SOMA, Fukushima Prefecture—The tsunami-hit Wada pick-your-own strawberry farm in Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, held a reopening ceremony on Jan. 15 attended by local nursery school children.
SOMA, Fukushima Prefecture—The tsunami-hit Wada pick-your-own strawberry farm in Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, held a reopening ceremony on Jan. 15 attended by local nursery school children.
Yumi Yamaki, 34, whose 4-year-old daughter Misato took part in the event, said: “I cannot take her outside the house due to worries about radiation, but she will be safe here in the greenhouse. It feels good to be able to touch flowers.”
The greenhouse farm, operated by a strawberry farmers’ union made up of 13 families, had about 1.8 of its 3 hectares submerged by the March 11 tsunami and was forced to close in the middle of its normal season. It plans to stay open this year until the end of May.
At the opening ceremony, a child at the school read a note that brought home the suffering inflicted by the disaster: "I will do my best even though our house was washed away by tsunami. Grandpa, Grandma, please watch me from the sky."