Happy St Patrick's Day 2013!

A group of children from Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture took part in the St Patrick's Day parade in Tokyo today. They were all dressed in green and looked so nervous as they lined up! They gave a great performance, playing the tin whistle and Irish dancing. I'm sure they put in a great many hours of practice and hopefully it was a fun experience for them and helped take their minds off what their families must be going through as Iwaki continues to rebuild after the earthquake and tsunami.

The word "kizuna" (?) was chosen as the word of the year in Japan at the end of 2011. It means bonds or connections between people and signified the new relationships and connections that were formed as people worked together to cope with the tragedies and support and rebuild the disaster areas. Watching these children from Fukushima today, I really felt the strength of this word and how much work must have a gone into teaching the children and binging them all the way to Tokyo today. Hope they enjoyed and it was a day they will remember all their lives. They were fantastic! :)