An outdoor ice skating rink set up at a paddy field, known as “tanbo (paddy field) rink,” reopened this winter at the Yamakiya district of Kawamata-machi in Fukushima prefecture after a five-year hiatus caused by the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company in March 2011.
Kids are enjoying a fun day at an outdoor ice skating rink in Kawamata-machi, Fukushima prefecture.
Decontamination work was completed in the district last summer. And preparation for reopening the rink was also made by local leaders who wished to revitalize their rural community. Every weekend, the “tanbo rink” is filled with a lot of kids enjoying ice skating.
The rink was created by allowing water to ice up on the paddy field of about 5,000 square meters. It is open free until the end of February.
The Yamakiya “tanbo rink” was first created 32 years ago. Since March 2011, the nuclear accident had forced the residents to evacuate from the district. At the end of August 2015, when the decontamination works were finished there, the people were permitted to tentatively come back to their home for a period of three months. Then the period was extended until the end of this February. Under such situation, local leaders made every effort to reopen the rink.
(Feb. 10, 2016)