Let's All Stand Together!

Without time to dwell on travel fatigue or the shock of the disaster, I felt an urgent need to protect Japan's sake breweries and its culinary culture. So, I immediately began organizing small-scale charity events to raise funds using Japanese sake.

But this sentiment wasn't mine alone; it was shared by everyone involved in the sake and Japanese food industries in New York. So, we decided, 'Let's all join hands and rise together!' Consequently, importers and distributors, who are usually rivals, along with restaurant professionals, liquor stores, and everyone else involved in the alcohol business, gathered together. Through daily meetings, dozens or hundreds of emails exchanged each day, and the support of collaborators outside New York, a historic sake event was organized.

Its name? Simply,

NY LOVES JAPAN !!

New Yorkers, who seemingly know no such word as 'restraint,' showed their support for Japan by drinking, eating, talking, and throwing a grand party!


Enjoying the food and sake of disaster-stricken Japan, and boasting about how much they love the country. People of all races eagerly participated, thinking, 'If drinking and eating can support Japan, I'm happy to do so!' This is truly New York, the melting pot of cultures.

Over 100 types of premium sake and numerous popular New York restaurants participated (making one worry about their regular business that day!). Companies that resonated with this event donated an abundance of treasures for auction, including round-trip tickets between New York and Narita, luxury hotel stays, goods from popular breweries, artworks, private cooking lessons from renowned chefs, and collector's items from famous American artists provided by Sony Music.
http://www.nylovesjapan.com/

The total sales for the day exceeded $70,000, all of which was sent as a donation through the Japanese Red Cross. As this was an event planned on short notice, all the staff were incredibly anxious until the very last moment. But when the event opened, many people showed up, and seeing so many New Yorkers enjoying sake and Japanese food truly made us happy.

An Email from Ripper, Academic Director at Fordham University

In addition to this event, restaurants throughout New York offered special menus daily to support sake breweries in the disaster-stricken regions. SAKAYA, New York's only sake specialty store, also held daily tasting events to support the affected areas. Sandy, a friend from Taiwan studying at Fordham University, a leading business school in New York, organized a charity sake tasting event for students, also raising funds.

Actually, because this event took place soon after my return from Japan, I was so overwhelmed by the shock that I couldn't properly convey the situation in Japan to everyone without showing tears. After the event, I honestly emailed my feelings to Ripper, the Academic Director and a supporter of the event, apologizing for my inability to speak calmly. To my surprise, I received wonderful encouragement in return.
I would like to share the translated content of that email with all of you.

Thank you, Chizuko. I can easily imagine how difficult it must be for you to speak calmly about the current situation in front of so many people. But I am deeply moved by the spirit with which you shared your experiences in Japan via email. What I am about to say is something I have never told anyone before, but I want to share it here for the first time.

I have been married to my wife for many years. However, my family and hers were vastly different. The religious differences were significant, but we were different in almost every aspect. Therefore, both my wife and I were very concerned about whether we could truly build a life together as a family.

We planned to have our wedding ceremony in the garden of a small restaurant in the New York suburbs where my wife grew up. Since it was an outdoor wedding, we were very worried about the weather. But in the end, the day was unbelievably, perfectly clear and sunny. Under that clear sky, both our families, who had been so worried, became very close. And we realized then that we weren't so different after all. And what I remembered most vividly from that day was simply the weather.

It was a perfect day. Perfect sun, perfect temperature. A perfect day. Since that day, whenever the weather was good, it became the benchmark. For example, 'The weather is wonderful today, just like the day we got married,' or 'The weather is nice today, but not as perfect as that day. It's a bit cold (or hot, or cloudy).'

When 9/11 happened, that day became the worst day of my life. Fortunately, no one I knew personally was harmed, but at the end of that day, sitting with my wife in our backyard in New Jersey, looking up at the sky, I thought, 'The day we got married was also a day with such perfect weather.'

From that day on, I realized something. Before 9/11, on beautiful weather days, I would think of our perfect wedding day. But from that day forward, on beautiful weather days, I found myself thinking, 'That day, September 11th, also had such perfect weather.' Chizuko, just as your enjoyable, perfect day with the brewery workers in Iwate was completely overturned, I too felt that all pleasant memories, all beautiful memories, had taken on a different meaning.

But joy has returned. Many years have passed since then, and now joy has returned. I can once again look up at the beautiful sky and compare it to the perfect weather on my wedding day. A perfect day. It took some time to reach this point, but it will surely happen again someday.

You will surely remember the time you spent drinking delicious sake the night before the earthquake, and you should not forget it. But life has a way of triumphing. And you will undoubtedly find joy again, feel it, and love again, and for that, we must strive.

I am looking forward to the next sake tasting. And I pray for the moment when we can both encounter that spirit. A perfect day.



This email is my treasure. Encouraged by people I met through sake from around the world, it gives me the courage to move forward. And if there are others in the world who are hurting and struggling, I want to offer them even a little comfort and strive to stand up together. I will strive not to turn away from the painful reality.

Of course, I do not believe that our support for Japan ended with this. What one person can do, what two, three, ten, or a hundred people can do.

What can we do from far away in New York? Wherever we are in the world, I want to live each day with care, without forgetting that spirit.