Bringing joy to Japan
A yoga- music duo from Vancouver hopes to lift the spirits of tsunami victims.
Sachie Kageyama can’t forget Fukushima. The city, her childhood home, was struck by a catastrophic triple meltdown at its nuclear power plant following the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
While touring Japan last September with yoga teacher and singer- songwriter Will Blunderfield, the music manager met a young girl whose family had moved out of Fukushima after the disaster.
“She was in a new city and none of the children in the park wanted to play with her or touch her. They thought she was radioactive.”
In Fukushima, families are still afraid to let their children play outdoors, says Kageyama. Restrictions on outdoor play were put in place after the disaster, an attempt to limit exposure to radiation. Most restrictions have been lifted, but the fear remains.
A year after the meltdown, 36 per cent of the children in the area are suffering from abnormal cysts and growths on their thyroids.
Although dozens of indoor playgrounds are being built, children are also suffering from a sense of loss, headaches, depression and rising obesity, according to health researchers.
Their plight inspired Kageyama and Blunderfield to design a unique aid mission — to bring yoga and music to the children of Fukushima.
“The purpose is to bring hope and joy,” said Blunderfield.
The Fukushima project, an initiative entirely funded through donations, will bring an inspirational yoga and music experience to elementary school children and preschoolers in Fukushima during a week- long series of events in March.
In addition to bringing his musical yoga to children, Blunderfield will train elementary school teachers in children’s yoga. To facilitate ongoing opportunities for the schoolchildren to do yoga, they are fundraising to buy yoga mats for the schools.
“Yoga and music are life forces, they elevate,” Blunderfield said.
Blunderfield’s unique “glee yoga” incorporates singing, dancing and inspirational play, making it a hit with kids and adults, and has made him one of Vancouver’s most beloved yoga teachers.
Making yoga fun is one of Blunderfield’s specialties — and he has seen his own life turned around by the practice.
The singer- songwriter, who grew up in Vancouver, was a choir nerd well before Glee made that sort of thing cool. He studied musical theatre in New York before returning to Canada where he tried out for Canadian Idol.
After getting cut from the top 75 for being “too theatrical,” Blunderfield immersed himself in yoga. After he started singing in classes — everything from rock anthems to chant to his own songs — he found his voice, an audience and a following.
Blunderfield has a huge following in Japan, where yoga and pop culture intersect in unusual ways. On a recent tour, he was surprised to hear his yoga- influenced tune Longtime Sun in rotation on a pop station, played right after Christina Aguilera.
“In Tokyo, I taught a yoga class. They gave me a Britney Spears microphone and a disco ball came down from the ceiling,” he recalls.
After performing at the opening and closing ceremonies of the Yokohama Yoga fest — one of the largest yoga festivals in the world — last September and participating in a local Pray For Japan relief fundraiser, he and Kageyama decided to create their own relief effort.
Kageyama, who flew over to Japan immediately after the earthquake toting plastic bins full of infant formula, diapers and noodles, said her sister laughed at her when she showed up wearing makeshift radiation gear — three layers of face masks, waterproof clothing and goggles.
Like the rest of the world, she was operating out of fear. This rescue operation, says Blunderfield, “is about love.”
The effects of the radiation on the 360,000 children under the age of 18 who lived in Fukushima Prefecture is not yet fully understood, but “the fear and stigma makes it worse,” said Kageyama. “It’s not a virus. It’s not a flu. Fukushima is still a beautiful place.”
Blunderfield and a host of other performing artists are holding a yoga and music fundraiser for The Fukushima Project on Jan. 19, at 10 a. m. at the Vancouver Buddhist Temple. All ages are welcome. Admission is $ 30 at the door. Donations can also be made at gofundme. com/ 1ongt4.