Rgf-XUqAIkM95/s1600/charity+dinner+SHA_1.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7wVKCLU6EwO7zqjFb8XQA4h_3rxlZxgYkLih1XHoTPMvB7cDIE8unRQBPGwJcytZry7x20_y_RGh7JQPDZwTr5kWScWFb_XQx1xN7jcPjvqScyDmFkX2GnUIfqGIji77Rgf-XUqAIkM95/s200/charity+dinner+SHA_1.bmp" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvXsieyuKsiPndnNjIAZ_GRtMOMJviNwsgKHjUj-hM4gUjcqa-_WpRGdDlXfl-K8jGMgixI-tVyBpbLYagBbOfEGu2FTVcjUuK-ukrQ8CnMhawENh_nkEe5odfTK_Z6i6AoVTHPPo6WTD3/s1600/charity+dinner+SHA_4.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvXsieyuKsiPndnNjIAZ_GRtMOMJviNwsgKHjUj-hM4gUjcqa-_WpRGdDlXfl-K8jGMgixI-tVyBpbLYagBbOfEGu2FTVcjUuK-ukrQ8CnMhawENh_nkEe5odfTK_Z6i6AoVTHPPo6WTD3/s200/charity+dinner+SHA_4.bmp" width="200" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Then there was <a href="http://www.facebook.com/odette.vella">Odette Vella</a>, who lives in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Malta</st1:place></st1:country-region> and was as well with the student organization <a href="http://www.aiesec.org/">AIESEC</a>. She heard about our project and immediately contacted her local school, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Kullegg</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Maria</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Regina</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Primery</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:place> in Mellieha. Together with the headmistress Mrs. M.R. Leone and the two teachers Mrs. Emilia Fenech and Mr. S. Chetcuti </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">they have organized a drawing activity with their pupils and collected around 100 pictures. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Charles Schiavone of DHL supported the transportation to </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Japan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. This shows heart and a great caring attitude of </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Malta</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">! Arigato Gozaimasu!</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXw_xgFK9YHC2iZmtthVz_ZXjjtRRDyCi8DFqUtecoUXP4DbB9ou3OcNF9SP5aP6P41QWk14JIgYJYaO1j6O8tnNg7nCTfp5A8P-s8E4JThn3nZotshX0NUO9C8AAyJiduF9WjxIblcyw1/s1600/Malta.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXw_xgFK9YHC2iZmtthVz_ZXjjtRRDyCi8DFqUtecoUXP4DbB9ou3OcNF9SP5aP6P41QWk14JIgYJYaO1j6O8tnNg7nCTfp5A8P-s8E4JThn3nZotshX0NUO9C8AAyJiduF9WjxIblcyw1/s320/Malta.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">In <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region></st1:place>, we have <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1252831411">Cathrine Pichot</a> who liked our project idea very much as well and she contacted schools in <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region>, </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica;">Arc-en-ciel St. Sauveur de Pandemont & École Sainte Jeanne d'Arc - Nord Sur Erdr.</span></span></span> <span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">At the end she wrote to us: “It is a real pleasure to join your wonderful idea and to ask French school kids to draw these pictures. It was a way for teachers to explain what happened in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Japan</st1:country-region></st1:place> and I have seen that kids were very touched as you told in your below message. My son, Axel, who is 4 years old, was very touched when he understood that many Japanese kids have lost their house, their toys, etc... and he was very happy to send these pictures from his school to give some smiles!”</span></span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">At the end they collected more than 200 drawings, which are on the way to Japan now – thanks to her and DHL in France, who subsidized this activity. Merci & Arigato to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region>! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7lEdSwYIP6u8oUF5nCsH9rK_6JiWiOBtPfcJXAuwFjuwNrQnVibN5lCX_1GlIiMtvtl2sgmCr27JRsVZpx3fNJmeQGMcuJcdRLSG5ub266JAWxwZiJ6dCjvcnTfC9swBkoarEuJT961oB/s1600/alex.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7lEdSwYIP6u8oUF5nCsH9rK_6JiWiOBtPfcJXAuwFjuwNrQnVibN5lCX_1GlIiMtvtl2sgmCr27JRsVZpx3fNJmeQGMcuJcdRLSG5ub266JAWxwZiJ6dCjvcnTfC9swBkoarEuJT961oB/s320/alex.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/vlie1">Vivian Lie</a> lives in <st1:city w:st="on">Chicago</st1:city> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/carlie.nelson">Carlie Nelson</a> stays in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Arizona</st1:place></st1:state>. Both of them heard about our school cones project and started to talk to schools.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Carlie already collected many drawings at her own school and they will send these soon. See below the nice pictures of the school kids in Carden Traditional School, Surprise in Arizona. You can see the joy and caring spirit in their eyes. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Vivian opened an online shop in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">USA a few years ago</st1:place></st1:country-region>, which is called “<a href="http://www.kindercone.com/">Kindercone</a>”. Because of this, she has many contacts at schools. She is discussing with the schools at the moment and will send us children journals for our cones. Thanks a lot! Arigato Gozaimasu to both of you!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;">A very big compliment goes to <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002193248478">Jana Heibrok</a>. She is a teacher at the Gesamtschule in Porta Westfalica (<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Germany</st1:place></st1:country-region>) and together with <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000831223973">Lars Backhaus</a> she organized a presentation at the school, organized drawing sessions and collected more than 100 pictures. On top of that she motivated a colleague of her at the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Städtisches Gymnasium Sedanstraße Wupperta</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">l</span></st1:place></st1:city>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001307706062">Tobias Westermann</a>, who also organized drawings of his pupils. You can see on the photo that many students were engaged and were happy to do something nice to the kids in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region>. The<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Freiherr-von-Vincke-Realschule in</span></span> Minden followed the example of Jana as well and also contributed postcards and angel paintings. A big thank you goes to Jana, Lars & Tobias. Dankeschoen!