BEE Japan

As people who’ve been watching our updates and reading about our events here on the site know, I went this past weekend to Sabae, Fukui, to help host a clean-up with friend and BEE Supporter, Taisuke Fukuno of Jig.jp.  Taisuke has been an eager supporter of BEE for the past two years, and he wanted to apply some of BEE’s grassroots activities to his home town of Sabae.

We were all excited leading up to the event, and at 8am on Sunday, June 14th, Taisuke, I, and 8 other friends and coworkers of Jig.jp, including BEE Japan 2008 & 2009 jersey designer, Eddy Tang, gathered in front of Sabae station with the hope of cleaning up the town.

Yet we were immediately confronted with a surprising problem…there was very little gomi littering the streets of Sabae.  The main square’s sidewalks and curbsides were literally spotless!  I was shocked and elated–no trash!  The people here must already have gotten the message, and we already taking great strides in keeping their place clean.  Cheers to Sabae!

But what were we to do?  We had all gotten up at this ungodly hour on a Sunday–could there really be no gomi in all of Sabae?  So we adjusted our plans and set off for Pachinko Parlor Lane, Route 8–the main highway that runs though town–, and a few other non-restdential neighborhoods a few minutes walk from the station.  Sure enough, there was gomi to be found, but considerably less that we expected.

In one hour we collected about 6 45-liter bags of trash, and 1 bag of aluminum cans and glass bottles.  PET Bottles, which usually make up the majority of recyclable trash I find on the streets, were next to nil–another wonderful surprise!  In addition to gathering what trash we could find, we also made some interesting discoveries about the kind of people who are litering (passerbys on the highway who toss cigarettes & cigarettte packs out their windows, Pachinko gamblers), and the places they choose to un-beautify (empty lots, highway roadsides, parking lots).  We also got some good exercise out of the whole thing, which is one of the main goals of the 60-Minute Team, as I explained to everyone who gathered on Sunday.

Despite the lack of trash in what I can easily say is the cleanest city in Japan I’ve ever seen, Taisuke and his fellow employees, primarily up-and-coming 23-year-old Yossi who organized the event, all left the activity more committed to environmental awareness.  The 60-Minute Team grew as well, as Yossi and Taisuke decided to make this a monthly exercise to keeping their town the cleanest in Japan.