Reporting on the status of our partners “today,” who are holding up the Tohoku economy through the various services they provide with the Rakuten Group.
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Jun 5, 2012. Updated- Time Garden
- From Sendai to the World! We bring you the best “Made in Japan” Watches!
- When the earthquake happened we received many support from people around Japan And The World. We Truly Thank Everyone From The Heart! Tohoku is the home of many Made in Japan watch factories, we hope that through our watches many people will be able to know and remember about Tohoku.
- facebook：Time Garden
- Like this shop
- Information from Rakuten Ichiba
- Tohoku shops on Rakuten Ichiba.
We will report on the variety of stories behind their restoration.
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Jun 5, 2012. Updated- Comfort Hotel Sendai
- Sending out warmest smiles from the ANA Holiday Inn Hotel.
- We received many comforting words after the earthquake had happened. The hotel staffs are motivated than ever, and we are back to our normal conditions. There are still many things that have not recovered but we try to provide the best experiences. We await you here at the city of much greenery, The City of trees Sendai.
- facebook：Comfort Hotel Sendai
- twitter：@ComfortHotelJPN
- Like this hotel
- Information from Rakuten Travel
- Till June 10♪ Gift cards of the popular hotels in Tohoku are available NOW!
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The events calendar for June
Check out the “seasonal” events of Tohoku.
Stay tuned on the seasonal events held in the 3 prefectures, Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima.
![[Fukushima]](img/img_pick_20120605.jpg)
- The Tohoku hillsides are now covered with beautiful fresh green foliage and the Oceans turn a deep dark blue. The picture shows the “Gohyakurakan” of Iwate Prefecture Tono City.The 500 reliefs carved into mossy rocks that represent disciples of the Buddha soothe the hearts of people who visit the area.
- Information provided courtesy of
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- “A Trip to Iwate” of Iwate Prefecture,
- “Miyagi Exploration” of Miyagi Prefecture,
- and “Sights in Fukushima” of Fukushima Prefecture.
[The second“Minna-No Umai Tohoku Caravan (The Delicious Tohoku Caravan for Everyone)” was held in Kamaishi City of Iwate Prefecture!]
- ■Local Residents Connect Together by Cooking their Local Food
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On Sunday, June 17, a participatory community event was held at the “Minna no ie” in the District 6 temporary housing area in Heita, Kamaishi City of Iwate Prefecture, to promote “the food” of the Tohoku area. As a company deeply connected to Tohoku, in hope of “constantly keeping our thoughts toward the disaster area” we aim to support the revitalization of communities and promote independence of the people who were victimized in the disaster stricken areas.
Organized by Rakuten.
Jointly Organized by the Iwate Pref., Kamaishi City, Committee of Heita No.6 shelter, People from Heita, Hosokawa-ryu buyo, Seiko-kai, Heita Kagura Hozon-kai, Ido Shoten, Seiyo Food-Compass Group,Inc, Higashi-Nihon Keizai Kasseika Shien Kiko, and Sanriku Hitotsunagi Nature school.
- ■Increase Tohoku area fans by connecting community events and the Internet
- Upon our second opportunity, we have asked the residents of the temporary housings to cook “Mamebu Soup” with us. At the same time we have conducted a recipe contest at Rakuten Recipe. We asked our users to share different recipe ideas using “Surume ika”(a type of squid). Since Kamaishi city is very famous for having the best quality of squid in the Kamaishi area. We asked the residents to pick the best recipe from the menus that were sent from the Rakuten receipe users.
- ■Event menu
- 1.Hosokawa-style dance performance
2.Heita Kagura performance
3.Heita Toramai performance
4.Eat Mamebu Soup(Local food) and squid together
5.Recipe contest - >>What is “Mamebu Soup”? (Japanese only)
- >>Rakuten Recipe
「Connect and Share the Foods of Tohoku」”Squid Recipe Contest”
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- Meeting with the local people before the event!
