Did you know there’s an event where you can receive great coupons for dining and shopping, and enjoyably and casually support recovery efforts?
As a recovery-support event following the July 2018 Heavy Rain Disaster, the “Takahashi River Basin Tour Rally,” a stamp rally using the free smartphone app “Porkun,” was held from March 15 to June 16, 2019.
During the event, you could get not only great coupons, but also enter a drawing for local specialties and fabulous prizes by collecting five or more stamps at participating stores.
It’s an event where you can enjoy a little outing on a holiday or during Golden Week while getting great deals.
Later in the article, we interviewed the organizing company, “People Software Co., Ltd.,” and asked about recommended tour routes and their thoughts behind planning a recovery-support event as a local company.
Please read through to the end of the article.
The information presented was accurate when this article was published in April 2019. Please note that it may differ from current information.
What is the 2nd Takahashi River Basin Tour Rally?
The “2nd Takahashi River Basin Tour Rally” is an event where you visit 21 restaurants, variety shops, and other businesses in Mabi, Yakage, and Soja, and can enter a drawing for local specialties and fabulous prizes by collecting five or more stamps.
Coupons that can be used at participating stores, such as discounts, are also available at 16 locations.
To collect stamps, download the free smartphone app “Porkun” and use it when you visit a store in person.
The idea was to use stores that had reopened as bases for helping the region recover.
The event was planned by “People Software Co., Ltd.,” which is headquartered in Kurashiki City.
Participating stores in the 2nd Takahashi River Basin Tour Rally
The “2nd Takahashi River Basin Tour Rally” features a wide range of businesses, from restaurants and variety shops to convenience stores.
The participating stores are as follows.
- Wohl Wollen
- Henkotsu Udon Mabi
- Sanuki Udon Kawahara
- Taro’s Shop
- 7-Eleven Mabi-cho Yata
- FamilyMart Mabi-cho Yata
- 7-Eleven Mabi-cho Ozaki
- Shokubo Tsuo
- Handmade Udon Iori
- Suisha no Sato Fruitopia
- Bicchuya Choemon Restaurant Yurari
- Yakage Hojo Akatsuki no Kura
- Yakage Machiya Exchange Center
- Yakageya INN & SUITES
- Mashroom
- Tsunagaru Cafe [Sen]
- Freshly Baked Bread Specialty Shop Ippondo Okayama Soja
- Bakery Tonguu
- Cafe Konon
- Marumi Koji Honten
- Oni Bikkuri Manju Honpo
These are 21 stores in Mabi, Yakage, and Soja, including businesses that had to suspend operations due to disaster damage but have since reopened.
Local specialties and prizes available in the 2nd Takahashi River Basin Tour Rally
In the “2nd Takahashi River Basin Tour Rally,” download the free smartphone app “Porkun” and visit participating stores to collect five or more stamps. You’ll then be entered in a drawing for local specialties and fabulous prizes from Mabi, Yakage, Soja, and elsewhere.
▼Prize A (enter with 10 stamps)▼
| Prize | Number of winners |
|---|---|
| Chiyagyu Beef roast yakiniku | 3 people |
▼Prize B (enter with 5 stamps)▼
| Prize | Number of winners |
|---|---|
| Yakageya: Bamboo Kaiseki Course meal vouchers for two | 1 pair |
| Samakuru Okayama: Akayane Olive Oil Variety Set | 1 person |
| KAMOI KAKOSHI CO., LTD.: Masking Tape Set | 3 people |
| Usagiya: Sharbo X (ballpoint pen) | 3 people |
| Marumi Koji Honten: Miracle Miso and Miracle Amazake Set | 3 people |
| Teori Co., Ltd.: HOLLOW single-flower vase | 5 people |
| Yakage Machiya Exchange Center: Yakappy Goods Set | 10 people |
| Brazilian Park Washuzan Highland: Free Pass (for two) | 10 pairs |
The event ran for three months, from March 15 to June 16, 2019, and the entry deadline was June 23.
The event period was set long enough for you to visit at your own pace.
We hope you’ll visit five or more locations and win a prize.
Next, we spoke with three people in charge of Porkun at “People Software Co., Ltd.” about what prompted the “Takahashi River Basin Tour Rally” and their recommended routes.
Interview with three people from People Software Co., Ltd.
From left: Miyuki Yamahata of People Software Co., Ltd. (People), Managing Director Takahiro Ikeda, and Sales Division General Manager Hiroaki Yamamoto.
What prompted the Takahashi River Basin Tour Rally?
Could you tell us what led to holding the Takahashi River Basin Tour Rally?
Ikeda
People has worked in Okayama for 37 years as an IT company, making its technical expertise its strength, but when the July 2018 Heavy Rain Disaster struck, we felt powerless because there was nothing we could do to help through our systems, even in the face of a disaster.
After the heavy rains, the first thing People could do was donate one million yen to Kurashiki City as disaster relief funds.
But I kept wondering whether it was enough for a Kurashiki company to simply donate one million yen—something a company from anywhere could do—and leave it at that.
If we were going to spend one million yen anyway, we wanted to create something that would generate an economic impact of two or three million yen, rather than simply making a donation.
So we decided to hold the second tour rally as a recovery-support event, involving not just ourselves but other companies as well.
We are truly grateful to the 14 sponsoring and supporting companies and organizations who agreed with the purpose of this event. We intend to see it through to the best of our ability.
By the way, the first rally covered a wider area and was partly funded by a subsidy, but this time People is organizing it on its own.
Why did you choose spring for the event?
