Tweet

Fukushima is famous for high quality fruits, and some of those very best ones are taken to Tokyo as tributes to royal family.  There seems to be a man who has wanted to start a winery in Fukushima using quality grape of the area according to an article.  Although his dream has not been very easy to fulfil due to the horrific nuclear power station accident, he’s still trying to pursue his dream.  Today, I would like to share the interview article of this man with you.

"Nemo's great uncle" some rights reserved. flickr

When the earthquake hit East Japan, Mr Utsuki had a wine bar and wine shop.  Fortunately, His premises only received some minor water tank problem, and he could get back to his business soon.  Having seeing people during his soup runs activity with his friends who own restaurants in the area, his feeling of wanting to contribute to the area gets stronger to stronger.  He has been telling people that he is going to establish his own winery in the future before the earthquake occurred, and he was strongly motivated to make one even after the earthquake.  His feeling didn’t change even after the earthquake; however, he was obviously struggling for a while to think about how to make a local wine with local ingredients looked after by local people because of the accident in the nuclear power station of Fukushima.  It seems he somehow managed to make local wine with local grapes at the end without his own winery, but due to radioactive ray, he’s not been able to sell the product widely.

"'LFLC' Photo" some rights reserved. flickr

His ultimate goal is to start winery complex so that it will brings tourists to the area from outside of Fukushima, and also making wine using Fukuoka grapes and Fukuoka people brings more opportunity for interact younger generation with older generations.

“What is great in Fukushima is not just our quality fruits, but also knowledge and experience of older generations.  It has been handed down for a long time, and we cannot afford loosing such a treasure now just because of the earthquake and the accident of the nuclear power station.”, the man explained in his interview.

This is so true.  I think really important thing can be overlooked, but this horrible incident made us realised the importance.  I must be very important for non-east Japan areas to learn change points made after the earthquake in East Japan, and then we will probably find a lot of things we have been missing out.

What do you think about today’s article?

Please let me know what you think  😉

Source: Michinoku Shigoto

This is JAPAN Style!