A Trip to Nagano

Between school, my internship, and other responsibilities, I havent had any free time to compile a post in while.  Tonight I will get started on another one.

The valley located in the mountain range of Nagano where Nanori Farm is located.  Absolutely beautiful.

Two days ago I visited Nagano with the children from Fukushima Aiikuen and Doug Erber, president of the Japan America Society of Southern California. There, Doug and I were able to join the kids on their visit to a farm where they enjoyed two incredible days in the pristine countryside of Japan. In Nagano, the children from Fukushima Aiikuen were able to run around, hunt for bugs, harvest rice, roll around and tackle each other in the dirt, and do everything else that children their age would want to do. All of these things are activities that are extremely dangerous in their home at Fukushima Aiikuen due to lingering radiation contamination blanketing the region. For two days these children got to be themselves and have the time of their lives.

Doug and I both agreed, this trip was something that we will remember for the rest of our lives. 

I met Doug at Tokyo Station and we boarded our 9:20am train to Nagoya Station. 

As with my trip to Fukushima, Doug Erber invited me to join him on his travels here in Japan and Tina Tajima generously covered my bullet train expenses.  Both of these people have provided me with incredible opportunities during my stay in Japan.

Quite the change in scenery from Tokyo.

After arriving in Nagano Doug and I met with staff from Naori Farm, our destination in Nagano.

Nagano was a past host to the Winter Olympics, and supports the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

A one hour drive up into the mountains of Nagano to the village where Naori Farm is.

Stunning valleys like this were a common sight as we drove up the mountain roads.

There were also many small rice farms.  Here is harvested rice drying in the sun.

Here is the valley where Naori Farm is.  Absolutely stunning. 

As we arrived at the farm we were greeted by the children of Fukushima Aiikuen and the staff members of Naori Farm!

Our lodging that Naori Farm provided us during our stay.  

After greeting the children, Doug and I joined them for lunch.  (Again I cannot post pictures where these children's faces are clearly visible due to privacy reasons.)

A deck connected to the house where you could see an endless expanse of forest.

Offerings to spirits?

Boots for rice harvesting with the kids.

There were also some college students here to volunteer at the farm.  They are all students who intend to enter a career as teachers and work at the farm with kids to get experience with children.  (The guy with the camera is a reporter doing a story on the kids for the local paper.)

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The kids were so wild that they pretty much flew around like this girl.

A short walk to the rice paddies. 

The rice paddy was drained and ready for harvest!

I guess it was ok to give a bunch of kids these. 

There were many bugs hiding in the rice plants as we harvested.  These girls were not at all afraid of them. 

Not at all... 

Hiro and his wife.  A couple who moved from Tokyo to live a more relaxed life in the mountains of Nagano.

Some of the kids started having a mud fight. One boy walked up to a staff member of Fukushima Aiikuen and rubbed a mud ball into her hands.  

During our harvest we could see the Japanese Alps in the distance.

Lots of cats around.

For dinner, a BBQ hosted by Naori Farm and some of the neighbors in the village.

Freshly baked salmon caught hours ago.

The staff members of Fukushima Aiikuen aim to act as parental figures for the orphans.  In my time during my trip, I was very happy to see that they fulfill this role very well.

Eating dinner with everyone was amazing, the delegation from Fukushima Aiikuen was like a big family that Doug and I were able to be a part of. 

The neighbors in the village even sang songs and performed skits for the kids.

Doug and I were also asked to sing on the spot!

We (horribly) sang Old McDonald.

At night, every single star in the sky was visible.  

We woke up at 6 am to see a clear view of the Japanese Alps with the kids.

We then saw how somen is made and enjoyed a lunch of the finished product. 

After lunch we enjoyed an amazing taiko performance by Hiro and his wife!  The drum beats echoed through the valley and bounced back when they hit the forest behind us.  

After bidding farewell to the children and staff from Fukushima Aiikuen, Doug and I enjoyed tea and snacks with the college students, staff, and neighbors on a balcony overlooking the valley.

We then visited a forest where a temple was located.

Behind the temple there was a small pond with a shine that you walk out into to make a prayer.

The water may as well have been frozen.

When it was time for us to return to Tokyo, we were sent off with a very unusual farewell.

They sprinted after our us as we drove away shouting and waving us goodbye!

They do this to express what a pleasure our time together has been by sprinting until they are absolutely spent.  I was able to do this when we said goodbye to the kids from Fukushima Aiikuen, it is actually a lot of fun and a good way to overcome a sad goodbye.

My experiences in Nagano are something that I will remember for the rest of my life.   It was an honor.

Internship at Bingham McCutchen

Today I began an internship at Bingham Mccutchen, an international law firm.  I will be interning here every Tuesday and Thursday potentially for the rest of my year here in Japan.

The office is located in Kamiyacho, a business sector of Tokyo.  I will be working on legally related research here in addition to doing work for some of the attorneys in this office. 

I have always considered becoming a lawyer in the future and I greatly value this opportunity to get a taste of what the field of law is actually like.  I look forward to working here and believe this internship will teach me many skills that will become invaluable in my future career goals.

