Okay, so we've made our donations,
but I feel like I want to DO SOMETHING to help the people of Sendai & the Tohoku district.
And I'm guessing some of you guys might be feeling the same.

I was seriously tempted to go up there as a volunteer last week
but I'm not getting any younger, & with my barely passable Japanese I think I'd be more of a liability.
Plus I think that with all that's going on my place is really here, with my family.

So, wat do?
I don't have much money, & that situation may get worse if the blackouts continue
as lots of the places I work at are closed at the moment.
Guess I picked the wrong time to get into threeA Toys.
Then some things I'd been reading (see my "Baww time" post in the "Earthquake" thread, p14),
and talking to one of my students today, gave me an idea.

The north of Japan is a wasteland right now.
One town on the coast has just disappeared. Completely levelled by the tsunami.
8,000 people lived there.
All listed as "missing" right now.
The police can't find any bodies, let alone survivors.

The people who are left behind are just beginning to get over the shock and the horror of what happened to them,
and they're starting to grieve.
They've lost husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, children.
Children have lost parents, brothers and sisters, friends.

Sure, they're tough and resilient people.
Some of them are already rebuilding their houses,
and some of the kids look like they're having a blast!
It's all some big adventure to them.
It hasn't sunk in yet that they've lost everything.
Everything they ever knew is gone.
And in some cases, everyone.

This is what I'd like you to do:
Get a box, fill it with STUFF, and SEND IT TO ME.

Not your favorite Anraku, dumbass!
I mean those old Bandai Ultrakaiju that you don't display anymore.
Your POKEMONS.
Those Beanie Babies in the plastic tub in the attic -
They'll never be worth what you paid for them again in your lifetime anyway!
I'm talking about TOYS THAT YOU DON'T WANT BUT CAN'T SELL.

C'mon guys! I know you've got 'em!
And I know you can do this!
I know I can fill a box EASY!
... maybe a few.

Candy would be good too I guess.
Colored pencils ... I dunno, whatever you think kids might like!
I don't want you to go out & BUY loads of stuff.
Part of the point is for it just to cost you the shipping.
(Oh, and PLEASE USE SURFACE MAIL, or watever they call it nowadays.
It's much cheaper, & not half as slow as it used to be!)

Old clothes (for kids OR adults) would be cool too, as long as they're clean.
And bear in mind that an American L size is like XL or XXL to a Japanese.
These people have lost EVERYTHING remember.
(You know there are women using cut-up plastic shopping bags and handtowels as babies' diapers up there at the moment?)

So yeah, you're gonna have to go to the Post Office I'm afraid. That might be one drawback.
Another might be trusting me.
Can't help that.
But I has a plan:
Churches and temples here are already doing this kind of thing - mainly with clothes,
not with toys as far as I know.
So, you send it to me, I give it to them.
They will send it on to the shelters.

It's going to be very anonymous.
I won't post your name here.
You won't know where your stuff ends up,
and they won't know where it came from.
Kind of like that Tiger Mask guy.
There won't be any reward - except you just might make some kid's day.

One last thing:
There might already be collections like this going on where you are.
If so, fine.
Please give to them. It'll save you that trip to the PO!
If there aren't ... hey, why not START ONE!
Hassle your neighbors, your colleagues and your friends for clothes they don't want.

TL;DR: Get a box. Fill it with stuff. Send it to stu!

PM me for my addy,
kthxbai.

you're a Teacher??!!!




lol!! those poor kids!


Good for you taking initiative though. Good luck with your mission too.

lol'd.

that sounds awesome... PM'd

Is that the Tiger Mask guy that donates to a school every holiday season? That guy is awesome!!

Yup. And ...

'Tiger Mask' donates gas, oil for evacuees
(The Yomiuri Shimbun) :
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110322002426.htm

That is a great idea. I have been meaning to go through a lot of clothes and toys and such that I have lying around that I don't wear/use anymore and to donate them... Now I have a bigger motivation for me to get on that project asap.

I'll try to look around my local community to see if they have a local collection already started up.. If not, I'll definitely shoot you a pm for your address to send you whatever I can.

Maybe I can ask some of my friends if they have any extra baby clothes and other things to donate as well.

Thanks Alice!

I got really excited reading this - but I'm worried that my possible submission would be stupid. I unearthed a box of my childhood toys (born in 85 mind you) a couple months ago, and was trying to decide who to give/donate them to. It's pretty much a huge jumble of X-Men, Spiderman, Swamp Thing, TMNT, some Ghostbusters, and a few other random things - and a big old metal Voltron. I would be SO ok with donating this, but I'm just hesitant to send stuff that's way before these kids time, not to mention supremely Western characters that they're unlikely to be familiar with.

Would this still be a good idea to pass along? I can't tell

If you're looking for boxes of useful stuff to send, this organization has been doing just that:

http://www.shelterbox.org/

Edited top post to say PLEASE USE SURFACE MAIL
(or whatever it's called nowadays.)
It's cheaper, & not half as slow as it used to be.

