JETAA Chicago raises over $7.7K for JETAA USA Fund for Earthquake Relief
Earthquake Tsunami, Events, Fundraising, JETAA Chapters, Return on JET-vestment 
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Thanks to JETAA Chicago Treasurer Thomas Osugi for sharing this recent post by JETAA Chicago President Robert Corder:
“On Saturday, April 9, JETAA Chicago held a fundraiser at the Floating World Gallery to benefit the earthquake relief effort. More than 120 people attended and we were able to raise $7,779.47. In addition to the drinks and appetizer, there were three live bands plus a silent auction and raffle.”
“Additionally, a letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director-General of Public Diplomacy was sent to JETAA Chicago in regards to the work the JETAA Chicago community has performed by raising relief funds and awareness after the tragedy last month in Japan. Please read the full letter here.”
CLICK HERE to read the full post and more details on the JETAA Chicago website.
Fukushima JETs make “I akabe Fukushima” t-shirts
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Some Fukushima JETs have created an “I ‘akabe’ Fukushima“ t-shirt for purchase online. Details here.
From the site:
“We have received permission from Aizu Kanko to use the logo. The T-shirts will be 2000 yen each. The proceeds will be donated to the Fukushima Disaster Countermeasures Office.”
Thank you to Vancouver-based JET alum Alison Dacia Brown (Iwate-ken, Rikuzentakata, 2005-2008) for sharing the below piece which she originally wrote for JETAA British Columbia:
“Rikuzentakata”
Rikuzentakata in Iwate prefecture is the best little town that you’ve never been to.
I think I can safely assume that. I think Vancouverites in particular would have appreciated it because to me, Rikuzentakata as of March 10, 2011, was Vancouver in miniature, complete with a beach and mountains in the background. It made me feel like I was just across the pond from Canada. I actually requested Iwate on my JET application, which hardly anyone does. I was more than lucky to be placed where I was, and not just in terms of geography.
It had a quaint little sake factory called Suisen that held hanami parties during the cherry blossom season. It had a gorgeous, sandy beach lined with thousands of slender, yet majestic pine trees. It had the best neighbours a foreigner could ever have when she is away from home. Neighbours who fed her when she was sick with a stomach infection. It had an amazing Japanese woman, who translated all of her farewell speeches from Japanese into English. It had a hard-working Board of Education. It had an amazing ALT from Alaska.
Suisen is gone but I was told that in the days after the tsunami, the smell of sake permeated the area. I’m sure it was hiding more insidious smells. All of the trees which lined the beach are gone except for one. This tree is now called ‘The Miracle Tree’ and it’s giving hope to tsunami survivors. Unfortunately, it’s become a tourist destination and it’s making transportation into Rikuzentakata difficult.
The neighbour who fed her when she was sick, sometimes 3 times a day, lost her house which also housed the family’s tatami business. Her son was a volunteer firefighter and went directly to the beach to close the tsunami wall. His body was found 4 days ago and he has been cremated. The woman who translated her farewell speeches into English, Mutsuko Ozawa, is alive but has lost her mother, sister, nephew and cousins to the tsunami. Only her sister was found. Her house is gone and she has sent her children to central Japan while she and her husband fix up a new house to live in.
21 out of the 26 people who worked at her Board of Education are dead. It was an emergency meeting point, but unfortunately, the building which housed the Board of Education, was only 3 stories high. The tsunami went over it. My good friend, Kie Murakami, was still working at the Board of Education when the tsunami hit. I was hoping she wasn’t, as people change jobs every 3 years, as many of you know. I prayed she was somewhere else, away from the shore. She was found two weeks ago, and she has left behind a daughter and a husband who will miss her immensely. Kie was with Monty Dickson, who was the current JET ALT. He had taken over my position a year after I left Japan, and I know he loved the place as much as I did. I have a picture of Kie and Monty on the top of the local mountain, and it’s very hard to look at, knowing what has happened to them.
I hope to return someday to help. I think many of the former Iwate JETs feel this way. Right now, the only way I can help is by donating money, which we have all been doing. I have given hugs to Japanese people on Granville street in exchange for money. I have bought t-shirts. I have done a charity walk for Japan to raise money through JETAABC. I have donated money directly. But of course it is not enough. I desperately want to return to my adopted city which took care of me for 3 years to let them know that they have not been forgotten.
