Living & Working in Ishikawa, Japan
The Senmaida (1000 rice fields) Light Up is brightening up Wajima on October 13th (Saturday) this year.
Senmaida lit up at night.
Senmaida is a designated national cultural asset, and is lit up with 30,000 candles every year after the rice cutting. If you’re interested in volunteering to place all those candles, now’s your chance!
Every year, JETs from around Ishikawa volunteer as one of Senmaida’s akaribito–light people–to place and light candles in the rice fields. This year, 350 volunteers are needed, and each will receive a special gift (a tote bag and face towel are shown on the website) as well as something to drink, for their work. The sign up sheets for volunteering can be found here: http://semmaida.kuronowish.com/senakari/tomoshi.html
Transport to Wajima Michi-no-eki is usually organised amongst volunteering JETs (carpools), or you can make use of the Noto Furusato Ticket for trains as far as Anamizu. For more information on the bus bus from Anamizu to Wajima michi-no-eki here. You could also take a bus to Wajima.
Free shuttle buses to Senmadia will be available from the following locations to transport volunteers: Wajima Michi-no-eki, Wajima Marine Town (14:20), Nafunegyokou (14:35), Sosogi Furusato Taikenjisshukan and Najimi-kaizen centre (14:20).
14:20 – Free shuttle bus for volunteers starts operating
14:50 – All volunteers meet at Senmaida Pocket Park
15:00 – Activity explanation and separation of volunteers into groups
15:20 – Start placing candles
16:30 – short break (each volunteer is given something to drink). The remaining candles etc will be collected, and the volunteers must each take the tools for lighting the candles
16:50 – start lighting candles
17:30 – finish lighting candles, event starts
17:50 – volunteers create a circle with flashlights
17:00 – UNESCO sites in the Oku-Noto
17:30 - Wajima Wadaiko-toranosuke (wadaiko drum performance)
17:50 – Opening ceremony; volunteers create circle of light
18:30 – Ishikawa-ken Intangible Cultural Asset; Gojinjodaiko taiko drumming
19:10 – Quintet CIRC
19:50 – Yanawaraba mini concert
21:00 – End of event; shuttle buses back to Wajima Michi-no-eki and other designated shuttle bus spots.
Note: For non-volunteers, the shuttle bus is ¥200, and starts operating from 16:00.
Senmaida is truly a beautiful sight, so if you can go or missed out last year, I highly recommend it! 
If you have the voice of an angel, or even if you can’t hold a tune to save your life, come share the holiday spirit with Kanazawa’s many denizens and tourists. Ishikawa AJET is sponsoring charity caroling at the Kanazawa Station East Exit–under the huge torii gate–from 4:30 p.m.–6:00 p.m. on Sunday, December 18. Proceeds will benefit Onagawa, a tsunami-struck town for which Ishikawa JETs have already raised funds and volunteered.
Invite your non-JET friends, co-workers and students to hear some singing (and donate to charity). Everyone is welcome! If you’re interested in singing, don’t forget to contact Kathleen Robertson so there are enough lyric packets to go around.
Joanna Clark is a second year ALT in Kahoku City who will be singing her face off at Kanazawa Station on Sunday.
If you’re filled to the brim with holiday spirit and are looking for an outlet, Mayumi Hoshi, Professor Emeritus of Chuo University, has started a campaign to write holiday greetings to the approximately 400 children and volunteers living in temporary housing in Shichigahama Town in Miyagi Prefecture. She’s soliciting cards from all over the world, so even if you can’t write a greeting in Japanese, the thought will be appreciated by the kids who are experiencing their first holiday season in the tough post-tsunami conditions.
Cards are being accepted with no apparent deadline at the following address:
c/o Mrs. Mayumi Hoshi
Shichigahama-cho Saigai-Volunteer Center
Noyama 5-9, Yoshidahama
Shichigahama-cho, Miyagi
〒985-0802 JAPAN
ATTN: Boys and Girls
〒985-0802
宮城県 七ヶ浜町吉田浜 字野山5‐9
七ヶ浜町 災害ボランティアセンター
星真由美様 宛
少年少女達へ
For more information, check out the JET AA post on their website, http://www.jetaausa.com/2011/11/18/xmas-cards-for-tohoku-kids/.
Joanna Clark is a second-year ALT in Kahoku City. She plans to spread holiday cheer with Christmas cards and nengajō.
Check out the following information from Shimane JET about ways to support their fundraiser benefitting the Japanese Red Cross and Tohoku Kids Project:
Hello!
The JETs of Shimane-ken (in southern Honshu) have organised a large-scale fundraiser in aid of Tohoku, and we’re looking for support. Next Sunday we will climb our highest mountain, Mt. Sanbe, in a display of support from the ALT/CIR community living in Japan. We’re hoping to have 200 people, foreign and Japanese, come together to take part. We’ve also invited the local media, and we plan to have a photo op at the summit with banners of encouragement and flags from our countries.
Together with this message we are also raising money for the Japanese Red Cross and the Tohoku Kids Project. Our goal is to raise $10,000 USD from personal donations and online sponsorship from friends and family at home. All expenses for the event (such as insurance, buses, etc) are being covered by SAJET with help from National AJET, so 100% of the money raised will be given to these charities.
Since we launched 2 weeks ago, we have made good progress and brought in over $3,000 in international donations. Now, with just under a week to go, we’re looking to the wider JET community for help and support. If you could advertise our event website on Facebook or by email, we would really appreciate it. If you want to donate directly and securely via Paypal, please use the links at the end of this email.
