On Aug. 10 (Sunday), “The Okuma Tsukuba Summer Festival” was held at the North Emergency Temporary Housing of Johoku Elementary School in Aizu-Wakamatsu city.

This year’s exhibits included cloth-card story shows by the Okuma-Furusato Seminar, stalls set up by the IORI Club and Shichirin-Pottery (Shichirin is a small, portable charcoal grill).  People from the Aizu and Kitakata regions gave us their support and cooperation.  The weather was unfortunate due to the typhoon, but it appeared that the people from the temporary housing and the local areas had fun participating.  In the evening, children carrying the children’s mikoshi shrine paraded energetically around the temporary housing premises, and in the finale, everyone took part in the Okuma Bon-Odori dancing.  This year, we were able to talk to and hear more stories from the people of Okuma-cho than last year.  We are now discussing how to come up with a suitable way to deliver these stories.  (Akagi)