However, I must admit that this internship intimidates me.  The Bingham office is very fast paced and foreign to me.  I felt overwhelmed by all of the new information that was presented to me as we toured the office and was told about the research they wanted me to do.  Hopefully things will become more streamlined once I get the swing of things.

  My year here in Tokyo has just gotten a lot more busy!

This post may be referenced to for a newsletter by Japan ICU Foundation, so some of this post has text from previous posts.

A few months ago I had the privilege of interning with the Japan America Society of Southern California (JAS) and was fortunate enough to have been a part of an exchange program that brought 8 children from a children's home called Fukushima Aiikuen to California for an unforgettable 10 day exchange program.  

Fukushima Aiikuen is located just outside of the no-entry zone in Fukushima, and its children live under the enormous pressure both from the dangers of radioactive contamination that persists within the region, as well as the discrimination and hardships that all orphans face in Japanese society. For these reasons, I am unable to release any photos of the children due to privacy concerns.  

The exchange program that brought these children over was created for the purpose of granting some of these children a chance to live away from the worries they face in Fukushima for a life-changing experience in America.  During these two weeks, these children were treat as VIPs as they were able to take part in activities such as a visit to the Los Angelos Sheriffs Department to meet Sheriff Lee Baca and see a live helicopter drill by the SWAT team.  Through this tour JAS hopes to help these children see something greater than what they are restricted to as orphans in Fukushima and encourage them to aspire to goals such as pursuing a college degree. This program also seeks to inspire orphans who were not selected for this tour to achieve try harder in school since students with the highest English grades are chosen for this yearly program.

On October 2nd, I and Doug Erber, president of the Japan America Society of Southern California traveled to Fukushima Aiikuen to meet with the children that visited California to debrief with them on their experiences and to receive their feedback to see how we can improve upon future tours.  I was very impressed with the kindness that Fuushima Aiikuen showed us during our visit.  Staff members picked us up from Fukushima city and drove us an hour to the Fukushima Aiikuen located in the mountains.  We then were greeted by the director of the facility and were reunited with the children that went on the exchange program for dinner. I also had the opportunity to share a video of the exchange program with the staff and children of the home to excite them about future tours!

A picture of myself with Yoshi Endo, the chaperone of the delegation. He is an amazingly kind-hearted man who despite being a father of 4, still dedicates his his life to being a father figure for the children of Fukushima Aiikuen. He was the absolute perfect chaperone for the delegation.

However not all aspects of this visit were so joyful. In Fukushima city I learned of the extent and dangers that the people in Fukushima Prefecture live under due to the persisting threat of radioactive particles that blanketed the region following the March 11th disasters.  Fukushima Aiikuen in particular, lies in an area where contamination levels exceed safety standards and as a result it's children are forced to stay indoors and must limit their outside exposure to below 2 hours a day.  

The approximate location of Fukushima Aiikuen.  The yellow and green boxes depict areas with unsafe levels of radioactivity.

Doug and I sat in the director's office where we learned that the radioactive particles that emit gamma radiation can be washed off surfaces and concentrate at points where radioactive activity can reach life-threatening levels.  

Doug Erber, president of Japan America Society of Southern California and the director of Fukushima Aiikuen.

Just recently, a highly radioactive pile of leaves were discovered on the grounds of the playground that occured due to this phenomena.

A photograph of the hotspot located on the premises of Fukushima Aiikuen.

Hotspots such as these still linger in and around the orphanage and are a threat that the staff members of Fukushima Aiikuen must prevent from reaching the children.  It was difficult for me to see leaves, dirt, and sand as sources of danger that could be extremely harmful were I to interact with them. The threat of radiativity was so foreign to me, even as a college student I had to constantly remind myself of the invisible threat around me. 

A diagram depicting how radioactive particles can be washed off of surfaces and concentrated at certain points.

When I tell people about the radiation contamination that exists Fukushima Aiikuen, I am often asked "why dont they just move these children to a new home?"  The reasons for this is that it is simply economically impossible for this home to pack up and abandon its facility that supports over 150 children and its corresponding staff.  The facility is huge and seems to me like an ideal children's home.  It is an incredible shame that it may need to need to be replaced in the future.

Meeting the students on the exchange program in America and again in their own home in Fukushima has opened my eyes up to the larger world that exists beyond the comfortable and supported life I live. The children and staff of Fukushima Aiikuen have live very difficult lives under their current conditions, yet they are among the most respectful and motivated people I have ever met.  In America they were always sure to show their respect and gratitude and in Fukushima they treated us as guests of honor as their way of returning the favor for their time spent in America.

Preview of my trip to Fukushima

Today I travelled to 3 children's homes in Fukushima with Japan America Society. We visited these homes to discuss grants for various projects such as a cement wall to prevent rain from washing radioactive sediments down a hill and into a playground. Among these homes I also was able to visit Fukushima Aiikuen and got to enjoy dinner with the delegation of students who took part in the 10 day exchange program that I took part in during the summer!

This is Yoshi Endo, the chaperone of the delegation. He is an amazingly kind-hearted man who despite being a father of 4, still dedicates his life to being a father figure for the children of Fukushima Aiikuen. He was the absolute perfect chaperone for the delegation.