Living & Working in Ishikawa, Japan
Every year, our JET neighbors in Toyama put on an International Charity Show to raise money for local and international charities. The first Charity Show was held in 1990, and 2011 marks its 21st anniversary. The show is attended by more than 900 people every year and is written, choreographed, and produced entirely by JETs. Sorry for the short notice, but if you’re free this weekend, you should definitely check it out!
On July 1st & 2nd, the Toyama International Charity Show Committee proudly presents Dance Royale, the 21st annual Charity Show.
A visual and aural treat, Dance Royale is a musical comedy that follows the trials of high school student Rin and her teammates who belong to the school’s Pop Idol Team club. This light-hearted tale of the underdog promises to entertain while reminding us that there is no ‘I’ in team.
Check out the following information from Shimane JET about ways to support their fundraiser benefitting the Japanese Red Cross and Tohoku Kids Project:
Hello!
The JETs of Shimane-ken (in southern Honshu) have organised a large-scale fundraiser in aid of Tohoku, and we’re looking for support. Next Sunday we will climb our highest mountain, Mt. Sanbe, in a display of support from the ALT/CIR community living in Japan. We’re hoping to have 200 people, foreign and Japanese, come together to take part. We’ve also invited the local media, and we plan to have a photo op at the summit with banners of encouragement and flags from our countries.
Together with this message we are also raising money for the Japanese Red Cross and the Tohoku Kids Project. Our goal is to raise $10,000 USD from personal donations and online sponsorship from friends and family at home. All expenses for the event (such as insurance, buses, etc) are being covered by SAJET with help from National AJET, so 100% of the money raised will be given to these charities.
Since we launched 2 weeks ago, we have made good progress and brought in over $3,000 in international donations. Now, with just under a week to go, we’re looking to the wider JET community for help and support. If you could advertise our event website on Facebook or by email, we would really appreciate it. If you want to donate directly and securely via Paypal, please use the links at the end of this email.
We know that many people have already given large amounts to various charities since the disaster, but if you have 1000 or 2000 yen to spare, every little bit helps with giving our message a big impact.
Please check out our website for all the details: www.sanbehike.com
よろしくおねがいします！
Shimane AJET
This guest post is by Jeff Shieh, the CIR in Uchinada.
Acacia Romantic Festival Flyer (pdf)
Uchinada Town is holding its annual Acacia Romantic Festival on Sunday, May 15, 2011. Every year, there is a flea market and local performances. This year, in light of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake, they have made this into a charity event, where a portion of the proceeds from the flea market will go to relief funds.
AJET has never participated in this festival before, but this year, we would like to run a small booth. For that, we need volunteers to help out!
Here are the details:
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100% of the proceeds from 2:46 – Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake will be donated to the Japan Red Cross. The Kindle e-book is available for purchase at the US and UK Amazons. If you do not have a Kindle, you can download a FREE Kindle app for your Mac, PC, or smart phone with your purchase.
The 2:46 Quakebook project started with a tweet and is on the verge of something great, a way that we can help all those hit by the the March 11th, 2011 earthquake and its aftermath.
Led by OurManInAbiko, a call went out across Twitter for contributors to create a book to raise funds for Red Cross Japan. The idea was to share the stories and experiences of people actually on the ground during the earthquake, whilst raising funds for the Red Cross.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been affected by this event; from those directly in the earthquake zone, the path of the tsunami, in the evacuation area around the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, to those in many other areas of Japan, whose lives have been disrupted by rolling power blackouts, poor road conditions, food and water supply difficulties, and more.
The contributions in 2:46 Quakebook have come from a wide variety of sources, and include photographs, personal accounts, drawings; each telling their own tale.
All revenues from sales of the book goes directly to Red Cross, Japan. We urge you to buy the book, buy a copy as a gift, promote it, share it, tweet about it, review it, blog about it, link to it, etc.
The tale of the evolution of QuakeBook can be found under the hashtag #quakebook on Twitter.
This post is by Megan Lam, Charity Representative.
The date has been changed to Friday, 15 April!