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW7Seuf5nA4XrskTyTRDFUmM4uJz2pvSNyywrYREW2bPZVO2Dd39Zryx30r-7iUGTyeKebe2PmliUwE8BtOfgkVBKkJw2J2dBnbjfwwBSgJt7lOU_icDTR_IIoq3TS55Q5sPOxJZGEO94G/s1600/DSC_0811.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW7Seuf5nA4XrskTyTRDFUmM4uJz2pvSNyywrYREW2bPZVO2Dd39Zryx30r-7iUGTyeKebe2PmliUwE8BtOfgkVBKkJw2J2dBnbjfwwBSgJt7lOU_icDTR_IIoq3TS55Q5sPOxJZGEO94G/s200/DSC_0811.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkvnUn-a3V209Nyb0KgSrw8Le7aS3ue9olPzoh1n9eeffsXWzMhwGa-x4Lygk32EsGhEoJqz3IosJ2363Vnt0-C6LwSWsipP6gqWd_CjBBaI6Em0S_J8TxFyR-kVfknvThpeDuketI9lLz/s1600/Japan01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkvnUn-a3V209Nyb0KgSrw8Le7aS3ue9olPzoh1n9eeffsXWzMhwGa-x4Lygk32EsGhEoJqz3IosJ2363Vnt0-C6LwSWsipP6gqWd_CjBBaI6Em0S_J8TxFyR-kVfknvThpeDuketI9lLz/s200/Japan01.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course we cannot forget the Heinrich Boell Schule in Goettingen. They were the first school, which joined. They are the school which inspired us and kicked off this entire project. </span></div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Class 9 organized the "Cafe Heinrich" and collected more than 400 EUR - thank you so much for your support and especially to Andrea Boesch, who is a teacher at the school and Lucas. He is the young student on our webpage. He is the one who pushed Andrea and now many more people.</span></div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju4t-XUJIYJpvWF1a3NETYxUA2UtREbtJaX0bIHXB6c-C9Fs_Dnt7Mqg8JEL_Q-PJKVS1lOrGbKRiAzlRDwpO_3J0p9FHLSmpsFtc3OLAHSexoi5HB6pWroClJ6v7k3QTQo0FbagQYIKfT/s1600/cafe+Heinrich.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju4t-XUJIYJpvWF1a3NETYxUA2UtREbtJaX0bIHXB6c-C9Fs_Dnt7Mqg8JEL_Q-PJKVS1lOrGbKRiAzlRDwpO_3J0p9FHLSmpsFtc3OLAHSexoi5HB6pWroClJ6v7k3QTQo0FbagQYIKfT/s200/cafe+Heinrich.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK3-bpaimZaD_mcHuyfupackbCvVXcrhyphenhyphenzZAMADYEZ2c7tj_eKv9KD7CClM992edQWILorcUpcv2FP4k8p9KNgJgYCOlxM7gBWfL-90Fqh10Lfn3gUNruA7nEVylaeXTeCs3e9WUlu89hyphenhyphen/s1600/Klassenfoto+fuer+Japan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK3-bpaimZaD_mcHuyfupackbCvVXcrhyphenhyphenzZAMADYEZ2c7tj_eKv9KD7CClM992edQWILorcUpcv2FP4k8p9KNgJgYCOlxM7gBWfL-90Fqh10Lfn3gUNruA7nEVylaeXTeCs3e9WUlu89hyphenhyphen/s200/Klassenfoto+fuer+Japan.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">This is already a lot of support, but many more schools are involved and more schools in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Singapore</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:country-region>, and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Egypt</st1:country-region></st1:place> also showed their intention of organizing activities. We will collect drawings, donations and postcards until the end of July - please help us to spread even more the word.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">For us it is nice to see that children all over the world are engaged to help. At the same time they learn something about Japan and about social responsibility. This motivates us to do even more here and at the moment we try to find one or two schools in Tokyo, which can put together all the pictures, drawings and postcards to colorful photo books. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">We thank everyone for their support and we can only repeat that we do not have words which could show our appreciation enough. Just a big ARIGATO!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></div>School Cones for Japanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110355381837044613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584269641630004173.post-50570708166906436042011-06-02T22:19:00.000+09:002011-06-02T22:19:04.039+09:00Disaster victims angry at power struggles in Tokyo<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #2f2f2f; font: small 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> <div style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Survivors of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami expressed their anger Thursday at politicians they said were wasting their time in a power struggle over a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Naoto Kan's Cabinet.</div><div style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFK28L_5XEQZk4TfMFsbSvRd-xXJU-hEwjuMG-6C05ZFngJVmpKoiLbdswa9W6FyIitX0go-4hysCGXnHbc4QJEaDaep9Do3dN7lnckEdCx1baNlu4tLLheFOOgZZGXNtyVQnS-faXLlKC/s1600/sendai+people.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="114px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFK28L_5XEQZk4TfMFsbSvRd-xXJU-hEwjuMG-6C05ZFngJVmpKoiLbdswa9W6FyIitX0go-4hysCGXnHbc4QJEaDaep9Do3dN7lnckEdCx1baNlu4tLLheFOOgZZGXNtyVQnS-faXLlKC/s200/sendai+people.jpg" t8="true" width="200px" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">''If politicians have time to get in each other's way, they should come to Fukushima and help settle the accidents'' at the radiation-leaking Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a 25-year-old corporate employee in Tamura, Fukushima Prefecture, said.</div><div style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The man also said he does not expect anything from such politicians but that Kan should stay in power until the nuclear crisis is resolved.</div><div style="font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Source: </span><a href="http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/06/94888.html"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/06/94888.html</span></a></div></span></span>School Cones for Japanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110355381837044613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584269641630004173.post-25522158128996819662011-05-20T21:57:00.000+09:002011-05-20T21:57:29.667+09:00Tokyo is ok - Japan not (yet)<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">This morning we experienced a small earthquake again nearby </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Tokyo</st1:city></st1:place></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"> (5.7 magnitude). It was only a very soft shaking in our office. Many colleagues only looked up shortly and then continued with their discussions or work.