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Sleepy Tea Fields

On 2012/01/30 By

In the Winter season there is not much working going on in the fields. When I ask Akky-san what his work is for the day he says that it is limited to applying fertilizer. Although there is not much work going on the fields are still as beautiful as ever. I took a Friday afternoon [...]

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Tohoku Caravan – Reporting with Love

On 2012/01/27 By

Article by Elyse Petersen (Obubu intern from Hawaii). Click on photos to enlarge. Tea Relief Caravan Closure Since finishing the Tea Relief Caravan on January 19 our team of volunteers has been reporting on the situation in Tohoku and the power tea had to bring light to communities that have experienced so much heartache in the past [...]

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Tohoku Caravan Closing Event

On 2012/01/26 By

On January 21, 2012, Matsu-san and the Tohoku Tea Relief Caravan team members were in Tokyo for the closing of the charity project. The team just came back from a trip to a tea plantation in Minami Ashigara city in Kanagawa Prefecture. Continuing with their busy schedule, they presented a summary of their activities during [...]

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Interning at Obubu

On 2012/01/26 By

Aloha, my name is Elyse Petersen. I am a student in the Japan-focused MBA program, a program of the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa Shidler College of Business and the Japan-America Institute of Management Sciences. As part of my degree I must complete a 3-month long internship at a Japanese company to put my Japanese business knowledge to [...]

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PRESS: Thank you KBS Television for the introduction!

On 2012/01/16 By

Thank you to KBS Television (Kyoto) for featuring Obubu’s Owner’s club!! Unfortunately for everyone else, the entire segment is only in Japanese…

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Tohoku Caravan Day 12: “All You Need is Love”

On 2012/01/15 By

Onsen and Lunch at Natorishi no Yuriage Today was a BIG day. After breakfast our large group took the caravan towards Sendai, stopping by more tsunami affected areas. We made our destination at Natorishi no yuriage, a hotel with onsen (public bath). We invited a large group of tsunami survivors that are now in temporary [...]

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Tohoku Caravan Day 11: Unity and Rebuilding in the Cold

On 2012/01/14 By

Article by Elyse Petersen (Obubu intern from Hawaii). Click on photos to enlarge. Continuing Our Tour Around Ishinomaki Matsumoto and our volunteer driver “Arizona” went alone to today’s activities. The rest of us spent the day playing tourist as we were guided to a large and beautiful shrine in Ishinomaki and more of the tsunami [...]

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Tohoku Caravan Day 10: Touring around Ishinomaki, events at Watanoha & Inokawa

On 2012/01/13 By

Ōkawa Elementary School We got an early start today to tour some more affected areas from the tsunami. Town after town we drove past as people continued their efforts to clean up and create an environment that can be rebuilt. One of the most touching communities that we visited was Ookawa, a small community with [...]

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Tohoku Caravan Day 9: Ōshima Island, City of Minami Sanriku – Bringing Smiles Through Tea and Entertainment

On 2012/01/12 By

Article by Elyse Petersen (Obubu intern from Hawaii). Click on photos to enlarge. Starting the day at Ōshima Island We started Day 9 of the Tohoku Tea Relief Caravan on Ooshima Island in Kessenuma. After a short ferry ride to the mainland we headed to the Soleil no Oka retirement home where we were greeted [...]

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Tohoku Caravan Day 4: Town of Yamada & E-commerce Seminar in Kamaishi

On 2012/01/11 By

Toward an economic revival Visiting the Mr. Osugi, head of the tourism bureau in the Town of Yamada, we discovered that he is in the process of launching a new industry for this small town that was nearly wiped out. Discovering that a certain type of wine allows him to make a pretty delicious soy [...]

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