Little Break：休憩

It seems like the pinwheel is enjoying this nice weather today.
What a beautiful blue sky!

どうやら風車はベンチに座ってこの天気を楽しんでいるようです。
素敵な青空ですね。

この天気が続くことをきっと風車も願っていることでしょう。

WWU　Japanese Student Association

３rd Bond: ３つ目の出会い

The pinwheel met a girl and asked her "What do you value the most in your life?"

Her answer was "Family, My cats, and Now"

This moment only exists at this moment. After one second, it becomes past.
We should cherish time and chances we have now because once it becomes past, we can't retrieve it.
Let's utilize this moment by doing things we can do only now.
This Japan earthquake and tsunami relief effort means a lot because we do it now.

この日風車は一人の女の子に出会いました。

彼女にとって価値のあるものは「家族と今」だそうです。

 今この時間はこの瞬間にしか存在しません。
時間が経つごとにそれは過去に変わり、取り戻すことは出来ません。
今出来るこ事をやるという事は今しか出来無い価値のあることかもしれませんね。

震災の支援活動は今やるから意味があるのでしょうね。

今私達に出来ること、しっかりやっていきたいと思います。

WWU　Japanese Student Association

2nd Bond: ２つ目の出会い

The pinwheel met these two girls and asked them

"What do you value the most in your life?"

  "Dream, Family, Love and Fun"

"Loved ones, Passion, Hope and Family"

The pinwheel found more valuable things on this day.

Dream:
Because we can dream, our imagination becomes infinity, making our lives more colorful.
Those who have their dreams and courage to pursue their dreams, shine like a sun.
Let's keep on dreaming and brighten our lives!


Passion:
Passion is a source of energy to make actions. If you have passion, you can do anything. 


Do you have a dream?
Do you have the passion to realize your dream?



この日風車は二人の女の子に出会いました。

二人の価値のあるものは
「夢、家族、愛、楽しみ」　＆　「大切な人、情熱、希望、家族」だそうです。

あなたは夢を持っていますか？
その夢を実現させる情熱を持っていますか？

夢はまだ見えぬ未来を照らし出す１つの光、希望の光。
必死になってその夢に向かって突き進めば、いつかたどり着くはず。
その原動力は情熱。

日本の復興を願って今私達に出来る支援活動を続けていけば、近い将来実現するはず。
だって、私達には情熱がある。
夢を夢に終わらせないために、今私達に出来ることをやっていきましょう。


WWU　Japanese Student Association

1st Bond: １つ目の出会い

The 1st encounter of the pinwheel was  international program director at WWU.

 "What do you value the most in your life?

His answer was "Family and my dog"


Families are irreplaceable presents in our lives that support us through thick and think.
We should cherish our family.


風車の最初の出会いはWWUのInternational Program Directorでした。
彼の教えてくれた価値のあるものは

「家族とペットの犬」

だそうです。

家族は誰よりも身近な人でどんな時も支えてくれるかけがえのない存在です。
自分の家族を大切にしなくてはいけないと改めて思いますね。


WWU　Japanese Student Association

Starting a Journey of Pinwheel: 風車の旅の始まり

The pinwheel started its journey to find real values.

Let's watch where it goes and see what it finds during its journey.

ついに風車の価値のあるものを見つける旅が始まりました。
風車は部屋を飛び出して、さてどこへ行くのでしょう？
そして旅の途中で何を見つけるのでしょう？

暖かく見守ってあげてください。


WWU　Japanese Student Association

Project Details

The purpose of this project is to find where people find real values.

We will ask people around a question, "What do you value the most in your life?" and collect various answers. By taking pictures and video clips of those answers, we will create a short independent film in the end.