Fundraising: JETAA UK
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Via the JETAA UK website:
Thanks to all who have made our ‘Give a Day for Japan‘ scheme and the pub quiz last Thursday such a fantastic success. We’re all doing that we can in the light of Japan’s terrible losses. We have extended our invitation to the JETAA Ball this year (which is a fund-raising event and is thus not subsidised, as in previous years) to the wider Japan-UK community in London. Help us make this a night to remember!
JETAA May Ball in Aid of the Tohoku Earthquake Appeal
Tickets are going faster than limited edition Kate & Will china teacups – so get yours on the double! Check out the amazing conservatory venue – resplendent with fairy-light trimmed palms…
Hosted at the deluxe 4-star Millennium Gloucester Hotel & Conference Centre in the heart of Kensington, London, this year’s JETAA Ball will be raising funds for the Japan Society’s Tohoku Earthquake Appeal, which JETAA UK is also supporting through our Give a Day for Japan scheme.
Date: Saturday 14th May, 19:00 – 23:00
Tickets: £60 (this includes a 3-course buffet dinner with some drinks, a taiko performance from Kaikyo Taiko, music, dancing and a night of fundraising)
Dress Code: Black Tie and Evening Gown
Nearest Tube: Gloucester Road Underground Station (Piccadilly, Circle and District lines)
Overnight stay: Special rates are available for JETAA guests wishing to stay overnight at the hotel, please e-mail for further details.
To Register: Please fill in our online registration form. Read More
Fundraising: JETAA Northern California’s Earthquake Relief Efforts
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Via the JETAA Northern California website:
Thank you to everyone who came out to show their support for JETAANC’s Japan Earthquake Relief Benefit on March 23. The event was a great success, raising over $7,000 for Japan! In addition, JETAANC received a donation of over $1,800 from the PiQ Japan Relief Benefit event held in Berkeley on March 21.
Event: 2nd Japanese Heritage Night at Mets Citifield – Tues, June 21
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Via request of the Consulate General of Japan in New York:
2nd Japanese Heritage Night at Mets Citifield
Please let your members, colleagues, friends and family know that the 2nd Japanese Heritage Night at Mets Citifield will be held on Tuesday June 21st, 2011 when the Mets play the Oakland As with Hideki Matsui in attendance. This is a fundraising event – a portion of each ticket sold through our group will go to Japan relief efforts.
We will be sending out information about Group Sales as soon as the site is set up but this year, seats in three price categories will be grouped together:
- Baseline Box Silver seat =$54.00
- Pepsi Porch seat = $32.00
- Promenade Reserved Infield seat = $19.00
While we understand that not all of you are Mets fans, the Yankees do not provide a Heritage Night and we wanted to have a community event where Japanese and Japanese Americans and all those interested in “things Japanese” could get together and have a good time. We look forward to everyone’s participation again this year.
Last year 400 tickets were purchased. This year, let’s aim for 1,000!
If you are interested in helping out, please contact our organizing committee co-chairs: Ann Harakawa (aharakawa [at] twotwelve.com) or Marianne Yoshioka (mry5 [at] columbia.edu).
Thank you!!
Organizing Committee
Ann Harakawa, Marianne Yoshioka, Gary Moriwaki, Susan J. Onuma, George Hirose
Advisor: Donna Tsufura
Sake and Chefs Tasting to Benefit Relief Efforts in Japan (NYC)
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I believe two JET alum sake experts, John Gauntner and Chris Johnson, are involved with the group that is organizing this event — New York Loves Japan: Sake and Chefs Tasting to Benefit Relief Efforts in Japan — which takes place Wednesday, April 27.
Fundraising event: JETAA Music City to co-host Top Chef Tsunami Relief Sake Dinner – 4/21
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Via JETAA Music City:
JETAA Music City and the Japan-America Society of Tennessee (JAST) will co-host the Top Chef Tsunami Relief Sake Dinner on Thursday, April 21st at Cha Chah in Nashville, TN. Top Chef DC’s Arnold Myint and Top Chef All Star’s Tiffany Derry will be preparing a 5-course meal with sake pairings with proceeds going to the JETAA USA Fund and the Tennessee Tomodachi Fund. The event will also include a Silent Auction.
We are so excited to share that no more reservations are being taken for the event! We are going to have a packed house on this evening for Japan. If you have additional questions, contact Terry Vo at president@mcjetaa.org.
