2024.03.27 10:43
13 years after the Great East Japan Earthquake at Senmaya International Club
On Monday, March 11, 2024, at 6:00 p.m., we invited 30 of our closest friends to a dinner party at our base camp, Senmaya International Club, to commemorate the 13th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
The menu for the dinner was prepared mainly by Mr. Lee, the former head chef of an authentic Chinese restaurant (in a certain hotel) and a long-time supporter of our activities. In addition, Mr. Merabi (https://www.persian.co.jp/), a close friend of ours, is good at Iranian cuisine and helped Mr. Lee immensely.
Mr. Melabi, who had prepared the food in advance at his home in Tokyo, and allowed us to ride in his car with him, helped us a lot with everything from preparation to cooking. Thank you, Mr. Melabi and Mr. Lee!
The menu began with Chinese appetizers, followed by a delicious hydroponic tomato salad provided by Mr. Takeyama, and then the main course of authentic spicy mapo tofu, followed by kebabs grilled by Mr. Merabi using an iron skewer, and we all enjoyed the savory dishes cooked on a charcoal fire.
Handmade sweets (Ms. Nagasawa), yuzu mochi (Ms. Takahashi), steamed buns (Ms. Yonezawa), apple juice (Ms. Ogata), and other after-dinner desserts were provided by everyone.
The participants, mostly from Senmaya-cho and Fujisawa-cho in Ichinoseki City, Iwate Prefecture, but also from Ishinomaki City and Kurihara City in Miyagi Prefecture and Rikuzentakata City in Iwate Prefecture, shared their thoughts and updates on the time of the disaster and what has happened since then.
When we hear the stories of people who lost their beloved families in the tsunami and have risen from the ashes, I am deeply moved by their courage and respect for their efforts. We have no experience in disaster relief, so we have been working on support activities in whatever way we can, but the greatest achievement and joy has been the strong sense of solidarity and friendship we have developed with the local people through our activities in an old house in Senmaya-cho, Ichinoseki City, Iwate Prefecture, which we acquired and set up as our base of operations and which we have named Senmaya International Club. We are very happy to have been able to experience this.
We changed the name of our organization from "RENTAI-TOHOKU" to "RENTAI TOHOKU-SEINAN" to express our belief that Tohoku, which has been receiving support, should one day extend a helping hand to other disaster areas as well. What can Tohoku do for the victims of the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake?
Categories：Staff reports
2024.03.27 10:43 admin