Details about the Independent Film: "A journey of a Pinwheel"

It has been one year since the earthquake and tsunami tragedy that unexpectedly hit Japan March of 2011. A small pinwheell reflects the big events of that fateful day. The victims of this earthquake are not only the ones who lost their lives, but also the people who lost their family and friends, their homes, and their belongings. However, they still live their lives today with smiles on their faces. The pinwheel then sets out on a journey to answer his question of, “What do people value most in their lives?” Throughout his journey, he builds 絆 (kizuna) meaning “bonds” in Japanese with every person he encounters.

Our messages through the depiction of a pinwheel…

• Alone pinwheel sitting in the corner of a room cannot spin itself. However, with the helping hand of someone else blowing onto the pinwheel, its true beauty can be enjoyed through the mixing colors of the wings when it spins. This pinwheel represents Japan. The helping hand? All the prayer and thoughts of those around the world. We hope to send our messages, thoughts, and prayers to those in Japan to get the pinwheel spinning again, to rebuild Japan into the nation it once was before this tragedy. The film begins with a pinwheel in the corner of a room, unable to spin and end with a shot of the pinwheel spinning thanks to the bonds he built with those he encountered on his journey.

• While the pinwheel finds answers for the question of “What do you value the most?” we would like all the people who have been involved in this event to think about where their real values lie. Our hope is that instead of emphasizing values on possessing, participants will recognize that what is most important is priceless. We hope to utilize this event as an opportunity for everyone to take a moment to reflect on what is important in their lives. “Kizuna,” the theme of this event, may be an important piece to what we truly value. Our hope and goal of this event is to build kizuna, “bond,” that transcends the ocean and borders.

We will show this film in the fundraising event for Japan which will on Thursday, April 5th at Western Washington University.

Event Details

Date and Time:   Thursday, 5th April 2012 7:30 - 9:00 .Doors open at 7pm.

Venue:                  Western Washington University AH100

Contents:              Independent Films and Performances

Admission Fee:   Minimum $1 Donation at Door

100% of proceeds will be directly sent to community in Miyagi / Fukushima Prefectures in Japan

Introduction

March 11th, 2011, many precious lives were lost in the Tohoku Earthquake.

Many lives, family, homes, memories, and hope...

In the midst of all the lost things, we, the Western Washington University Japanese Student Association, seek something, anything positive that we may be able to learn from such a tragedy.
This notion of, "What do can we learn?" founded our current project that we call, the Kizuna Project.

This Kizuna project is a part of Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Effort and is our journey to realize the answer to this question. In order to do this, we ask those around us, "What do you value the most in your life?" We hope to find our own answers by listening and seeing others' answers.

Valuable Things

In the initial stages of our project, we attempted to answer this question ourselves.
So, where do our values lie?
In life?
In family?
In a lifestyle with leisure?

We know that there is no right or wrong answer to such abstract questions, and also find that there is an infinitely diverse variety of answers.

An underlying theme we found, though, is that these values are something that many may take for granted in everyday lives, almost just expecting them to always be there; least thinking about when these values might be taken away or lost.

It is expected that we have a life to live.
It is expected that we have a family that supports us.
It is expected that we, in a middle/upper-class society, have a life of leisure to live with cell phones, computers, TVs, etc.

But, many of these things we expect to exist in our lives were lost in the earthquake and the people of Japan we forced to realize where their true values lie.

Although we did not directly experience a loss from the Earthquake in Japan, we still wanted to take this as an opportunity to reflect upon our own lives.
There IS something we can learn from this incident.
There IS something that we can gain amidst all the loss.
We believe that one of those things to gain is the recognition of the real values that may be taken for granted or forgotten in our every day life.

By utilizing this opportunity, we are able to cherish our object of value if we already possess them.
By utilizing this opportunity, we are able to work harder to obtain our object of value is we don't possess them yet.

This project started with a simple question and has now evolved into what is changing our lives.
Through this effort, we hope that you may reflect upon your own life and perhaps affect your life in the same way.

Now, please follow us on our journey with the pinwheel to find where people's true values lie.
暖かな応援 よろしくお願いします。