nathalieandkyoko

Tomioka-town, June 2^nd, 2012

Another happy news from the Fukushima Forbidden Zone: Last Thursday, a new calf was born successfully. The new born female is the fourth calve to come to this world after the great Tohoku tsunami and nuclear disaster that obliged thousands of people to move “temporarily” from their homes.

Last week, an attractive celebrity came inside the FFZ accompanied by 4 other volunteers, to help Mr. Matsumura’s work.

Kumiko Ohba, 52, a retired singer and actress who was a pin-up idol in the 1970’s, came to help Mr. Matsumura to do the farming work. Kumiko Oba has especially helped Mr. Matsumura to collect the grass that he has been cutting with a farming machine. She first came to his farm on the 28^th around noon and left before the sun set. Stayed over night in Iwaki-city and came back the next morning from 10 am to 3pm.

Mr. Matsumura and his NPO colleagues decided not to give any names to the new born calves, out of superstition, Matsumura explained: “Two times when we baptized the new born calve, they died few days later. So we decided not give names.” However, Mrs. Kumiko Ohba baptized baby number four, she called it Kometto, “comet” in English, referring from the famous TV drama she starred recently.

Mrs. Ohba expressed her gratitude to Mr. Matsumura before she left the doomed city and said: “Matsumura-san, ganbatte kudasai, please stay strong.”

Mr. Matsumura said that a TV crew tried to enter the forbidden zone to cover the helping attempt of the star singer, but they did not receive permission from the government to accompany her and the 4 other volunteers who visited Mr. Matsumura from May 28 to 29, 2012, inside the Fukushima No-go zone.

Kyoko Miura in Tokyo