KAWAMATA, Fukushima Prefecture--One of the joys of winter in this northern farming community was when rice paddies froze over to become an impromptu ice rink.
KAWAMATA, Fukushima Prefecture--One of the joys of winter in this northern farming community was when rice paddies froze over to become an impromptu ice rink.
The tradition has been around for nearly 30 years.
But this year, the untended rice paddies are filled with forlorn, withered plants; and rink will not open.
High levels of radiation were found in Kawamata's Yamakiya district after the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, and residents were evacuated. Farmers were not allowed to grow rice, which explains the sorry state of the fields.
"It's such a pity. I feel like crying," said Toichi Kanno, the 74-year-old president of the Kawamata Skating Club, who came to see his fields in late November from Fukushima city, where he now lives.
He looked sadly at the trophies on display and the pictures pinned to the wall of an old prefabricated club house.
The Kinu no Sato (Silk Town) Yamakiya Skating Rink, which covered around 5,000 square meters, was established in 1983, as part of a development project in the town.
"Why don't we flood the rice paddies and use them for skating?"
The mayor at the time promoted the idea as an ideal one for a town 540 meters above sea level, where winter temperatures reach 16 or 17 degrees below zero.
Kanno and other volunteers formed a skating club and managed the rink, leveling the paddies and flooding them with a hose at night. It took several attempts to get it right; sometimes the water didn't freeze, or the ice shifted in the wind.
At its peak, as many as 4,500 people used the rink, and around 1,000 did so in recent winters.
Local elementary and junior high schools used the rink for physical education classes, while parents helped with the hosing.
There was also an annual skating competition to improve the locals' skating skills--which resulted in some of them competing in the National Athletic Meet. The club even gained plaudits from the Education Ministry for encouraging the sport.
"Skating became my favorite sport because I loved skating wearing long boots when I was little," said Kai Shigihara, a sixth-grader at Yamakiya Elementary School.
"We saw rice straw under the ice," said a smiling Akari Endo, 12.
Koki Kanno, 11, regrets that he cannot skate this year.
"Next year, I might go to a junior high school in Fukushima city, where I'm evacuating to," he said. "I'm frustrated that I can't skate this year."
Both boys are currently attending a different elementary school in town.
The skating club decided Nov. 11 that the rink would stay closed this winter, but that all the officials would remain in their positions.
Toichi Kanno said he had initially planned to quit as president, but felt the accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant was reason to stay.
"I couldn't leave now, with things the way they are," Kanno said.
The club and other townspeople decided to organize a bus for elementary and junior high school students who want to skate to an indoor ice rink in Koriyama, a town in the same prefecture.
The officials believe that young people will come back to Yamakiya in the future, and keep the town's love of skating alive.