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Life in <st1:city w:st="on">Tokyo</st1:city> and the metropolitan area of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Tokyo</st1:city></st1:place> is back to normal since a few weeks ago already. It was very surprising for me how fast the Japanese people went back to their normal life style.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Of course we had the fear of radiation in tap water and many bought water, or all necessary other items like bread, milk products, etc. But this situation is stable and completely back to normal now. I talked to my friend Oskari a few days ago and he mentioned “it is normal, but still you have this strange feeling that it is not the same as before”. I can agree to this, as we all know that the affected areas of the earthquake still need much more time for recovery and we also know that the nuclear power plant is not fully under control yet. Many people (including myself) <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">have</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> the opinion, that the </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">nuclear</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> situation is not getting worse </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">or better, </span></span><o:p></o:p></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">it needs much more time to be completely solved.</span></div><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"> </span> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><b>But what do you want to do? Worry the entire day? Leave?</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">There is no increased radiation level in <st1:city w:st="on">Tokyo</st1:city> and nothing detected in the tap water anymore (<a href="http://ftp.jaist.ac.jp/pub/emergency/monitoring.tokyo-eiken.go.jp/monitoring/index-e.html">source</a>) – therefore we do what we can do best: continue with our life and help <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region> and the entire world with it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqFbTv44ZGUMaaBdojKQCw-WWPgcYSJi_pTCq3Zg4Giufd_fxLFRUN5UGKiluj807QhgO2PjwAZMMgSxaDoL9LomjCtGS_qSWzrYP9YGNqk51bCFlbzlDprvH9FVeoe-43Qa3_J6PtDCuG/s1600/Kaori.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqFbTv44ZGUMaaBdojKQCw-WWPgcYSJi_pTCq3Zg4Giufd_fxLFRUN5UGKiluj807QhgO2PjwAZMMgSxaDoL9LomjCtGS_qSWzrYP9YGNqk51bCFlbzlDprvH9FVeoe-43Qa3_J6PtDCuG/s200/Kaori.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kaori on her way to Tohoku to help</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">On Tuesday evening we met Kaori Doi, who is volunteering for the NGO<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"> “</span></span></span></span><span class="profilenamefnginormousprofilenamefwb"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'MS UI Gothic'; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "MS UI Gothic"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/nucctt?sk=wall">日本ユニバ震災対策チーム</a></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small;"><span class="profilenamefnginormousprofilenamefwb"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">” (NUC - <span class="fsm">Nihon Univa Counter Crisis Team)</span>.</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small;"><span class="profilenamefnginormousprofilenamefwb"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt; font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"> </span></span></b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">She was already active as a supporter in an evacuation center during the big Kobe Earthquake (16 years ago) and now she is engaged again, “but the situation is completely different”.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">I personally have the feeling (like </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/schmidt.stephan">Stephan</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"> explained in his </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://schoolconesforjapan.blogspot.com/2011/05/experience-as-volunteer-in-japan.html">last blog entry</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">) that many people do not fully understand the reality and underestimate the need of support. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">Kaori explained during our discussion that “the tsunami washed away many kilometers of houses and cities, where people lived. This area will be difficult to re-construct in a short time and therefore many people need to continue </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">to </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">live</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> in the evacuation camps with very limited privacy and difficult circumstances. This will be much longer than 16 years ago </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">(in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Kobe</st1:city></st1:place>, there was neither Tsunami nor Nuclear catastrophe)</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">”</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p><br />
</o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><i>Just imagine that you have to live in a gym or school with many other people for more than 2 months and you do not know how much longer…</i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9US7XJmiFW9_hsBcgLY1FPt2KEvBXsVMcdsXwqPrYN7dFx89uNHZOegTHxeIHeunQqd0MjfKH1Td26Cu754I9p2KUjrQoN9p1jkwXiFFzN3FSrjiPY7o5Wk4oYfPMw_oy_ydQDeabOskD/s1600/evacuation+center3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9US7XJmiFW9_hsBcgLY1FPt2KEvBXsVMcdsXwqPrYN7dFx89uNHZOegTHxeIHeunQqd0MjfKH1Td26Cu754I9p2KUjrQoN9p1jkwXiFFzN3FSrjiPY7o5Wk4oYfPMw_oy_ydQDeabOskD/s320/evacuation+center3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p><br />
