The wishes of Teruteru Bozu (Weather Doll) were realized…

The sports festival was held safely on the large field…
Here in Okuma Town for the first time in 12 years…

It was a perfect day for sports, neither hot nor cold…
It started to rain a little. It was just the right thing to cool down those of us who were at the peak of our energy…
A grand sports festival was held with a total of about 240 participants…

Perfect! We started with the majestic "starting speech"…

They cleared the missions together with their parents…
They worked together with their friends to accomplish something…
They tried their best with "earnestness" and "seriousness"!
Next to them their smiling family members!

Near the end of the event, all participants dressed up as "salmon'' and joined in the "Shake no Jama Shichadamedappe,'' (Don't disturb the salmon) an event that resembled the process of going up a river, overcoming numerous obstacles to spawn.

About 200 salmon ran on the ground. The sight of them coming and going was amazing! If you didn't win, rock, paper, scissors three times in a row…
You wouldn't be able to get to the ball pit where the eggs will be laid! Even if you get there, it's still not an easy! Just when they thought, "Let's go in!'', a bear came out and blocked them!

Despite this, the salmon managed to spawn and pass on the baton of life…
The salmon ran out of energy before laying eggs…
The life of a salmon was realistically expressed!

At the closing ceremony, the project leader, and designer of the sports festival spoke about his thoughts on setting this event and his thoughts on next year.

"Today, I will be releasing abut 240 salmon here. It is said that the salmon will return to the place where they were released. We hope that next year we will have more new friends and come back here to Manabiya Yumenomori! "

It's a wonderful concept that is close to Okuma…
I felt like it was because of the designer of Yumenomori…

I think the total number of eggs that were "laid" in the competition was over 150…
Assuming that these salmon hatch into fry, we will probably have over 400 salmon next year!

Your dreams will grow even more!

The special products of Okuma that "O-chan" and "Ku-chan" dropped…
The children of Yumenomori found them in various events…
And they were safely returned to them…

And “Ma-chan” appeared at the closing ceremony!

"O-chan," "Ku-chan," and "Ma-chan" all come from "O-ku-ma".

I remember that before the earthquake, I used to release young fish every year with the kindergarteners and go on a tour of the Yanaba (A place to fish) in the fall…
I scooped up the young fish in a small bucket and put them into the river…
"They say they'll be back by the time we are in fourth grade…''
"They're going to get big!''

Then, in the fall, when we go on a tour of the fishing grounds…
With nets set up, salmon are caught as they swim upstream to spawn…
And the fishermen throw them into the back of a light truck…
The eggs are collected at a nearby hatchery, and they're caught…
The sound of the rampaging salmon resounds!
The "sights" and "sounds" make us want to turn away, but we are witnessing that we are "giving life"! It was a "live teaching material"
for "living"! The "Harako Meshi'' and "Salmon Soup with Lots of Ingredients" served there was truly "living teaching materials"! The story of the "Okuma" was spun depending on the sports festival event…

(Thank you to all our English readers. Unfortunately, this will be our last English article for a while, as one of our translators will be away for some time. Please look forward to us coming back again! If you wish to stay up-to-date, please check our Japanese articles. Thank you!)