Ikeda
I commute through Mabi, so day by day I could see stores gradually reopening and lights slowly coming back on around town.
Some had decided to reopen despite the difficulties, but many people were still living in temporary housing or staying with relatives, and I worried about whether the businesses could stay afloat.
Residents can return because there are stores, and stores can stay in business because they have customers. We wanted to support the stores that had reopened.
That said, repairs to the river embankments were progressing rapidly but were not yet complete, and recovery was at different stages for each person affected by the disaster. I also wondered if it might be a little too soon.
But more than six months had passed since the disaster, media coverage and the number of volunteers were declining, and the disaster was beginning to fade from people’s minds. We felt it was important to let people know what was happening now and to have them come and see for themselves, so we decided to hold the event at this time.
Yamamoto
If our goal were profit, we would focus on attracting customers to specific stores, but this time we were thinking about recovery support and attracting visitors to the area.
During a TV interview about the “Takahashi River Basin Tour Rally” that aired recently, someone from a participating store said something that really touched us.
“Rather than asking people to come to our store, we’d be happy if they would simply make the trip to Mabi.”
We all felt exactly the same way, so we were glad we planned the event.
We hope to turn this sentiment into “bringing lots of people from outside the area, encouraging them to visit several places within the area, and, if possible, making them repeat visitors.”
We’d be happy if people came in person and got a sense of the situation on the ground. Businesses not participating in the event are also doing their best, so we hope this can be an opportunity for people to visit the area as a whole, whether or not the event is taking place.
Recommended routes for the 2nd Takahashi River Basin Tour Rally
Since this is a “tour,” could you recommend any routes?
Ikeda
I’ll suggest a route that families and children can enjoy.
First, have udon at Henkotsu Udon in Mabi, then enjoy strawberry picking at Suisha no Sato Fruitopia in Yakage.
“Yakage Town General Sports Park” is near Fruitopia, so you could enjoy spring and have some fun there, too.
Finally, I recommend buying vegetables at “Yakage-juku Aozora Market Kirari” so you can head home ready to prepare dinner.
Yamamoto
I recommend all of them (laughs), but the route I actually tried the other day was to stock up on bread at “Bakery Tongu” in Soja, then have a picnic at “Makibi Park.”
It’s also fun to get a feel for history at “Makibi Memorial Hall” or check out local specialties at “Takenoko Chaya.”
Finally, I recommend taking a break at one of the participating convenience stores before heading home (laughs).
Yamahata
In Soja, perhaps Marumi Koji Honten, which also held a recovery appreciation event in March, followed by the striking Oni Bikkuri Manju Honpo, and then Cafe Kokon in front of JR Soja Station, or Tsunagaru Cafe –Sen–.
We hope people will learn that even in the disaster-affected areas of Mabi, Yakage, and Soja, there are fun places and places working hard, and come enjoy them casually.
About the “Porkun” App Used for the Takahashi River Basin Rally
Did the number of app downloads or the way coupons were used change through the rally?
Yamamoto
We reached our target for app downloads, which we had planned to achieve over three months, in just one month.
Since the rally began, “Porkun” has had far more downloads than expected, and we’re surprised by the response.
I think the difference from the first rally last year comes down to the passion behind it.
I feel that this chain of passion, rather than simply providing a system or tools and calling it a day, is what’s driving the response.
Ikeda
Coupons are distributed through the app, but some people may think, “This is for disaster recovery support, so I’ll deliberately not use them.”
But I hope you’ll support recovery by “buying lots” or “coming back again.”
Coupon usage is accumulated as performance data, which becomes valuable information to help shops run their businesses better—and that, too, supports recovery.
Oh, and don’t worry: the performance data cannot identify individuals (laughs).
Yamahata
As the point of contact for this rally, I strongly sense people’s desire to support recovery.
I think it’s wonderful that people who can go in person, such as disaster-relief volunteers, are able to help directly.
But I think there are also people who want to do something, even if they can’t help directly.
It makes me happy to think that this may be giving those people a way to get involved.
The “Porkun” app used for the Takahashi River Basin Rally can be used beyond this event. What are your plans for it going forward?
Yamahata
“Porkun” now has more than 400 participating shops in Okayama Prefecture.
Shops can digitize their stamp cards, and even shops that don’t use paper stamp cards can easily give it a try, so more and more shops are adopting it.
There are many users in Okayama, and the app has a feature for collecting stamps when you visit shops, so I’d be happy if shops that haven’t adopted it yet would give it a try, too.
Ikeda
Users may download and use the app because of this event, but we feature a variety of shops in Kurashiki and Okayama, not just in the disaster-affected areas, so we hope you’ll visit those shops as well.
People is now in its 37th year, but when we were approaching our 30th anniversary, if you asked, “Have we done anything for our local communities of Okayama and Kurashiki?” the answer was that we hadn’t done much.
As part of People’s commitment, our management policy became to contribute to our local community going forward, and “Porkun” was born from that effort.
To be honest, when viewed as a business, there are challenges, including profitability.
However, many People employees are from Okayama, so we hope to come together as a company to nurture and promote “Porkun.”
From the Writer
The “Second Takahashi River Basin Rally” is a new way to support recovery while enjoying a stroll around town.
Even people who can’t go as far as volunteering can easily support recovery.
This stamp rally, where you can enjoy delicious food and activities and may even win luxurious local specialties and prizes, is being held through June 16, 2019.
During Golden Week or on an upcoming day off, why not visit Mabi, Yakage, and Soja?
First, download “Porkun” and see what kinds of shops are listed.
What would you like to know about Kurashiki?
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