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</o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><b>There is a high emotional stress level in these evacuations camps now.</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Kaori explained to us based on her experience in Kobe that during the first 2 weeks many people just want to survive and try to contact family members, etc. But then they start to live in the camps and you need more privacy. People “discover” behaviors on others (with whom they live together in the camp or even sleep next to them night by night) which are “annoying” to them. Therefore Kaori and other volunteers tried 16 years ago in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Kobe</st1:place></st1:city> to create separations. They organized mats for more comfort, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All this is needed in order to calm people down and to let them “relax” a little bit.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6UCSZspuljui7ERpAkAjWvLDw4k7sghvZlWP9n8kTelyFNxn_2ZSGBpUFfDxylsOE0jCV5g-1tUkKshWvRey6Ui1ztpAuk-Sgg4xScYfPIHEogaLmg3kyvHakKIyv0JrRTk1N4P1CHfwP/s1600/Evacuation+center2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6UCSZspuljui7ERpAkAjWvLDw4k7sghvZlWP9n8kTelyFNxn_2ZSGBpUFfDxylsOE0jCV5g-1tUkKshWvRey6Ui1ztpAuk-Sgg4xScYfPIHEogaLmg3kyvHakKIyv0JrRTk1N4P1CHfwP/s200/Evacuation+center2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">I also read in some articles on the internet that NGOs started to give foot massages to these “refugees”, as these moments of relaxations are very important (especially if you still feel the aftershocks). It is important to work on the mental balance. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p><br />
</o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">And all this will take much longer this time, because a tsunami hit and destroyed their houses and lands. The radiation problem is an additional problem which worsens the situation even more and makes it impossible for some people to come back to their houses (maybe ever).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><b>Some people tell me sometimes in emails or discussion forums:<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><b>“</b><st1:country-region w:st="on"><b>Japan</b></st1:country-region><b> is a rich country and we better donate & help countries in </b><st1:place w:st="on"><b>Africa or somewhere else</b></st1:place><b>”</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">Well, yes. <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region> is a rich country, but many people died and left sad people behind. Many people lost everything and cannot even return to the area where they spent their entire life. Many people are and will suffer from the mental stress and traumatic experiences for months. It is a long dragging process, but the willingness of help is decreasing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">In my opinion, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region> is in need for help. It is a different help. It is called (International) Solidarity and Caring. The longer the situation is continuing, the more of this kind of support is needed... especially for children!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">(Pictures are taken from other Internet Pages: CTV, Kyodo News)</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>School Cones for Japanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110355381837044613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584269641630004173.post-19600137857453418432011-05-16T13:53:00.000+09:002011-05-16T13:53:10.527+09:00...experience as a volunteer in Japan...<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10.0pt;">A few days ago, I wrote already about a friend of mine, Stephan, who went together with an organization called <a href="http://www.peaceboat.org/english/index.php">Peaceboat</a> to Ishinomaki. He helped to clean up the streets, talked to the kids and supported the locals. He is very much involved in helping the community here and I asked him to write a short article about his view on the things now.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10.0pt;">Please read below and share with us your opinion or experience. What do you think about his view? Did you experience something similar or do you have a complete different opinion about the situation?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10.0pt;"><b>Now, we ask Stephan to speak up and share his experience:</b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjquhbihpkSpz7chGamTBXUaUrZONOOhFLYluFoDf5tZ3xal3HzbMuVia_rnQ36ut2ASxxsKoARJof2HVcOZ4X5IQGPOecWiS2CCETc85zb-SB5I5XCBuaohb5zN-gUXmptOO7QwySzRYcV/s1600/portrait_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjquhbihpkSpz7chGamTBXUaUrZONOOhFLYluFoDf5tZ3xal3HzbMuVia_rnQ36ut2ASxxsKoARJof2HVcOZ4X5IQGPOecWiS2CCETc85zb-SB5I5XCBuaohb5zN-gUXmptOO7QwySzRYcV/s1600/portrait_2.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px;">"After five weeks going to Ishinomaki and coming back, live and work shifts into a blurry zone of meaningless considering the relief effort in need caused by the devastated tsunami from mid march. Speaking with a lot of volunteers, they seem to have difficulties to concentrate in the first week after the returned to their "normal" work. Useless, minor, narrowed down to be back in their offices.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10.0pt;"> <br />
<span class="apple-style-span">What we experienced in terms of solidarity and teamwork seems to be unrepeatable in the daily labor. So the all over tone of everybody is. "I wanna go back, I felt so useful in this week, they need more help then my boss." Are we caught in chains, why is it so easy to evolve mutual international respect and togetherness in a situation where are you sticking to basic of living?</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="apple-style-span">Is it maybe the common sense to help those in need with the necessary supplies of food and human motivation saying, you are not alone, we think of you?</span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">This is not an empiric study; I only encounter what I experienced. Though I get in line with these volunteers. At the end of June, I will go again to Ishinomaki and will definitely release my second promise.