Hope you are all enjoying spring break or already had some time off! It is finally SPRING and we’ll get to see the sakura come out soon. NEXT weekend is the Daishoji hanami and AJET would like to kick off the weekend with a chill open mic event Friday night at Apre.
We were waiting on Apre’s response and finally got the okay this weekend. We will be holding a charity fundraiser to support the AJET Relief Fund and Red Cross of Japan. We will be splitting the donations between the two charities.
Performers: Anyone is welcome to perform! This time it will be more low-key, so we won’t have a set schedule, but we would appreciate if you could e-mail us to let us know if you are interested. Please invite your friends to come perform as well!
Donations: An anonymous donor will be MATCHING however much is collected during the event up to 100,000 yen!!! Every bit counts and every yen will go towards charity for the Japan disaster relief.
Hope you can all make it this Friday.
AJET Open Mic Charity Fundraiser
Donations collected for AJET Relief Fund and Red Cross Japan
Date: April 15, 2011
Time: 9PM-11PM
Location: APRE in Katamachi
Performances: OPEN to everyone. We will have some music playing as well in between performances.
Reposted from NAJET:
For Ishikawa please visit: http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/29984502
Been wondering what all the facebook statuses were about? Ready to find out what 5toSurvive is really about?
5toSurvive is an International walking/running event organised by Tom Cole, and English teacher in Ishikawa. Please see his message below to see how you can get involved, or even organise your own event!
As someone who lives in Japan, I have been both shocked at the destruction caused by the earthquake and tsunami, and amazed at how people are coming together to help those in need. Watching these events unfold, I’ve had one continuous thought on my mind, ‘How can I help?’. And when I sat down to think about what I could do, I turned to what I know best: running.
As a keen runner from a young age, I have entered many races and seen what charity runs can do. Each year the London marathon raises millions for charities, and now its our turn to make a difference for Japan.
So…here’s your chance. On Sunday, April 10th, at 3:11pm I am challenging myself to run 5toSurvive — 5kms to benefit earthquake/tsunami relief — and I’m asking all of you to join me. This is an event created for everyone, no matter who or where you are, to join forces and help.
If you’re a serious runner then go for it, if you’re not then have fun! Invite some friends, put on a costume, and walk the distance with a bucket for donations along the way. The great thing is you can decide the details of your event, but you’ll be doing it with others from around the world.
The idea is to run or walk 5km and raise money by doing it. Trust me, this really is where you can make a difference. There are 47 prefectures in Japan. If one person can raise 10,000 yen per prefecture, it will be 470,000 yen. Imagine what a group of 5 or 10 of you can do! (And now imagine runs in New York, London, Toronto, LA and you see what we are going to achieve!)
It’s easy to raise money — just join the 5toSurvive team on justgiving.com and your friends and family can easily donate to GlobalGiving’s earthquake relief efforts. Here’s how you get started in a few easy steps:
STEP 1:
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Thanks to Megan Lam and Julia C. for the information!
From the Komatsu City Website:
Between March 17-22 from 9:00-17:00, you can donate goods (see list below) at
Donations are LIMITED TO the following items (must be new and unopened):
These items will be delivered by the Red Cross.
From Meiry Komesu, CIR:
If you cannot go to the places above, bring these goods (ONLY BRAND NEW ones) to KIA (Kodera-machi Otsu 80, 1/ 5 min from Komatsu station).
AOS BRASILEIROS: pdf
Inquiries:
市民福祉部 ふれあい福祉課
Komatsu Welfare Division, Welfare Office
Tel. 0761-24-8052
Fax 0761-23-0294
Courtesy of National AJET:
The earthquake and tsunami in Japan have been described by Prime Minister Kan as the worst crisis Japan has faced since the Second World War. For those lucky enough to live in unaffected areas, people are settling back into their normal routines. However, many have not been so lucky.
Japan has been good to all of us. It has given us a home, many new friends and more opportunities than we can possibly count. And the country needs …our help now, so please ‘MAN UP FOR JAPAN.’
