Building health while having fun well received!
Daito Town Recreation Association

The city of Rikuzen Takata has been severely affected by the great tsunami. When its inhabitants started moving into temporary homes, the city’s Health Promotion Department and Social Welfare Council (SWC) joined efforts to host tea drinking parties (tea drinking salons) in different areas of the city, with the goal to prevent social isolation and provide care. On Thursday October 20th members of the Daito Town Recreation Association (from Ichinoseki City, Iwate Prefecture) paid visits to the Yonezaki and Osabe tea salons.
The temporary houses in Rikuzen Takada have been erected on a higher ground surrounding the area that has been hit by the tsunami, with little flat surface, which is why they are small and far between, containing no space for congregation. For that reason, the SWC personnel pick up the elderly in minibuses and drive them to community centers where the tea salons are held. This time people from eight temporary homes in Yonezaki Ward and five temporary houses in Osabe Ward gathered.
“Today the folks from the Daito Town Recreation Association crossed the mountain to join us here. The Kisen dialect should do.” Having been thus introduced, the Daito Recreation Association members started their program. First, Michiko Onodera demonstrated preparatory exercises. While talking with the participants, she showed them how to stretch and relax the body: hands, arms, neck and legs, so that they can feel good. Next, Eichi Matsukawa performed a game in which he clapped his hands and stomped his feet while throwing a handkerchief in the air and laughing boisterously. After that, the association members Akiko Murakami, with a group game, and Michiko Itsukaichi and Tomiko Matsukawa, with exercises accompanied by music, took the lead role in conducting the program.
The Daito Town Recreation Association has been providing support through recreation exercises for disease prevention and caregiving for the past six years. This time, in recognition of their achievements, they have been given the opportunity to perform in Rikuzen Takada. All of the Associations’ programs consist of games and songs and are aimed at activating the body and the functioning of the heart and lungs.
In these salons rehabilitation exercises were conducted in the past, but due to complaints that they are too strenuous and tiring, recreation exercises have been introduced. “Exercises done while having fun and laughing seem to suit the elderly well. They all seem to enjoy them,” told us one of the SWC staff members. At the Osabe salon the participants sang a local folk song “Kisenzaka” to the Daito Town Recreation Association members as a token of their appreciation.

Members of the Daito Town Recreation Association. From left to right:
Onodera, Matsukawa, Murakami, Matsukawa and Itsukaichi

RECREATION ASSOCIATION SUPPORTING SALON-RELATED ACTIVITIES IN TEMPORARY HOUSING AREAS
Sendai City Recreation Association

On Saturday October 8th, Naoko Yamauchi of the Miyagi Prefecture Recreation Association and Sumiko Sumida of the Sendai City Recreation Association offered support through recreation exercises to the inhabitants of the temporary housing area located on the premises of Arai Elementary School in Wakabayashi Ward, Sendai City.
In the temporary housing at this school live people from the Arahama area in Wakabayashi Ward who were afflicted by the disaster. Before the earthquake, in the Jodo temple in Arahama “Tomobiki party salons,” where physical exercise and chat could be enjoyed, were held on the so called Tomobiki days (important in traditional fortune telling), since on those days no funerals and other ceremonies are held. Sono Nihei and other caretakers of this event, wishing to continue it in the temporary housing too, resumed salon activities after the earthquake. Ms. Yamauchi and her colleague participated in this event since they had undergone training in recreation for caregiving and disease prevention before the earthquake.
As ten o’clock, the opening time of the event, neared, the elderly from the temporary housing started gathering. Among them were those who were certified as needing nursing care and who came together with the family members who provide them with the care.
At the beginning, the participants sang “Red Dragonfly” and other songs following Nihei’s lead and did light exercises to the tune of the songs. The songbook they used was handmade by Nihei and his colleagues. From there on, Yamauchi and Sumida took over.
The participants enjoyed singing a song in which the greeting “good morning” was being exchanged, a song containing playful words difficult to pronounce, as well as games such as that in which paper was narrowly slit and that in which the spindle of a plastic food wrap was wrapped up in threads. All of these were intended to stimulate the functioning of the heart and lungs and the parts of the body not often used by having the participants sing loudly and move their mouths, fingertips, wrists and arms while playing.
The participants also enjoyed a game in which they were divided into groups. This was a kind of bowling in which they strove to throw a ball made of newspaper as close as possible to a target area. Since such a ball is not a perfect sphere, little by little it veers off the course, and sometimes even ends up in the opponent team’s target area. And whenever there was an unexpected outcome, resounding laughter broke out.
Mr. Nihei who manages the Tomobiki salon is a disaster victim himself. Since he is scheduled to move away from this temporary housing area, the future operation of the salon was being discussed. It was decided that the Sendai City Recreation Association lends its support to Nihei’s friends so that the holding of the salon is continued.