#Radioactive Japan: #Fukushima Girls Road Race Is On, Right Now, Again

How time flies. It seems like only yesterday that I reported on the "ekiden" road race held in high-radiation Fukushima City, with girls as young as 13 years old.

It's on this year again. They did it last year, when the contamination was more severe. So why not this year?

FNN News just reported that the team from Kanagawa Prefecture won, 2nd year in a row. The youngest runner in the team? 14 year old. 9 out of 13 members are below the age of 20, most of them mid teens. (See this blog if you read Japanese.)

Even the winner is the same as last year.

In fact, as fall passes into winter, the fun events in Japan are exactly the same as last year:

• kindergarteners collecting fallen leaves in the park, to make a bonfire to cook sweet potatoes;

• small children harvesting rice in small paddies in the park (like in Yokohama City);

• mushroom extravaganza in school lunches.

And why not? They did the spring events just like last year too:

• kindergarteners digging up bamboo shoots, planting rice;

• school athletic meets in spring;

• serving mandarin oranges that contain radioactive cesium, because it's a long-standing contract with the vendor (cities in Kanagawa Prefecture)

• school children picking new tea leaves, cleaning the sludge in school swimming pools.

and on and on.

At some point, the Japanese will have only themselves to blame.

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