So, this week we went to Tenei-mura, Fukushima-ken. What a beautiful village Tenei is! Mountainous and greenery scenes are all over the place. Tenei-mura is a very peaceful village. The residents were nice and very welcome.
We stayed at ryokan, Japanese style inn. I didn’t expect much, but ryokan was very awesome. Futon, onsen, tatami, and the slippers! I felt like I was Japanese person already. They served us very well and the food was delicious, better than the restaurant’s food.
Next morning, we got our temperature checked. I felt like I was well taken care of. After having breakfast, we went to Tenei Village Office to have a session about safety management on farm products. We watched a video about the farmers struggling to live after Great East Japan Earthquake. They had difficulties in selling their farm products because of the harmful rumors about their farm products being contaminated from the radiation accident. Then, they tried to make their farm products free from contamination of radiation by using zeolite, potassium, and Prussian blue. I was very amazed with their intelligence and hard work. Finally, their efforts got paid. Their farm products are free from radiation, but still it is hard to make people believe it. They still believe in harmful rumors. However, I watched news on television that Fukushima’s farm products will be imported by Thailand. I was about to cry and I truly felt glad.
After having the session of safety management on farm products, we went out to the farm fields and met the great farmer whom we saw on the video. He told us that he filtered the irrigation water with fabric which had been bleached by Prussian blue. Furthermore, we came to another place to pick Iwase cucumbers. Iwase cucumbers were sweet and tasty. They were covered by net in order to protect from radiation, winds, and anything that can make damage. Iwase cucumber grew faster than usual with the help of pumpkin roots. Japanese people are really creative :O
After that, we came back to Tenei Village Office to have lecture about radiation from professor of Keio University. I did not really know about radiation, so I was hard to understand it clearly. Though the real problem for almost participants was language. I will not discuss it further. You already know what I mean.
On the next day, we came to farm fields to sow some seeds and we can harvest them next month. What a great experience! Then, we went to office to check whether the farm products were contaminated from radiation or not. The high technology device to check the radiation was very cool but too much for my blood. It is so expensive :O It turned out that no radiation was found on the farm products. So, the harmful rumor about contamination of radiation is not true.
Then, we inspected the farm market. They sell everything fresh and tasty! We also went to the countryside to visit Yumoto Community. We got to made kakashi and mochi! So much fun. I never thought that making kakashi was that hard -_-“ And for mochi... Oh my God! It was very delicious. I would like to eat more >,< At night, we had party with the residents. We all danced with Japanese traditional moves (but, I’m not sure). That was so exciting. We could follow the steps because it was pretty easy and basic, I guess. So, we all had fun together in Fukushima J