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">Soon after the quake my parents in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Germany</st1:place></st1:country-region> set up a donation account for my family and friends. The account will be closed at the end of May. My mother called me this week and said that about 3.500, Euros already has been raised. I didn't expect this. I was amazed. The money will go towards the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Minato</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Elementary School</st1:placetype></st1:place> in Ishinomaki to keep up running the daily school duties and may provide pupils with</span> <span class="apple-style-span">materials. So I will go again to Ishinomaki, I will do the regular volunteer work and visit the Elementary School to supply the donation by myself.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">It's probably trust what makes the difference. There are people in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region>, knowing that I do live in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region> and will find an appropriate occasion to donate the collected money. No question, the bigger organizations like Red Cross as well as Peaceboat do an amazing job and help the people where they can. Though a lot of people who would love to donate searching for a private initiative and somebody they can trust.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">Therefore I emphasize everybody who wants to contribute to find a person of trust and then provide donations directly to a local school, private person or cooperate. And build up trust over a longer period then just couple of months.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">What is obvious now is that the catastrophe from two months ago is more and more out of the media and only the reactor is worth some news. The amount of volunteers at Peaceboat decreased after the Golden Week. This is a long term project. And it may take two or three times to provide your duty in this exceptional situation.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">I was also curious about the Japanese behaviors. Yesterday I witnessed a scene with a French guy who nearly screamed at two Japanese that they shall go to Tohoku and help. The two Japanese bowed fast and whispered “hai hai” as an acknowledgment that they heard what was said without agreeing. Then they said they would love to go but they do not get free from work and if they do on their own, they might lose their job.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">So maybe it would be a good thing to doctrine the Japanese people, in an authority society like the Japanese one, from above. Emphasize management's to form teams for volunteer work and take this as an act of corporate social responsibility. It pushes the morality of employees and gives the company a good reputation. And it might help in an authoritarian society.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="apple-style-span">The volunteers already went can act as a multiplier, as facilitators and presenters about the experienced work in Tohouku hat everybody who goes is highly appreciated and act in the name of humanity and understanding among nations for Japan. This can be a chance."</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>School Cones for Japanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110355381837044613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584269641630004173.post-84701704377550189232011-05-05T17:47:00.000+09:002011-05-05T17:47:38.766+09:00Small Ideas with Big ImpactAt the moment I am on my vacations in Germany, but met many people and schools which wants to help and exactly this is what we want to achieve: children worldwide helping children in Japan.<br />
<br />
I just like to give some examples of the great help which we are receiving for the school kids in Japan:<br />
<br />
<ul><li>Elementary School in Lohe (Germany) organized a flea market</li>
<li>A colleague of us in Italy is planning to host a charity party</li>
<li>The Heinrich Boell School in Goettingen (Germany) organized a charity cafe</li>
<li>The Elementary School in Benkhausen (Germany) did hold a church service and collected a donation for our project</li>
<li>A French DJ is planning to organize a charity event</li>
<li>Gesamtschule Porta Westfalica (Germany) is planning to coordinate picture paintings and a small concert or party</li>
<li>Schuetzenverein Nettelstedt (Shooting Club) - Germany - organized a ballon competition, sold flower chains and collected donations four our cause</li>
<li>Janika sold private toys and things at a local flea market in Germany</li>
<li>Schools in Egypt, Vietnam, US, Germany, France, Singapore, ... are painting pictures for the kids in Japan</li>
<li>Herlitz is donating 1000 School Cones</li>
<li>DHL is coordinating the logistics</li>
<li>...and many more private donators</li>
</ul><div><b><br />
</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>We like to thank you to all of you for your courage, motivation and support. AND we promise that we will deliver all of your help to the kids personally.</b></div><div><br />
</div><div>Please have a look at some of the activities below.</div><div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjphaL4KHC1nT0CXG9EQNgCDHQXpIaLbe2Ji7qX4rqgc_30YfPmbF9vs5QsJ2cWGMBtiekoMdPMOiv1KrSmdeZ9MaXaCRlljc0c8HB9AnMvpiJIexYqGWQsn9i-bJXcflJgIFxa1Ex0l8uq/s1600/nettelstedt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjphaL4KHC1nT0CXG9EQNgCDHQXpIaLbe2Ji7qX4rqgc_30YfPmbF9vs5QsJ2cWGMBtiekoMdPMOiv1KrSmdeZ9MaXaCRlljc0c8HB9AnMvpiJIexYqGWQsn9i-bJXcflJgIFxa1Ex0l8uq/s200/nettelstedt.jpg" width="200" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj6qgotWa6e3VHnb_XjoOfdht6PjwoxPrLnBmD-gxSIb9IJ8_Of0gkwRq4r_aAPM2WdPLuKpWEpki1uO1yQz4OjKcxR20VN2zT7zrXBb68lqGVBvelh5EnLl2OM7raC-ejjB6Z36k3R5I3/s1600/flohmarkt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj6qgotWa6e3VHnb_XjoOfdht6PjwoxPrLnBmD-gxSIb9IJ8_Of0gkwRq4r_aAPM2WdPLuKpWEpki1uO1yQz4OjKcxR20VN2zT7zrXBb68lqGVBvelh5EnLl2OM7raC-ejjB6Z36k3R5I3/s200/flohmarkt.