一般財団法人　連帯　東北・西南　RENTAI　TOHOKU-SEINAN

On Tuesday, May 21st, we provided Tomodachi Curry® at Hiraizumi Town Hall in Nishi-iwai County, Iwate Prefecture free of charge to encourage the staff.

Mr. Sugawara, the mayor of Hiraizumi, started supporting Rikuzentakata soon after the earthquake in cooperation with the cities Ichinoseki and Fujisawa by setting up a joint support headquarters and providing vehicles, large quantities of water and food, manpower, and accepting evacuees. He was very supportive of our cause for the activities when we provided the curry to the staff at Rikuzentakata City Hall in April, and helped us at the venue from before noon in between his official duties.

In addition to the support activities in the coastal area after the earthquake, the staff at Hiraizumi Town Hall went through a lot and put great effort toward the World Heritage registration of Chuson-ji. With our relationship with Mayor Sugawara going back to the early days of our activities, we decided to provide Tomodachi Curry® free of charge to the mayor and all his staff to show our appreciation.

After finishing the curry event in Kesennuma in the afternoon the day before, we did our preparation at Minami Exchange Center to minimize the work to be done at the venue. Ms. Lee, who used to manage a restaurant in Roppongi joined us from Tokyo and helped us, and thanks to her efficient assistance we were able to finish the preparation in a relatively short period of time.

As with the staff at Kesennuma Social Welfare Council, it was good to know that the everyone at the Town Hall were also looking forward to the event. They greeted us with a big tent so that we could hold the event even in rain, and also with a lot of chairs and tables so that everyone could eat together.

We began our preparation as soon as we arrived at the venue, and by the time we started adding the spices, the Town Hall staff came one after another to see how we were doing, intrigued by the smell of the spice. Some of them even lent us a hand with the cooking and was a great help. In fact, the mayor Mr. Sugawara also came to see us a few times and was checking the process of the preparation.

Mr. Isao Aoki, the president of Yugen Kaisha Aoki Shoji, lent us a professional-use teppan-yaki frying griddle for baking naan to speed up the preparation. As with the day before, Mr. Aoki himself brought the griddle and helped us prepare them. In addition, Mr. Baba also came with his staff to help us, so the preparation went smoothly. Mr. Baba is the president of Baba Shoten Kabushiki Kaisha and is the tenant in the factory owned by Mr. Aoki.

From 12 noon, we started serving the curry on everyone's plates. In addition to the usual members from Senmaya and Fujisawa, Father Takahashi from Mizusawa Church also joined us in serving the curry. The weather was nice and warm, and everyone had a good time having a good talk and enjoying the curry under the tent. The curry this time was for adults so we made it spicier than usual, and it was very well received. It seems someone even had three servings.

As the event was held in Hiraizumi Town Hall, the priests from the nearby Chuson-ji and Motsu-ji also joined us and enjoyed Tomodachi Curry®.

After dinner, we served chai made using fresh milk, provided by a dairy farmer in Senmaya. The event usually ends here, but this time, Ms. Lee who joined us from Tokyo proposed to serve one of the Korean dishes, Chijimi (Korean pancake), to the staff and others who helped us. It was meant to be what we call a "makanai", a meal just for the kitchen staff. However, as Ms. Lee came from Korea, her Chijimi was so professionally made everyone loved it, so we made them to go as snacks for the staff at the Town Hall.

After the curry event at Hiraizumi Town Hall, our Representative Director, Yasuhiko Sata appeared as a guest on a radio talk show "Asumo Sagozai" in the program "Nanohana Radio" (14:35-15:00) broadcasted in Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture and a part of Hiraizumi by FM Asmo. At the end of the talk, Sata announced the ILC (International Linear Collider) Invitation Support Walk (approx. 10 km from the entrance of Konjikido Golden Hall of Chuson-ji to Ichinoseki city center) to be held on June 1st and asked the listeners to participate in the event.

The event was reported in the Iwate Nichi-Nichi Shimbun.

Article in the Iwate Nichi-Nichi Shimbun dated May 23^rd, 2013

On Monday, May 20th, we provided Tomodachi Curry® at Kesennuma Social Welfare Council of Miyagi Prefecture free of charge to encourage the staff and volunteers.

Our Foundation has been cooperating with Kesennuma Social Welfare Council since we began our activities, and we have lent out three four-wheel-drive cars soon after the earthquake as a means of transport for the volunteers to go to the affected areas. We have also been exchanging information on temporary housing areas where the communication among the residents has become less active, trying to determine where to hold the curry events. Many of the staff and volunteers at the Council are themselves victims of the disaster, but are working hard toward recovery. We prepared and held this curry event to thank them for their efforts and also to encourage them.

This will be the third time to provide Tomodachi Curry® at a public institution following the event at Rikuzentakata City Hall held last month in April. We were glad to know that everyone at Kesennuma Social Welfare Council looked forward to the event. They greeted us and even prepared a big tent so that we could hold the event even in rain.

As always, we made preparations the day before to minimize the work at the venue. It was done with the kind help from the local residents at Senmaya at Minami Exchange Center, also in Senmaya, where we are kindly provided with the use of the facility every time. As Mr. Onodera, the president of the Rotary Club in Senmaya, could not participate in the event, he generously offered 20 kg of poultry free of charge. In addition, Mr. Sato who owns a dairy farm provided fresh milk, also free of charge. On the day of the event, the curry was prepared and was ready in time with the assistance from the volunteer staff.

Ms. Lee joined us from Tokyo and helped us prepare from the day before as she understood and agreed with our cause for these activities. She has been interested in volunteering, and has also joined the activities providing food in Sanya, Tokyo. It was impressive to see her work efficiently, as she used to manage a restaurant in Roppongi.

Mr. Isao Aoki, the president of Yugen Kaisha Aoki Shoji, lent us a professional-use teppan-yaki frying griddle for baking naan to speed up the preparation. This time, Mr. Aoki himself brought the griddle and helped us prepare them.

Everyone enjoyed the curry under the tent, chatting, and had a good time. They also liked the chai very much, which we prepared as an after-dinner drink using the fresh milk provided by Mr. Sato. Some of them even had refills. What we can do may be small, but we hope to cooperate with Kesennuma Social Welfare Council so that their support activities could operate smoothly.