Payday is coming up on Friday for many of us — and when it does, if you can afford it, we ask that the first thing you do with your pay check is to donate ‘a man’ (一万円, 10,000 yen) to the Japanese Red Cross Society, the AJET Relief Fund, or any other organization of your choice. (We’ve included a handy list of organizations and easy ways to donate below).
10,000 yen may seem like a lot of money, but if you donate it as soon as pay day comes it’s easy to budget. If everyone donates on Friday, it has the potential to help the relief effort in a very big way. Giving 一万円 really isn’t much after everything that Japan has given us.
Information about the AJET Relief Fund and how to donate directly to JET participant needs.
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Red Cross Japan is 日本赤十字社 (nihon sekijuujisha).
This information comes to us from Megan Lam, our charity representative:
In case you are in Japan and you want to donate but don’t know how, Family Mart convenience stores will have a machine near the door where you can choose to donate to a charity of choice.
1) Look for 寄金 (kikin) or 寄付 (kifu) and press that button.
2) It will go to a page with various charities. Red Cross, Doctors without Borders, etc. Choose one (I’m not sure if there’s an option to do multiple donations, so you may have to do the process again if you want to do more than one)
3) Choose the amount you want to donate (500yen, 1000yen, etc).
4) A receipt will come out at the bottom.
5) Take the receipt to the cash register and pay them there.
From Leah Zoller, editor:
If you prefer to donate via your bank account, you can make a transfer to Red Cross Japan there. Hokkoku Ginkou does not have English support for transfers, but here’s how to do it. (There is a great general pictorial guide on Surviving in Japan if you are unused to the process.) If you know how to do a transfer, just scroll down for the bank information.
1. Click 振り込み (furikomi, transfer.)
2. If you using cash (as in sticking money into the machine, not from your account), click 現金 (genkin); if you want to transfer from your account/cash card, click キャッシュカード (kyasshu kaado). You will be asked if this is a transfer account you have registered; if you have not registered Red Cross, you will need to do so. Click the button with 新振込先 (new transfer recipient) or the one with 初めて next to it (first time transfer).
3. Put in your PIN.
4. お振込先 (ofurikomi-saki, recipient). Enter the name of the bank, the branch, and the account type.
This is not Hokkoku Bank, so select その他 (sono hoka, other) and then 銀行 (ginkou, bank). You will need to search by kana for the name of the bank first (ミ for Mizuho, for example). If you don’t see the bank you want, click その他 again. Mizuho was on the second page for me.
After you find the correct bank, search for the branch (支店名, shitenmei) by kana, then select the type of account (usually 普通, hutsuu, regular) and type in the account number (口座番号, kouza bangou)
This information is here, but the site is down. LUCKILY, I copied the information earlier! All of these accounts are for the Red Cross.
Japan Post
口座番号 (Account number)：00110-2-5606
口座名義 (Recipient)：日本赤十字社 (nihon sekijuujisha)Mizuho: みずほ銀行：新橋中央支店 （普）1032121 (Mizuho Ginkou; Shinbashi Chuuou Branch, regular account)
Mitsubishi: 三菱東京UFJ銀行：東京公務部 （普）0000302 (Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ Ginkou, Toukyou koumubu, regular account)
Mitsui: 三井住友銀行：銀座支店 （普）7176649 (Mitsui Sumitomo Ginkou; Ginza branch; regular account)
楽
Rakuten: 天銀行：マーチ支店 （普）7009729 (Rakuten Ginkou Maachi branch, regular account–this is an online bank)As you enter more information and the ATM has time to think, the recipient’s name should pop up in katakana. The Japanese Red Cross is ニホンセキジュウジシャ (nihon sekijuujisha). Be sure this is correct!!
5. Enter your phone number (denwa bangou, 電話番号). You may be asked to confirm your name, too (振込人名, furikomijinmei).
6. Press 振込金額 (furikomi kingaku, transfer amount), and enter the amount you want to donate–this looks like your withdrawal screen.
7. If all the info is correct, hit the confirm (kakunin, 確認) button. You will receive a receipt for this.
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