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinFKDAg5OLaBhIYm3zXovZ6wJYqT3V3a3_xfXKGpZMui_t6Ujyy31cGQmGGTzJ87Vx_UWquLBZgQLO29QlOc8WWSDiVSc4omEqx3at9wxLLwyn_b03u_P3Eo2w-vQFKV76znTICuLw1cdw/s1600/flohmarkt2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinFKDAg5OLaBhIYm3zXovZ6wJYqT3V3a3_xfXKGpZMui_t6Ujyy31cGQmGGTzJ87Vx_UWquLBZgQLO29QlOc8WWSDiVSc4omEqx3at9wxLLwyn_b03u_P3Eo2w-vQFKV76znTICuLw1cdw/s200/flohmarkt2.jpg" width="200" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm2ZlSouEHyGlFCZzed4Orp1NmJ7N27V9kJ2uDsa_igEdpmRXNxhoxhW1kF5YCWbChxGRNtVqoFDBylTAjDiFzFliSw-A56ydv6QZ508K-G4dgE75j32aulmK0C06qd2jBqH5oCl-Hp5wm/s1600/flohmarkt3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm2ZlSouEHyGlFCZzed4Orp1NmJ7N27V9kJ2uDsa_igEdpmRXNxhoxhW1kF5YCWbChxGRNtVqoFDBylTAjDiFzFliSw-A56ydv6QZ508K-G4dgE75j32aulmK0C06qd2jBqH5oCl-Hp5wm/s200/flohmarkt3.jpg" width="150" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div>School Cones for Japanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110355381837044613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584269641630004173.post-55681768585153423122011-04-25T15:40:00.000+09:002011-04-25T15:40:04.759+09:00Clean Up in JapanThursday last week, I met a friend from Germany, who is also working in Japan. He decided to go up to the North and help to clean up a town called Ishinomaki. He did this together with an organization, which was also very active during the Kobe Earthquake and has a lot of experience: Peace Boat (http://www.peaceboat.org).<div><br />
</div><div>It is very interesting to listen to his stories how he had to prepare himself for the trip ("you need to have everything for yourself for one week like dry food, water, etc. and it was so difficult to find water in Japan. I went to several supermarkets to collect everywhere my small bottles until I had 12 liters") or how he lived in a small tent and heard the after shocks coming ("in the evening you are lying in your sleeping bag, and then you hear the earthquake coming by small rumbles before it really starts to shake below you").</div><div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipjmtGBKgZ_Btx_okEKzP8hhmODQUykHtiDr_A80iQgBqXuPwQMj6pvN4AddCnhq76q8_asqOGCwjt8OwR7zYEI6OIdt_cqhFSW3YJzyQEv9fUeoD0i6Q-4rjXo1UWPCButVIcAhyWdLkA/s1600/Stephan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipjmtGBKgZ_Btx_okEKzP8hhmODQUykHtiDr_A80iQgBqXuPwQMj6pvN4AddCnhq76q8_asqOGCwjt8OwR7zYEI6OIdt_cqhFSW3YJzyQEv9fUeoD0i6Q-4rjXo1UWPCButVIcAhyWdLkA/s320/Stephan.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br />
</div><div>Please have a look at his blog and read more about his trip: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/39919624@N02/sets/72157626388738753/">Stephan's Blog </a></div><div><br />
</div><div>We also talked a bit about our project and he likes the idea. Stephan told me that he visited an elementary school and the teachers asked them to speak a little bit of English with them. It was a lesson with laughters and he believes that this can help the kids a bit: smiles and a bit of fun.</div><div>He gave me a contact of the head of a this school in Ishinomaki and told me that the head would be very happy, if we contact him, but of course we need to go via the educational board of the region beforehand and we will definitely do this.</div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div>School Cones for Japanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110355381837044613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584269641630004173.post-59465647129646402622011-04-21T00:10:00.000+09:002011-04-21T00:10:30.950+09:00Safety Concerns<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>One questions, which I always get asked by friends is, how we deal with the radiation fear and if it is dangerous in Tokyo.<br />
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I can always answer very confident, that I do not live in fear and that Tokyo is safe. Tokyo is almost 300 km from the Fukushima Nuclear Plant and the measured levels are very low. I also believe that nobody can lie on these facts, as we have too many journalists in town who also measure all the time the radition in air and water. If there would be the slighest mis-communication by any official in Tokyo, then they would publish it immediately. They wait for this...<br />
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At the same time, the levels are not very good nearby the nuclear plant, as you can see on below graphic (<a href="http://japan.failedrobot.com/">http://japan.failedrobot.com/</a>):<br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Tokyo and Yokohama have white tags, which means that the radiation levels are below the average, but in the area of Fukushima you see yellow and orange tags (up to 4.7 micro Sv outside of the evacuation zone).</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Yesterday I wrote about our friend, Yusuke, who lives in this area and does not feel very safe, but he has the personal feeling not to leave his friends, family and responsiblity behind. He might not be in direct danger as the radiation is decreasing these days, but many people have saftey concerns and espcially for the children. Today I could read in the newspaper about the precautions of the government, which makes me worried for the people and especially for their emotions:</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 24px;">"Outdoor school activities limited in Fukushima"</span></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20_22.html">http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20_22.html</a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The school kids are not allowed to play outside for long time and as well not allowed to use swimmingpools, etc. Of course, this is depressing and the kids need a lot of care. Because of this, people like Yusuke and all other helper are so important for the children and all people there.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Please let us thank them and pray for them today. </div>School Cones for Japanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110355381837044613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584269641630004173.post-75053823684952942442011-04-18T00:11:00.001+09:002011-04-18T21:41:34.450+09:00How is life in Fukushima now?<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;">Today we met a friend, Yusuke, who lives in Koriyama-shi, Fukushima which is located about 60km inland from the coastal line, the Tsunami impacted area, and the Fukushima #1 nuclear power plant.</span></div><br />