- Meeting with the local people
- On the previous day of the event, we met with all volunteer members, including people from the temporary housings, NPO’s, and our employee volunteer staff.
We got along instantly and preparations were made with everyone having a smile on their face.
Although it was raining the previous day, the mother’s in the temporary housings made the “Teru teru bozu” (A paper doll charm to wish for good weather) to wish for a sunny day and success in the event.
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- The mother’s worked together to make “Mamebu-soup”
- The Mamebu soup is a local dish made in the northern part of Iwate.
It is a very healthy balanced soup menu with lots of vegetables and rice balls made out of brown sugar and walnuts inside.
For the people who were not from the northern part of Iwate, it was the first time to see and try the dish, however they took on this challenge by saying “it’s good to challenge new things!!”. Preparations started three weeks before the event, they practiced a couple of times and worked very hard to create the perfect soup. The sweet rice ball matches perfectly with the seaweed and vegetable soup.
The mother’s and people who came on that day, also exclaimed “delicious!” as well. - Making“Mamebu-soup”
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- The Rakuten Recipe “Squid Recipe Contest”
- The Rakuten Recipe “Squid Recipe Contest”
- The Rakuten Recipe 「Connect and Share the Foods of Tohoku」”Squid Recipe Contest”
started on June 5th.
We received more than 100 recipes from the Rakuten recipe users , and with the help of the Rakuten cafeteria staff we were able to narrow it down to 10 recipes. We asked the mothers from the temporary housing to become judges. The mother’s exchanged different opinions among the judging and said “This squid dish looks delicious”, ”This is easy to make!”, and three recipes were chosen.
The results of the vote were announced by the mother’s and the people who were watching the recipes looked very curious raising voices such as “wow!” and “looks good!”.
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- “Mamebu- Soup” and winning menus from the Rakuten Recipe contest was served at the Rakuten cafeteria
- Every month on the 11th we are conducting the “Cheer Tohoku fair” at the Rakuten Cafeteria.
In July, we had our 6th Tohoku menu, which was the “Mamebu- soup” that was made at the caravan along with Surumeika rice. Also the “Surumeika and mushroom pasta mixed with soy-sauce rice malt”, and the “Chinese cold noodles assorted with salt rice malt” and the “Okuno-miyako chicken” of Iwate was a very popular menu. We enjoyed these menus, not only in our Tokyo office but the Fukuoka and Osaka branch members also enjoyed these various Tohoku foods. - Rakuten cafeteria
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- We received power and energy from the local traditional dances
- Get a energy back
- After the earthquake, the dancers from traditional dance group in Kamaishi, were not able to hold performances due to respect for the members and their families who have passed away from the Tsunami. Wanting an opportunity to once again dance as they used to, we asked the dancers to perform a show for the people at the temporary housing area.
They danced along to three traditional dances. The first was the “Hosokawa Ryu(Style) Buyo(Dance)” which the participants of the event danced along with the professional dancers. The next was the “Heita Kagura dance” a sacred dance which takes back it’s origin to 100 years ago, and finally the “Heita Toramai dance” that entertained the participants with its dynamic moves. The dances closed with a huge applause from the audience and some of the professional dancers smiled and cried.
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- What we learned from the Caravan
- It has been a year and three months since the earthquake has occurred, Kaimaishi city still suffers from the consequences of the earthquake and it will take a long time for the city to recover.
District 6 temporary housing area in Heita, accepts many other evacuees that are not from the Kamaishi city area. We would like to thank all the people who helped us in this event, including the neighborhood community association, local traditional dancers, governments, NPO organizations and student volunteers.
We hope that this community event will be a start of more communication among the people are living in and around the temporary housing areas.
>>“Minna-No Umai Tohoku Caravan blog - What we learned from the Caravan
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Based on Rakuten's long-standing core value of “Empowerment” (empowering people and societies), the Rakuten Group has and will continue to take proactive steps to provide reconstruction support and do our part to tackle the energy issue, as well as make social contributions through the utilization of the Group's operating base.