There’s a very thoughtful article titled “This is what public diplomacy looks like“ by JET alum Emily Metzgar, Assistant Professor at Indiana University’s School of Journalism, on the Center for Public Diplomacy blog (which is part of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communications). (This is the same Emily Metzgar conducting the Survey of American Alumni of the JET Program.)
Here’s an excerpt that captures the gist of the piece, namely that JET is providing Japan with a significant “return on JET-vestment“:
“But in the aftermath of Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, the value of having a large, worldwide network of college-educated foreigners who understand, respect and appreciate Japanese society and culture continues to emerge. A look at a JET alumni networking website, JETwit.com, provides ample evidence of the many ways in which current and former JETs are responding in whatever ways they can to the disaster hitting a country that all of them, at one time or another, have called home.”
CLICK HERE to read the full article.
AJET Cares: Care packages for JETs in affected areas
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Via AJET.net:
AJET is trying to coordinate sending care packages to JETs in areas affected by the earthquake. If you, a group of friends, or your prefectural AJET chapter would like to send a care package to a JET who needs it, please see this form for more information and to sign-up: http://tinyurl.com/3v9o25o.
Questions? Contact us at care@ajet.net. Show another JET that you care~
Here’s the full post from the AJET website:
Dear JET Participants,
As you know, many JETs live in areas that were heavily affected by the earthquake and tsunami. Though relief agencies have been making headway, some regions are still without regular access to power, heat, or supplies. NAJET has provided information on volunteering and donating through some of these organizations, but now we’d like to focus on helping out within our own community, JET to JET.
If you have been looking for a way to get involved, whether as a local AJET chapter, as a group, or as an individual, here is an opportunity to help on a very personal level. We will be putting together a database of request for assistance and offer to help from across the nation. JETs in affected areas will be paired with JETs from areas that are able to provide support. Our hope is that this will strengthen the bonds within our community, while providing personal, timely aid.
We will try to arrange recipients and senders based on the specific requests and information provided by both sides. JETs who are able to send supplies should click on the link at the bottom of the page and fill out the “Application to Send Assistance” form. JETs who live in areas affected by disaster should fill out and submit the “Application to Receive Assistance” form at the corresponding link below. JETs living in affected areas may also include requests for items in need at a specific evacuation shelter.
Once NAJET pairs up applicants and contact is established on both sides, we hope that the support relationship will grow from there, and that JETs will be able to communicate between one another. However, if you need any advice or support, please don’t hesitate to contact us. The list of respondents will be continuously updated, and the more people can help out, the better. We strongly encourage senders to work together with their prefecture’s AJET chapter!
Guidelines for what to include, box size limits, etc. are included on the application forms.
We will be matching up JETs as we get more information, so it may take some time before you have a contact. We ask for your patience, and in the meantime, encourage you to get involved in your local communities by raising money or gathering donations. For a list of ways that you can help out, please browse our website.
Click here to SEND a care package
Click here to REQUEST a care package
For questions, comments, feedback, please contact: care@ajet.net
JET alum Canon Purdy’s “Save Miyagi Fund”
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By Jen Wang (Miyagi-ken, Tome-shi, 2008-09), writer for J-music website Purple Sky. She also maintains her own J-pop culture blog, Gaijin Teacher Otaku.
JET alum and tsunami survivor Canon Purdy (Miyagi-ken, Shizugawa-cho, 2008-10) has created the Save Miyagi fund with her family to help the students in Minamisanriku. Currently she is working with the mayor and the BOE to determine where the funds are needed most.
In addition to seeking donations, she is asking both current and former JETs to send her links to fundraisers and other charity events to be promoted on the Save Miyagi site. She is also looking for photos of places before they were destroyed by the tsunami to send to the victims as a way to raise morale and give them something to hold onto.
You can email your links and photos to canon.purdy [at] gmail.com .
Japan Times article on evolving needs of Tohoku residents
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Relief workers must adjust quickly
Individuals, groups face challenge identifying constantly changing needs of survivors
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110406f1.html
Something to keep in mind as everyone tries to think about the best places to donate. Basically, it’s a moving target to some extent.
Toronto Fukushima JET alum fundraising
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Just noticed on Brent Stirling’s (Fukushima) blog ForYourBrentertainment an item about some Toronto JET alums (Jason Ishida and Eric Chan) who worked in Fukushima who have organized a Japan fundraising event for this coming Saturday, April 9 at Orville’s Pub as well as an additional fundraiser on Sunday, April 10 at the Toronto Buddhist Church Social Hall.
