Clean Planet

Golden week in Japan is one of important national holidays treasured by the normally hard working Japanese . This year many of them have spontaneously decided to use their holiday time to support the tsunami relief work.

It’s not the way out-of-towners normally spend the start of the so-called Golden Week holiday, when Japanese commonly leave big cities to visit their home towns, take hot spring vacations or travel abroad. But after last month’s earthquake and tsunami decimated northeastern coastal towns and left an estimated 26,000 Japanese either dead or missing, these are not normal times.

“I saw the devastation on TV and felt I had to do something,” said Junko Sugino, 49, as she dragged a crate of mud through the narrow lanes between the tombstones.

“This is hard work, but it’s something that has to be done by people. Machines can’t fit into these tiny spaces,” she said..

Through the crisis and beyond the Japanese citizens have been admirable and inspiring in the way they have chosen to respond. Join us in renewing good wishes to the awesome Japanese to recover and rebuild their lives and nation.