We know that many people have already given large amounts to various charities since the disaster, but if you have 1000 or 2000 yen to spare, every little bit helps with giving our message a big impact.
Please check out our website for all the details: www.sanbehike.com
よろしくおねがいします！
Shimane AJET
This guest post is by Jeff Shieh, the CIR in Uchinada.
Acacia Romantic Festival Flyer (pdf)
Uchinada Town is holding its annual Acacia Romantic Festival on Sunday, May 15, 2011. Every year, there is a flea market and local performances. This year, in light of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake, they have made this into a charity event, where a portion of the proceeds from the flea market will go to relief funds.
AJET has never participated in this festival before, but this year, we would like to run a small booth. For that, we need volunteers to help out!
Here are the details:
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100% of the proceeds from 2:46 – Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake will be donated to the Japan Red Cross. The Kindle e-book is available for purchase at the US and UK Amazons. If you do not have a Kindle, you can download a FREE Kindle app for your Mac, PC, or smart phone with your purchase.
The 2:46 Quakebook project started with a tweet and is on the verge of something great, a way that we can help all those hit by the the March 11th, 2011 earthquake and its aftermath.
Led by OurManInAbiko, a call went out across Twitter for contributors to create a book to raise funds for Red Cross Japan. The idea was to share the stories and experiences of people actually on the ground during the earthquake, whilst raising funds for the Red Cross.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been affected by this event; from those directly in the earthquake zone, the path of the tsunami, in the evacuation area around the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, to those in many other areas of Japan, whose lives have been disrupted by rolling power blackouts, poor road conditions, food and water supply difficulties, and more.
The contributions in 2:46 Quakebook have come from a wide variety of sources, and include photographs, personal accounts, drawings; each telling their own tale.
All revenues from sales of the book goes directly to Red Cross, Japan. We urge you to buy the book, buy a copy as a gift, promote it, share it, tweet about it, review it, blog about it, link to it, etc.
The tale of the evolution of QuakeBook can be found under the hashtag #quakebook on Twitter.
This information comes to us from Rohan, CIR PA.
If you are interested in registering yourself as a ‘disaster relief volunteer’ through Ishikawa Prefecture, you can do so by sending your information to npo[AT]pref[DOT]ishikawa[DOT]lg[DOT]jp OR fax it to 076-225-1363.
Your information must include the following details:
Your name, address, telephone number and the duration in which you can help with the aid & relief efforts. Please make a mention of your Japanese language level, too.
Please remember that the situation in the affected areas is still far from normal and it will be some time before the local administration or NPOs start accepting volunteers from outside. You may not get a chance to volunteer in spite of your registration, as volunteers will be selected based on the requirements of the affected areas.
You can find the updated information on: http://www.pref.ishikawa.lg.jp/kenmin/saigai/vol.html
Reposted from NAJET:
For Ishikawa please visit: http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/29984502
Been wondering what all the facebook statuses were about? Ready to find out what 5toSurvive is really about?
5toSurvive is an International walking/running event organised by Tom Cole, and English teacher in Ishikawa. Please see his message below to see how you can get involved, or even organise your own event!
As someone who lives in Japan, I have been both shocked at the destruction caused by the earthquake and tsunami, and amazed at how people are coming together to help those in need. Watching these events unfold, I’ve had one continuous thought on my mind, ‘How can I help?’. And when I sat down to think about what I could do, I turned to what I know best: running.
As a keen runner from a young age, I have entered many races and seen what charity runs can do. Each year the London marathon raises millions for charities, and now its our turn to make a difference for Japan.
So…here’s your chance. On Sunday, April 10th, at 3:11pm I am challenging myself to run 5toSurvive — 5kms to benefit earthquake/tsunami relief — and I’m asking all of you to join me. This is an event created for everyone, no matter who or where you are, to join forces and help.
If you’re a serious runner then go for it, if you’re not then have fun! Invite some friends, put on a costume, and walk the distance with a bucket for donations along the way. The great thing is you can decide the details of your event, but you’ll be doing it with others from around the world.
The idea is to run or walk 5km and raise money by doing it. Trust me, this really is where you can make a difference. There are 47 prefectures in Japan. If one person can raise 10,000 yen per prefecture, it will be 470,000 yen. Imagine what a group of 5 or 10 of you can do! (And now imagine runs in New York, London, Toronto, LA and you see what we are going to achieve!)
It’s easy to raise money — just join the 5toSurvive team on justgiving.com and your friends and family can easily donate to GlobalGiving’s earthquake relief efforts. Here’s how you get started in a few easy steps:
STEP 1:
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Many thanks to our crack team of JETs who have been working tirelessly to get this information out: Julia Caffrey, ALT; Sophie Bocklandt, CIR; Megan Lam, AJET Charity Rep & ALT; and Bill Smith, PA. 誠にありがとうございます!
Below is a list of locations accepting donations of goods; includes restrictions and maps.
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Thanks to Megan Lam and Julia C. for the information!
From the Komatsu City Website:
Between March 17-22 from 9:00-17:00, you can donate goods (see list below) at
Donations are LIMITED TO the following items (must be new and unopened):
These items will be delivered by the Red Cross.
From Meiry Komesu, CIR:
If you cannot go to the places above, bring these goods (ONLY BRAND NEW ones) to KIA (Kodera-machi Otsu 80, 1/ 5 min from Komatsu station).
AOS BRASILEIROS: pdf
Inquiries:
市民福祉部 ふれあい福祉課
Komatsu Welfare Division, Welfare Office
Tel. 0761-24-8052
Fax 0761-23-0294
Upcoming Events
