June 10, 2022, the Celebration of Samoa’s Independence Anniversary and 50th Anniversary of JICA volunteers in Samoa was held in Tokyo.
Her Excellency Ms. Faalavaau Perina Jacqueline Sila-Tualaulelei, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Independent State of Samoa thanked the people of JICA and those who helped the development of Samoa. When she mentioned that Samoan wives who married the volunteers are now with us, there were many cheers in the room.
サモアの伝統的な勇壮な踊りで、お祝いが盛り上がりました。
Traditional gallant Samoan dance
サモアの伝統的な女性の踊りです。
Traditional Samoan dance by beautiful ladies.
サモアの人は陽気で、まるで南の島サモアに旅しているようなリラックスした雰囲気でした。
ご招待いただきました、サモア大使館の方に感謝申し上げます。
Samoans are friendly and warm people who offer smiles to those they meet. I was relaxed and felt like travelling a Samoan island.
I appreciate the Embassy of Samoa in Japan for inviting me.
Solar panels on our Kisarazu warehouse was connected to grids on July. Seven air conditioners are cooling the warehouse with free energy from the sun. Last year, our warehouses were flooded with furniture picked-up from our customers. Usually in-coming customers use used furniture, but no new expats customers can come into Japan due to the isolation policy. We rented new warehouse hear Haneda airport, but not enough. It was quite difficult to rent a big warehouse, due to the high demands by E-commerce. We managed to find a spacious land in Kisarazu, Chiba prefecture. Thanks to the Aqua Line, a freeway ( actually it costs 800 yen at the tole gate), we can go there in 45 minutes from our office. We hired a contractor and built two stories 960 ㎡ warehouse, which completed on March 2021. There was no tall building around the warehouse, so we decided to install 47 kWh solar panels on the roof. From July 2021, the panels are generating more than enough energy to cool the warehouse. 6 minutes walk from the warehouse is the Mitsui Outlet Park Kisarazu, and 2 min by car from Costco Kisarazu, which was built in August 2020. The houses in this area are mostly big with large yard, it looks people here is having American lifestyle. Once our customers come back, and Kisarazu warehouse is not too packed with furniture, we are planning to convert the warehouse into furniture outlet.
We visited Ariake Kogyo, an industrial waste management company. We try our best to clean and re-use our rented furniture, but items damaged or stained beyond repair are brought to this site.
Mr. Takahashi, a passionate young gentleman took us to the room overlooking Tokyo Gate Bridge and Central Breakwater. Here industrial wastes are separated to burnable items and metals.
Walking around the big yard, we saw a huge building actually wastes are brought in. Due to the Covid-19, many workers are working from home, and unnecessary office space were closed. Desks and chairs are brought here frequently.
Next building we saw was a burnable yard. Paper, clothes, plastics are shredded into small pieces, pressured and stored as fuels. We felt sad seeing brand new pants wrapped and tagged.
The room to pound mixed wastes, too dangerous for people to go in, is monitored by cameras and screens. When something goes wrong, everything stopped and staff actually go in there to check.
Please see a video actual wastes are brought into the yard. Although paper, fabrics and plastics are re-use as thermal energy, Thanks to Mr. Takahashi, we learned where our disposed furniture goes. However, I also thought we need to try our best to recycle them without burning.