he Village Revitalization Volunteering, Supplemental Episode?

~Linking lives, planting lives~ Vol. 1

On December 5th Saturday and 6th Sunday, 18 people visited Iketani to participate in the EARTH TRIP vol.1, “The Earth Walk in Iketani, Niigata & Tree Planting Tour”, organized and held by TOKYO SOURCE.

On the first day of the tour, an earth-walker(＊), Koichi Nakatani and JEN secretary general, Keiko Kiyama had a casual talk over Iketani, called “The Earth Talk from Iketani” at Nakaya, a renovated old house. The encounter of Nakatani and Kiyama goes back to 2006.　

After the talk, JEN had an exchange with the locals. Welcoming a cook from the neighboring village, Matsunoyama, participants enjoyed traditional food and sake of Echigo (the old name for Niigata Prefecture) and had a heartwarming time with the villagers.

JEN will introduce the details of the festival of tree-planting in the next news report.

（＊）a traveler on foot who plants trees all over the world