If you’re in Tokyo, come to this fundraising event and make a difference. There will be great live music and a raffle in the warm, friendly surroundings of the Lighthouse Bar. It will also be an opportunity to meet people who have been involved in activism and volunteer activities for […]
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Recovery?: Reflecting on 1000 days.
As I’ve been working on relief projects in various tsunami-hit communities across the affected areas in Iwate, Fukushima and Miyagi for well over two years already, the term of “復興 (‘fukkou’ = Recovery/Reconstruction)” is one that I’ve heard multiple times every single day. I visited a small “Recovery” shop near […]
Super Typhoon Haiyan Relief Listing
The following is a group-sourced list of information regarding the response efforts for Super Typhoon Haiyan. The list is very basic right now, but if you have anything you’d like to contribute, please click the following link. (You may need to log into a gmail account to edit) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0An0o7AIHQBdVdGFoSjJEOUE4ZXZod3ZMeXFEQm9wSHc&usp=sharing As […]
Moving Forward
As one of the admins of the FVJ forum, I thought it was time to address the Garin Dart case. In regards to questions about the lack of updates on this page about the case, there are two main reasons. The first is that the core group that formed the […]
Distribution Issues in the Early Days
This is a post based on a recent conversation on the forum. There’s been a lot of conflicting information that has been passed around regarding the issue of aid distribution, and the matter that even the Tokyo Metropolitan Government stopped taking donations as of March 21st, there’ve been a few […]
Playground of Hope Project
Today was an exciting day. The first round of play-sets were officially opened in Ishinomaki, courtesy Michael Anop’s phenomenal Playground of Hope initiative. Big thanks to Jamie El-Banna and the NPO It’s Not Just Mud for assembling the Miyagi sets! The project addresses a very real need for kids stuck […]
Things that are still happening
I really didn’t know what to say about the one-year anniversary of the quake and tsunami. At 2:46 on March 11th the entirety of Japan apparently came to a standstill. From Shibuya crossing to Rikuzentakata, everybody just stopped what they were doing, whether they were in a grocery store or […]
Vol Projects: Aid Distribution #1: The Warehouse
Volunteering Projects: Aid Distribution #1: The Warehouse For this series, I’d like to walk through several of thevarious volunteer projects out there. Volunteering in Tohoku involves many different types of work. Everythingfrom gutting buildings – digging and scrubbing mud – gutting houses – knocking downwalls – running community cafes – holding […]
Student Experience with HANDS Kitakami
Letter from volunteer Micah (exchange student) to Japan Studies Student Leaders, Willamette University. Copied here with permission from Micah and Anna Thomas of the HANDS Kitakami NPO Greetings from Japan! Many of you may not know who I am, so I shall take a brief moment to introduce myself. I […]
List of Tohoku Initiatives
The List of Tohoku Initiatives is a great crowd-sourced project by the group behind the Tohoku Planning Forum. Using an attractive webpage designed to utilize regularly updated information compiled via Google Docs, viewers are presented with an increasingly comprehensive list of the several initiatives out there that are addressing the […]
