The map below charts the worldview of the Paper Cranes for Japan Challenge - click through to read updates from each of these cities and villages to see how the cranes have inspired communities to rebuild.
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Preparations
A couple weeks' preflight orient Karl and readers to Ishinomaki, broad strokes of Japanese culture, and a bit of what to expect when you're there.Japanese Preparations - A five-part series on arrangements for travel in Tohoku - by the tallest, whitest dude Miyagi has ever seen. Probably.
Cribs & Gaijin Pass - Basic logistics and foreigner allowances
It's All Chinese to Me - If you look closely at Japanese characters you'll notice that some are much simpler than others
Gathering No Moss - Yurukyara: Ishi Pyon, Ebiña, Mikku Jagaa and you
[Re]Setting the Course - guest blog by Hiromi
I Love Ishinomaki: Travel Guide for you and Karl - guest blog by Hiromi
Think Outside the Frame - guest blog by Hiromi
Final Prep, and Charretttes - A list of things to pack
A Very Long Day... - Japan defies expectation and explanation within hours of my being there.
...In Japan - "Japan is extraordinary..." Observations on the longest day-but-wait-it's-tomorrow of Karl's life
Motoyoshi
Iwate Prefecture to the North is undergoing dramatic changes as well.New & Old Tourism - Kesennuma ship - What's everybody staring at??
Off Season - Out Where the Sea Walls Grow and Ramen Foils Us Again The farthest point of our trip is garnished with dirt. Lots of it.
Utatsu
Wherein we track down the original Veneer House, and the gas station attendant who can unlock it for us...Rebuilding in Context - Utatsu
Off Season - Uncovering "VH1" - And dinosaurs.
Shizugawa
A fishing port that, after two years, has nearly cleared the land affected by the tsunami. Their future is still very much in question - but not without rays of hope and recovery.Rebuilding in Context - Shizugawa (and the Banya);
- Lunch!; Stuff ママ used to make
- Mobile Cities of Commerce; Containers assist businesses in the disaster zone
- Houses Revisited - Easy to assemble, hard to stand upright in
Kitakami
A community consolidating its elementary schools, and relying extracurricular activities and community coordination on the recently finished "We Are One" Market and Youth Center sponsored by Students Rebuild!The Snow Road - Hidden Intruders - Meaningful masks
High Shrines & a Lucky Rock - Eight million gods can't be wrong
Three Schools - At Least - This hill is now tragically infamous.
One Morning in Kitakami - On a snowy/sunny/melty day in Kitakami, youth gather to build a mini future
How to Hold a Mini Mini Kitakami Charrette - Some people think keeping 7-14 year olds focused for half a day is easy...
Elementary Students Envision a Rebuilt Village - Results, thoughts and comments on a youth charrette reenvisioning a town
Kitakami "Cribs" - Naomi Sato-san introduces the We Are One market and youth center
New & Old Tourism - Kamiwarizaki
A "Thank You" from Kitakami - Not-so-Mini-Mini successes at the Kitakami "We Are One" Market and Youth Center.
Upper Ishinomaki
Sights - and eats - away from Downtown.The Snow Road - Interlaced Destinies - Japan and China, neighbors and bedfellows
What's for Dinner Shogo? - Sights, sounds and SMELLS of the produce market
Cookin' - Wherein we continue our quest for dinner with a somewhat predictable ending. #yum
Mission: Gyudon - Karl learns the ins and outs of a Japanese kitchen...by necessity
Big Pot Dinner
Outer Oshika peninsula
On the road to Maeami Beach.Maeami-hama Fishing Village's New House - Professor Kobayashi is a steadfast keeper of numbers.
Rebuilding in Context - Onagawa - A huge day of discovery
Winters on Maeami Beach - The opening of the Maeami-hama community house, and the folks, and food, that call the place home.