@ Crab Rangoon : In all honesty, that stuff sounds awesome!
There WAS a Japanese Spiderman, you know?
And Ghostbusters & TMNT are well-known here.
Plus, give kids credit for imagination ~
"It's not a cardboard box, it's a FORT, silly!"
Kinda depends HOW big that Voltron is whether you want to send it.
But the other stuff? Fine!

@ Roger : That's cool.
Dunno what they put in the boxes for Japan.
I do know they're desperate for clothes up there,
but I'd really like to do something for the KIDS.

C'mon guys. Make me proud!

If you want to see the contents of the box, dig into the site. There's actually stuff for kids in there, too.

Humm ...
Just found this in today's 'paper :

The kids (and parents) will be all right
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110325003530.htm

Not included in the online version is this addendum:

"TOY DRIVE ~ Japan Association of Play Therapy is currently soliciting toys
to be donated for child victims of the March 11 earthquake.
Toys will be sent to the kids and to therapists working with them
in the earthquake & tsunami-hit areas.
For further information, contact Ahkiko Ohnogi at DrAhkikoOhnogi@aol.com"

Have to check it out, but seems legit.
She normally charges 20,000yen an hour,
but she's done volunteer work both in Sri Lanka, after the Indonesian quake,
and in Niigata (Japan) after theirs,
plus she will have the network & resources to get the toys to the kids,
so I think this might be where they're going.
If anyone prefers I still give theirs to a church or smth, please lmk.

Thanks to everyone who's responded so far btw.

(Do people really still use AOL? )

On another note, besides old toys of mine, I also wanted to donate some other stuff. We swung by Target tonight and checked the $1 bins by the front doors and picked up like 8 pairs of different Spiderman socks, and a handful of Disney Princess / Sesame Street socks too. At $1/pr I figured they couldn't hurt (or add any weight) to include in the shipment. I wish I could think of some other cool shit to toss in

It's going to take years to fix this.
Some things, maybe longer.
It's expected that the number of orphans from this quake will run into the hundreds.

"Dear Mommy, I hope you are alive. Are you well?"


Four-year-old Manami Kon sleeps after writing a letter to her mother, who was swept away by the tsunami in Miyako, Iwate Prefecture.

This is the heartbreaking letter written last week by 4-year-old Manami Kon. The girl's mother, father and 2-year-old sister have all been missing since their town was devastated by a tsunami March 11.

Manami is one of many children whose parents have died or remain unaccounted for since tsunami struck coastal towns in the Tohoku and Kanto regions 21 days ago. Children in the towns have been seen looking at the sea, apparently in the belief they will be reunited with their parents some day.
Some smile more than usual, as if trying to drive away loneliness.


Manami gazes at the sea, apparently waiting for her missing parents and younger sister.

Manami's father grew wakame seaweed in the Chikei district of Miyako, a small fishing village near the easternmost cape of Honshu. Manami was at her nursery school when the violent quake struck on March 11.
Her mother picked her up soon afterward and they went to their home, located on high ground overlooking an inlet.
As their house stood next to a local primary school, designated as an earthquake evacuation center, it was thought to be safe.
After they returned home, however, the massive tsunami struck. According to a local disaster management headquarters, the wave reached a height of at least 30 meters, apparently pushed higher by the narrow inlet.
Manami's parents and her 2-year-old sister were carried away by the receding waters. Only Manami is known to have survived.
According to relatives who rushed to the house after the tsunami, Manami was probably saved because the nursery school bag on her back became tangled in a fishing net.

Manami was taken in by other relatives in Chikei. For four days, the district was cut off from surrounding areas as roads and bridges were made impassable by the tsunami.
When her grandmother Shizue Neki finally saw Manami one week after the tsunami, she was worried by the change in her usually lively granddaughter's appearance.
"She looked so sad and said nothing. I thought she'd forgotten how to speak," said Shizue, who lives in an inland area in Miyako.

On the afternoon of March 22, Manami announced she would write a letter to her mother. She opened her notebook on a kotatsu, took up a color pencil and began writing in the hiragana characters she had just learned in school.
Over the course of nearly an hour, she wrote:
"Dear Mommy,
I hope you are alive.
Are you well?"
Soon afterward, she fell asleep.

Manami has begun to smile again, but she will not go near her house. Everything on the first floor was washed away. Looking down the inlet that has changed so much, a look of pain sometimes flashes across her face.
Shizue wants Manami to stay at her house due to the fear of aftershocks. But the girl will not agree, saying: "I'll wait here [in Chikei] until Mom comes home."
Cell phones are not yet working in this area. "Will Papa call me?" Manami asks, holding tight to her father's silver cell phone, with the power turned on.


Manami greets her maternal grandmother Shizue Neki.


Manami eats instant noodles by candlelight at the home of her paternal grandmother Sachiko Kon, center.

(by Norikazu Tateishi, for the Yomiuri Shimbun)

heart breaking and gut wrenching in the same pulse.

Putting this back up there in case there are others who can give who haven't yet. Check out the rad shit that I shipped off last weekend (Stuart received it today!) that will HOPEfully keep some kids busy.






All it cost me was ~10 pairs of socks, and the shipping. I'm happier having done this with ~$100 than just donating the same amount on a website. Just hoping some more Skullbrainer's can participate - thanks for doing this Stu!