Jun 14, 2014

Fukushima is still alive. See this Youtube video!

みなさん、こんにちは。お久しぶりです。
Hi everyone! I haven't posted in a while. 

A few weeks ago my Japanese friend now living in France visited me and we had dinner together. It was so much fun and we talked a lot -- what's going on in France, her romance with a Korean boy and Fukushima's current situation.  

She told me how she felt shocked when a French woman angrily said to her, "Tell me what Japanese people think of Fukushima. You know, our life is now facing a great danger due to Fukushima's radiation. They don't feel guilty or sorry for that?" 

I don't know how much Fukushima's tragedy caused by a natural disaster is affecting this woman's daily life, but if someone living in France becomes ill due to the nuclear contamination happening in Japan, we who live in this country should be all dead long time ago.

I'm not saying you don't need to worry at all, as I'm not a specialist on this matter. But I want to say this. Contrary to the popular belief, Fukushima is not a ghost town. While some areas near the nuclear power plant are still restricted to enter, people in other parts of the prefecture are leading normal lives.  

I would like to show you a YouTube video that proves this. Fukushima people of all ages and occupations are dancing to Japanese girl group AKD48's "Koisuru Fortune Cookie (Fortune Cookie in Love)." Since this song was released last year, making a dancing video has been a mini-boom here and this is one of them. Hope you'll watch it and realize Fukushima is still alive despite the devastating earthquake, tsunami and on-going nuclear problem.


If you are interested in the original version by AKB48, watch this. I'm too old to be interested in this type of music, but I find it cute.


And here is the video uploaded by the Sanriku Railway Company (Iwate Prefecture) , commemorating the restart of the service of 36.6 km-long Minami Riasu line in three years after the earthquake. The disaster was so huge that it is taking longer than we expected to recover from the damage, but their lives are getting back to normal little by little. By the way, we should not forget that the restoration of the railway service would have been impossible without the financial support from Kuwait. Thank you Kuwait!


ここからは日本語で。

2年前に東日本で大地震が起き、津波でたくさんの人が亡くなりました。

大地震 (だいじしん)  bit earthquake
起きる (おきる)  to occur
津波 (つなみ) tsunami
亡くなる (なくなる)  to die

津波で福島の原子力発電所がメルトダウンし、原発の近くの町は今でも立ち入り禁止になっています。

福島 (ふくしま)  Fukushima
原子力発電所 (げんしりょくはつでんしょ) nuclear power plant
原発 (げんぱつ) = 原子力発電所
立ち入り禁止 (たちいりきんし)  no entry allowed

外国の人は福島はゴーストタウンのようになって、誰も住んでいないと思っているかもしれませんが、それは違います。

外国 (がいこく) foreign countries
誰も (だれも) ~ない  no one
住む (すむ)  to live
違う (ちがう) incorrect

立ち入り禁止区域以外では、みんな普通に生活しています。福島がネガティブなイメージになってしまったことを残念に思います。

区域 (くいき)  area
以外 (いがい) outside of
普通に (ふつうに) normally
生活する (せいかつする) to live
残念 (ざんねん) sorry

その証拠にこのYouTubeのビデオを見てください。

証拠 (しょうこ)  proof

日本ではAKB48の去年のヒット曲「恋するフォーチュンクッキー」に合わせてみんなでダンスをしてYouTubeにアップするのが流行っているのですが、福島県ヴァージョンを見れば、福島は誰も住めない恐ろしい場所というイメージはなくなるでしょう。

去年 (きょねん) last year
曲 (きょく)  song
恋 (こい)  love
流行っている (はやっている) be popular
恐ろしい (おそろしい) scary
場所 (ばしょ) place

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