Hello again internet!
Finally getting back to a regular schedule after an entire month's time of new experience after new experience. That was a lot harder than I expected.
Either ways, enough about me, and more about my experiences in Japan!!! Last week, I was given pretty much a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend the public forums of the United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, the UN WCDRR in short. It actually happened in the city where I am living in Japan, Sendai.
Well, I might as well put everything in context. Sendai is the capital city of the Miyagi Prefecture, the prefecture most affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, and also the prefecture where the resulting Fukushima Nuclear Disaster occurred. Sendai city was central to the recovery of the the entire area, as it is the cultural and economic center of this region.
This conference gave me a chance to see how the region has changed since that time. I really enjoyed learning all about this disaster, despite how terrible was, as it gave me a glimpse into how resilient and respectful the Japanese people are to nature. Despite all of the suffering and sadness of such a disaster, I was able to realize the amount of work and effort Japan was able to put into recovering on an individual level.
I was able to attend the most popular public forum of the conference, "A Symposium Promoting the Forested Coastal Embankment". I was actually invited by one of my teachers this past term in Tohoku University, and I am so happy that I was able to attend. I learned many new ideas at this symposium that I love to be able to bring back home!
Well, there is too much for me to describe about this conference. There was so much available to the public for this event and I was so happy to see Sendai decked out and full of energy for what would most likely seem like a mundane event for the rest of the world! I would love to come back to Sendai for another such event!!!
