On Saturday July 1st , 2017, we hosted an event for children who were staying in a children's home in Otomo Town, Rikuzentakata City, Iwate.
Like last year, Mr. Yuichi Murakami, a fisherman of Otomo Town, helped us make preparation for the event,
from planning, arrangements of both the venue and the boat, food procurement and so on.
Although we had a lot of trouble because of the rain last year,
the weather this year was great and all the preparation works went smoothly at the barbecue site.
There was no missing charcoal plate this time. All the appliances for barbecue safely arrived.
The first event was held last year to offer an opportunity for children who lived in a local children's home to experience the fun of fishing.
Mr. Murakami, who did everything to make it happen last year, was very enthusiastic about this year's event.
At ten o'clock in the morning, fifteen children aged from three to eighteen led by six staff members from the children's home arrived at Otomo Harbour and the event started.
Everyone squealed with delight to see ocean-fresh octopuses, scallops and sea squirts landed from Mr. Murakami's fishing boat, Tenyo Maru.
The biggest attraction of all was a huge octopus weighing 25kg.
Not only the children but also the adults including the children's home's staff all happily exclaimed.
As we had heard that the children had been looking forward to fishing, our fishing-savvy staff members brought along some rigs with them.
The tools turned out to be wonderfully useful. This year, the kids were able to catch a lot more fish than last year thanks to those special instruments,
and were so completely absorbed that they even almost forgot lunch.
(When they caught small fish, the fishermen told the children to release them back to the sea for sustainability.）
While the children had great fun catching fish, some local fishermen and the foundation staff were working to fix lunch.
We had three barbecue tables ready this time so that we could grill meat, vegetables and seafood separately on each table.
Mr. Murakami skilfully made scallop sashimi, looking particularly an authentic man of sea.
The barbecue site was soon filled with mouth-watering flavour and the lunch started at last. Little children sat on the ground and ate minding their manners.
After the meal, a young woman volunteered to sing popular songs from anime shows to entertain children.
Although they were sitting quietly and simply listening to songs at first, as they felt relaxed, everyone stood up and got perky.
We are very grateful for the singer's wonderful hospitality.
At the end of the perfect day, what awaited the children was the bay cruise on Mr. Murakami's boat which they had been so looking forward to.
As the capacity of the boat was limited, the children split into two groups and enjoyed the 20-minute cruise.
Some kids held on to the must at the bow and pretended to be fishermen hunting for fish.
Although our contributions are small in scale, Rentai Tohoku and Seinan is going to continue various activities with help from our local supporters in order to encourage those who suffered from the earthquake in Tohoku to become self-reliant.