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</div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT8iaaXtoRQ0dgfaTSn3b6WTn8alB3qH32LenW5xbum983Dnp1cyGa0q6Fmlfd4cleHtoyNIge5XYlYNu8J9sVjFpqtz63K4ZUxCUEvOkFdKklTdieaAg5seDMFe4Fqq4RiB7YSovIXAee/s1600/IMG_0714.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT8iaaXtoRQ0dgfaTSn3b6WTn8alB3qH32LenW5xbum983Dnp1cyGa0q6Fmlfd4cleHtoyNIge5XYlYNu8J9sVjFpqtz63K4ZUxCUEvOkFdKklTdieaAg5seDMFe4Fqq4RiB7YSovIXAee/s200/IMG_0714.jpg" width="149" /></a><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">It was an emotional meeting for us as he experienced the earthquake on March 11 at the kindergarten where he works. Yusuke is a very positive and caring guy, He looks forward and tries to help the environment & community. This impressed us very much.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">On that day, when the 9.0 Earthquake happened, they took and carried all the kids outside to the playground. It was difficult to walk while the earth was shaking. Outside, it was still cold and a couple hours later it started to snow. All the electricity, Gas line & Water were dead, including phone lines.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fortunately they did not have any damage from the tsunami but they had or still have difficult times from all the daily after shocks (there are 5-6 shocks per day, which he can feel) and the fear of radiation. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">He said when the earthquake comes he can "hear" them coming, earth rumbles.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The life for the little children is not quite the same as before. Their board of education has decided not to let the kids play outside, all the swimming pools are closed, and having kids wearing masks all the time. It is difficult for them, but at least many of the kids are too young to understand the entire consequences of earthquakes and they are not panicking.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The worst is the fear of the radiation: they calculated if the situation doesn't change, they would be exposed to radiation <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Arial New', 'MS P ゴシック', sans-serif;">2-3 micro </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Arial New', 'MS P ゴシック', sans-serif;">sievert per every hour, sums up</span> in 1 year to 20-25 mili <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Arial New', 'MS P ゴシック', sans-serif;">sievert. This is the reality but still, nobody is telling them how to prevent or what exactly will happen to their health. T</span>hey hear nothing from the government or Tepco, no reliable information, he feels the government is not telling them enough. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Arial New', 'MS P ゴシック', sans-serif;">My question to him was, of course: <i>"Did you ever consider to leave your hometown?"</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Arial New', 'MS P ゴシック', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Arial New', 'MS P ゴシック', sans-serif;">He answered to us: <i>"Well, I am scared about this whole situation but I can not just leave. My family owns the kindergarten where the parents of these kids rely on. Some are doctors and nurses, some are </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Arial New', 'MS P ゴシック', sans-serif;"><i>member of the Self-Defense Forces. People need them and they need us. If I was there just alone, it would be easy, I would have left already."</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Arial New', 'MS P ゴシック', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Arial New', 'MS P ゴシック', sans-serif;">This shows Japanese mentality and attitude which they should be very proud of: </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Arial New', 'MS P ゴシック', sans-serif;">Many of them care for others very much. They are brave and responsible for their families and community. I can not imagine any other country would be that strong (but to be fair, it is a unique situation and I hope that it will stay unique forever.)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Arial New', 'MS P ゴシック', sans-serif;">Although, any other nations and governments might have reacted complete different to the situation, starting from evacuating further areas... but t</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Arial New', 'MS P ゴシック', sans-serif;">oday I do not want to put the emphasis of this post on arguing on the Japanese governmental decision of the evacuation radius, but praise the Japanese gracious attitude and caring nature.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Arial New', 'MS P ゴシック', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Arial New', 'MS P ゴシック', sans-serif;">People there still have to live, they have to go to work to live their lives. Who would help them if they leave their city and go to else where... Government subsidy is only for people who lived in 30km evacuated zone.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Arial New', 'MS P ゴシック', sans-serif;"><b>What would you do? Suffer your own health and live like it is or suffer your own home and leave your family, friends and community behind? </b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I want to end this post with an outlook on our project. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yusuke was very happy with our idea and engagement. He will help in Fukushima to identify the right schools and the right needs (what we should put into the cones). He said, that many kids from the evacuation zones are in schools all over Fukushima now and the schools are packed with kids, many don't have enough and schools are short of stationaries etc. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yusuke thinks that many schools will be interested in receiving these school cones. Now he is looking forward to seeing many happy faces which he believes school cones will bring.</div></div>School Cones for Japanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110355381837044613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584269641630004173.post-74459955275170078722011-04-17T00:53:00.000+09:002011-04-17T00:53:03.304+09:001015 Earthquakes (since 11th of March)Today I like to address a topic, which many of you asked me before: how safe do you feel in Tokyo? I would like to address the issues with the earthquakes today and tomorrow I will talk more about the radiation fear.<br />
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To start with: You will never be safe when we talk about earthquakes in Japan, but this is what you accept when you live here.<br />
