About a week after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami devastated Tohoku and shocked the entire nation, Bernd Kestler, who teaches knitting in Yokohama, received an unexpected parcel from a friend in Germany.
"The whole country was shut down and suddenly there was my Christmas present. When I opened it, it was full of yarn, chocolate cake and Christmas stuff," the 47-year-old German said of his surprise Christmas gift.
The parcel inspired Kestler, who began knitting when he was about 12 years old, to think of ways he could use the yarn to help the disaster survivors.