Fukushima City JET Brent Stirling recently put out word to JETAA chapters about Quakebook, “a book of stories, art and photographs that reflected first person accounts of the disaster” which will soon be available on Amazon.com with all proceeds going to benefit the Japan Red Cross. Brent contributed his own story and has also offered to help with marketing and spreading the word. Below Brent provides some insight into the unique process that led to the creation of of the project as well as his own involvement.
I lived in Fukushima City from August 2006 to August 2010 and worked as an ALT there. The recent earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis in Tohoku has had me glued to my computer since it began, as has probably been the case with all JET Alumni. Keeping in contact with my friends in Fukushima-ken through Facebook and Twitter, I felt helpless as far as how to help and what to do.
With limited access to news in the first days after the quake, I compiled information from friend’s Facebook status updates, Twitter and a variety of news sources. I sent these updates via Facebook to my friends who didn’t have the time to comb through the news in order to get an accurate picture of what was going on. Updates included news about transportation, gas, areas with running water, wind directions, reactor conditions and radiation levels. Facebook became a source of news for everyone in the prefecture. The current and former Fukushima JET community along with Japanese people worked together in order to get a clear picture of what was going on in Fukushima.
A week after the earthquake, I was sent a link to a blog asking for contributions about the earthquake. The blogger, OurManInAbiko, hoped to create a book of stories, art and photographs that reflected first person accounts of the disaster. He vowed to edit all the submissions and donate all of the proceeds to the Japanese Red Cross. Looking to help anyway I could, I put in a submission about my experience in Canada throughout the ordeal and how proud the JETs and Japanese community had made me throughout the crisis. My submission discusses sensationalism in the media and how the JET community worked together using social media to overcome adversity and share accurate news on the situation as it unfolded. I didn’t know that within 15 hours, OurManInAbiko had received 74 eyewitness submissions from all over Japan, as well as reactions from elsewhere in Asia, Europe and North America.
Through Twitter, the idea of #Quakebook grew. Just as the Fukushima-ken JETs had used social networks in order to keep in contact, #Quakebook was using the networks in order to promote and create a book. People joined in to spread the word and help with the logistics of publishing a book of this magnitude in such a short span of time. Soon after, writer, William Gibson wrote a piece for the book, then Jake Adelstein contributed, Yoko Ono has recently come on board, offering her own piece in Japanese and English Through the work of so many on Twitter from all over the world, #Quakebook began to take off. Articles appeared on the BBC website, the Wall Street Journal and CNN Go to name a few. Amazon has agreed to publish the book, waiving all of their fees with 100% of the money going to the Japanese Red Cross. The all-volunteer team of #Quakebook is now working at getting translations of the book into different languages so that it can be a truly worldwide phenomenon.
The group that comprises the Quakebook team is continually growing. Every person involved is using their skills and their own contacts in order to get the word out to every corner of the globe. The team, while working closely is completely anonymous as everyone is referred to by their Twitter names. My role has been very small throughout the Quakebook marketing process, but I believe in the book and I think it has the potential to bring people who are otherwise removed from the situation in Japan closer to it. In buying the book, not only are people making a donation to the Japanese Red Cross, but they’re also getting the stories of the people involved, the people that this disaster has affected.
I know that all JET Alumni are tied to Japan the same way that I am. Everyone’s time in Japan had a profound affect on where they are now and what they’ve done with their lives. I’m hoping that this connection to Japan will get JET Alumni Associations worldwide to support and promote this book as best they can. By putting a link to the Quakebook website on your blog, printing Quakebook posters for around your neighbourhood or your local library or getting it into the media wherever you are, everyone can make a difference in this project and help with the relief efforts in Japan.
- Pre-order the book at www.quakebook.org
- Excerpts from Quakebook
- Brent’s re-work of his submission
NHK video of JETAA NY Fundraiser
Cultural Outreach, Earthquake Tsunami, Events, Fundraising, JETAA Chapters, JETs in the News, Networking, Roland Kelts, Video Comments Off on NHK video of JETAA NY Fundraiser
Thanks to Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99) for sharing the link to this NHK video on Tuesday night’s JETAANY Japan Fundraiser:
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/jishin0311/movie/chapter_66.html