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I believe that there is no other country which is so well prepared as Japan and all the buildings seem to be very stable and well designed for quakes. Of course, we are always scared when we feel an earthquake, but I think this is normal as you never know if it will get stronger and how long your building is shaking now. Just imagine you sit in a boat with no windows and someone tells you it will be rough sea. Everything is swaying and you never know how long more and if the next wave gets higher. This is a bit how we feel. Well, the only difference is that a building is usually stable and you do not expect to be on a boat from one to the other minute.<br />
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A colleague of mine told me yesterday that there is a prediction for a 9.4 magnitude quake directly in or very nearby Tokyo. Of course then there will be a lot of damage, injuries & death, but as I mentioned, you need to accept this risk when you start living in Japan and therefore nobody will run away because of a prediction, which is anyhow speculated for many years already.<br />
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At the moment the amount and strength of earthquakes are decreasing and I hope that this will continue to decrease. Not necessarily for me, but especially for the people in the North of Japan who suffered enough.<br />
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Here is a link about the 1015 earthquakes which happened since the 11th of March:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwwgJkZ-AFnq59SfWkgXxWN65d-SRtPDzqBovDEavtpNuMA-hxsbVLK1o3dR_FHxx-HN6hX8mGAcsFfx_THV_l22fGFz11IxDPs4_pb8PmDSFPBRregP4WzTZxQ5Qbec0wpxzBIYJhsxWi/s1600/Japan+Quake+Map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwwgJkZ-AFnq59SfWkgXxWN65d-SRtPDzqBovDEavtpNuMA-hxsbVLK1o3dR_FHxx-HN6hX8mGAcsFfx_THV_l22fGFz11IxDPs4_pb8PmDSFPBRregP4WzTZxQ5Qbec0wpxzBIYJhsxWi/s400/Japan+Quake+Map.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
http://www.japanquakemap.com/<br />
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What is quite scary for me, is the fact that almost all earthquakes hit in the same/similar area and this is also causing the drowsiness of the people in that area. I read today that some people imagine that there are quake 24/7 now, just because the earth did shake so often.<br />
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So let's hope and pray for these people that we will be able to look into a brighter and more peaceful future for this region and Japan.School Cones for Japanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110355381837044613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584269641630004173.post-44443624743286965412011-04-14T22:46:00.000+09:002011-04-14T22:46:52.224+09:00Cherry Blossom in Japan/ Kirschbluete in Japan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6zx9if7V4WOl5DJn7SrK47W6GJEtL8ptuBVNSMvsjOVeEI7cUnSECBawqmiRiHty4e_hQPVtByoRfhyn9th8r8Osae-ggdHtW06gVOrezWbdVNGwCcdJbnYUm2o3WuDT0mc82IhXq7sXm/s1600/IMG_0708.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6zx9if7V4WOl5DJn7SrK47W6GJEtL8ptuBVNSMvsjOVeEI7cUnSECBawqmiRiHty4e_hQPVtByoRfhyn9th8r8Osae-ggdHtW06gVOrezWbdVNGwCcdJbnYUm2o3WuDT0mc82IhXq7sXm/s320/IMG_0708.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">Im Augenblick ist Sakura - Kirschbluetenzeit: Mehr als jemals zuvor steht die Kirschbluete fuer die Hoffnung und den Aufbrauch in eine neue Zeit in Japan. Fruehling und damit eine neue Jahreszeit!</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Spring Time is Sakura Time in Japan: More than ever before, the Cherryblossom stands for hope of Japan and the start of something new! Gambatte Nippon! </div>School Cones for Japanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110355381837044613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584269641630004173.post-8686937980995135212011-04-14T22:41:00.000+09:002011-04-14T22:41:09.959+09:00Media in Japan (during these difficult times)Hello Everybody,<br />
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today I read the following in an International magazine: Two Extremes: Foreign "Sensationalism" and the more measured, even censorious, coverage by local Journalists<br />
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I like it very much as it explains exactly how I felt during the difficult times of the last weeks in Japan.<br />
On one side I thought it is irresponsible how the international media is slaughtering the topics and use people's agony for propaganda in their own countries. And for this I have to praise the Japanese media, as they kept their duty to help the people in the country with fact-based reporting. NHK in Japan did report almost adjective-free in order not to create more fear than there was already. "Domestic media has a responsibility to report the news and important developments, but I think it also has a duty to avoid public panic" stated Martyn Williams in that article. What do you think, how would CNN reacted if it would have happened in USA or "Bild" if it happened in Germany? Would they have acted responsible as well? I honestly doubt it and therefore I like to praise the Japanese Media for this.<br />
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On the other hand I must say that the Japanese media did not question anything. They were informative and it seemed well prepared for each development during the day, but at the same time they never criticized anything (e.g. when TEPCO did the "10 million mistake" or the Government corrected TEPCO in a few cases). This is something what made me worried a bit...<br />
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At the end I am happy that I could mix the two media sources and find the middle way, which I think is always the best in life: find a good balance.<br />
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Please do not be too hard on the Japanese media as they dealt with the worst catastrophe after WW2 in a calm and professional way. They reported based on facts and not speculation, and this is the nature of this culture. Of course not everything is good, but at the end I prefer an objective analysis over exaggeration.<br />
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(The mentioned Article is from EuroBIZ Magazine, April 2011)School Cones for Japanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110355381837044613noreply@blogger.com0