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Health & Fitness

Japan - post-earthquake/tsunami/atomic radiation

Local residents bring encouragement and hope to Japan

Japan Disaster – relics and relief – one year post

3-11-11earthquake/tsunami/nuclear melt-down

Two days ago, a soccer ball from Japan, swept away in last years tsunami, was found on an Alaska beach.

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Just before that a ship, carried off from its moorings by the enormous tidal wave created by the 8+ magnitude earthquake, was spotted off western Canada.

And…….long-range concerns continue for Fukushima, where a nuclear reactor was damaged and concerns continue about radiation.

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Contributions are still pouring in worldwide……but from Fort Lee – where we have many Japanese residents – some of the contributions are more personal:

I was honored to be asked to test recipes for “Kibo: brimming with hope” by Elizabeth Andoh. The e-book, available through netgalley, contains recipes from the Tohoku region of Japan, which was greatly affected by the tsunami.

This area, of rich rice harvests and pure water pre-tsunami, is in much need of help. Ms. Andoh, a noted Japanese cookbook writer, researched the typical recipes of the region for this book.

The photo accompanying this post is one of the recipes. I’d welcome ideas from readers about what that delicious Japanese dish is made of. Hint: we – from the rich farmland of our continent – throw away or dismiss two of the main ingredients, not counting salmon and carrots!

Once these ideas are shared with me, I will award a cooking lesson to the winner!

Here in Fort Lee, we have Japanese and Asian grocery stores where these unusual ingredients are available. 

And this dish, kombu maki, is typical of the inventiveness of Japanese cuisine….and for me an indication of how Japan will recover, thanks to centuries of culinary innovation. 

Besides my small contribution through Kibo to Japan recovery, Fort Lee resident Olga Shyp brought greetings and messages of hope from here to Japan when the music ensemble, Shyps and Roses, participated in a vocal competition in Fukushima, Japan.

The trio took third place in the competition and brought messages of friendship and encouragement from here to Japan, in the form of message cards. Kindergarten students from No. 3 School, which Shyp’s children attend, created messages with the help of Ms. Denise Massin.  And audiences at the trios’ concert at the Fort Lee Public Library, as well a other venues, sent messages as well. 

o Fukushima, Japan, when she participated in a vocal competition there just after the one-year anniversary of the disaster.

Shyp is a member of the vocal ensemble, with Roza Tulyaganova and Yuki Otsuka, which won fourth place in the competition, and performed several concerts in Fukushima. One of the highlights of their performances was “Aka tambo,” a Japanese folksong, sung in Japanese, which relates to ricefields and dragonflies in the Japanese countryside, much of which was devastated by the tsunami.

Relief for the massive destruction of the earthquake and accompanying tsunami continues to pour in worldwide, and locally, through the Japan Society, Rotary International, as well as concerts, car washes, garage sales –and cookbooks!

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