Drift & Returning - Two miracles and a gyre
Fujiya Talks Plywood
Lower Ishinomaki (downtown)
Location of the MakiBiz rebuilding office and site of a community struggling to bring vibrancy back to the city center.Meet Shogo - MakiBiz - Husband; Business developer; Tour guide; Chef; Humanitarian: Shogo.
"Fish"inomaki - When a quest for ramen goes wrong
Den of Fish...and other sea things - You may hear how Japan's a culture of fishermen, how Tokyo started as a fishing village, etc.
River to...MANGATTAN - Speaking of superheroes...there's a museum for that! In Ishinomaki
Down 'Round Ground Zero
Inner Oshika peninsula
Summery sojourn to meet bento makers and encounter all things Whale."Bento no hosomichi" - One of the greatest haiku poets of all time, Matsuo Bashō, wrote one of the most influential volumes in Japanese literature in 1689...
New & Old Tourism - San Juan Bautista;
- WHALELAND - A shifting landscape for tourism in Tohoku
Line of the Damage
SENDAI
Catching up with the cranes, the kids who still spread its message, and other urban novelties.The Snow Road - Through, not over
Letters from Tsutsujigaoka - "The crane sculpture is at Tsutsujigaoka," Fujiwara-san wrote us a month ago. "And at Saiwai-cho."
The Cranekeepers - The saga of Paper Cranes for Japan continues at two locations in Sendai...
Lunch Songs - So cute I "chant" take it (har har)
Discovering Student Rebuilders in Sendai - "This way–this way!" I have at minimum two ushers guiding me to the gynmasium...
Program 6: Jonson-san's remarks - "What can I say?" is not just an expression.
Reflections on Youth in Action - After the assembly, the youngest JRC community volunteers share their appreciation–older students, and alumni, share their admiration
The Journalists - Part way through the young volunteer powwow, these four girls materialized...
Cultural Takeaways: Ohio, Mottainai & Pigmon - Learning about Japanese culture you simply can't avoid 1960's superheroes.
Ito & Eating, Part 1: To the Mediatheque - First-hand experience of a Pritzker Prize winner
Ito & Eating, Part 2: Beef Tongue - Sendai's not on the ocean, so the strange food encounters get a little...beefy
A Brave New Worldview - After a full week, Karl is spirited away from the site of our work - but not without more questions - and future adventures.
After the First Year
On January 13, 2012 a massive sculpture was unveiled in Japan’s Sendai Train Station created from 100,000 paper cranes folded by young peopel worldwide after the devastating March 2011 earthquake and tsunami—a sampling of the over 2 million cranes mailed in during the Paper Cranes for Japan campaign. The sculpture is the centerpiece of a three-day public event Jan. 13 – 15 called “Gift by Gift for a Better World,” featuring interactive workshops with several area schools.This is the latest chapter for DoSomething.org and Students Rebuild’s Paper Cranes for Japan campaign, a worldwide movement that has mobilized thousands of young people in more than 38 countries and all 50 U.S. states, and raised $500,000 in matching funds for rebuilding projects in the Tohoku region. Last fall, acclaimed artist Vik Muniz donated his time and ingenuity to the effort through the creation of a massive visual piece using thousands of the cranes, which was chronicled in a 4-minute film and featured in the New York Times Magazine. Posters are still on sale and proceeds directly benefit Architecture for Humanity's rebuilding efforts in Japan (learn how to order one).
Learn More:
Watch our short films to find out more about the challenge and how you can stay involved as reconstruction progresses in Japan!Follow Our Progress:
Check the Japan Blog for the latest construction updates from Architecture for Humanity, who is rebuilding youth spaces in Japan with the funds you raised by folding cranes!Contribute to the Virtual Collage:
Keep the spirit of the Paper Cranes for Japan challenge alive. Post a picture of a crane on the Paper Cranes for Japan Facebook page. |
With our gratitude, please accept this certificate of appreciation for participating in the Paper Cranes challenge. Download and share! |
