しあわせ

In the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in Touhoku people are slowly rebuilding their lives. However with so much wiped out I can only guess at the difficulties facing many people. Having a small child in an evacuation centre must be especially difficult. A Japanese friend of mine sent me the following information about a project addressing a specific need in the disaster area.

I can certainly vouch for my friend and the sincerity of this project. Please consider supporting them.

In some areas, people didn’t just lose their family, friends, pets, houses and jobs, but also the assurance of feeling part of the universe. Just to see cloths from the other end of the world will remind them they haven’t been forgotten.

Send Cotton-Muslin Squares to Japan Tsunami Areas
We are sending Muslin Squares to help young mothers and mothers-to-be in the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear affected areas in Japan.
Muslin Squares are large cloths used to wipe babies’ mouths, for breastfeeding or as burp cloths. They are not traditionally used in Japan, but we know they will be extremely useful for mothers who are struggling to wash and dry clothes in the evacuation centres. We have been contacted by NPOs, supporting organizations and maternity centres that are in desperate need of supplies for clean cloths for mothers.
We have already sent more than 1,500 Muslin Squares to help, but they need many, many more. We pack two large muslin squares per bag, and send them with instructions.

Please help us to help young mothers during a very difficult time. Your donation will be used to buy Muslin Squares and to ship them to Japan.
To donate, please go to the Muslin Square Project webpage　(Japanese)

For bank transfer and cheque payment, please contact msayaka@gmail.com.

London Mothers’ Praying for Japan, Muslin Squares Project | Contact: londonmothers@gmail.com (Sayaka)

You can read about the Project in Japanese (or just look at pictures) at Sayaka-san’s blog

cross-posted on microblog

The Japan Foundation has announced for the first time that the JLPT will be held on Sunday July 3rd at SOAS in London. The deadline for applications is April 4th.

The SOAS web site hasn’t updated for this information as yet, but the contact details are there to request information and/or an application pack.

This is fantastic news. Unfortunately I doubt I am ready to sit a test in 4 months time. I think it’ll be December for me. I have a month to ponder spending £70 on a trial run… Maybe if I work really hard.

Short post and link.
I’ll be on the lookout for these the next time I’m in Japan. Kanji Transformers from Bandai!
The site I found it on, Pink Tentacle, is a mine of weird interesting Japanese art and design.
Another one from them is spot the kanji in town logos.

Yamato sank and her giant body lies shattered 200 miles northwest of Tokunoshima. 430 meters down.
Three thousand corpses, still entombed today.
What were their thoughts as they died?

In April 1945, Yoshida Mitsuru was a junior officer stationed on the bridge of the Yamato during her ill-concieved and hopeless 特攻 Special Attack mission that was meant to draw off American aircraft from the attack on Okinawa to allow a better hope of success for the 神風 Kamikaze aircraft attacking the American fleet. But as the Japanese themselves demonstrated in their 1941 attack on the HMS Prince of Wales, a battleship without aircover was no match for a concerted attack by over 400 aircraft. The Aircraft carrier group was the new supreme force on the high seas. Read the rest of this entry »

I got a nice email from the author of futurefire, a blog about Japanese study written in German, so I went to check out her site.
I can’t read German but I’m sure it would be useful if you can. As you might expect from someone studying design the graphics are interesting. Check out the article on a re-design of the Tokyo subway map and one on furoshiki.
Also have a look at thephotographs on Wanda’s main site.

Yesterday I had my closest encounter with the bombing of Hiroshima.
Closer than having been in Hiroshima and seen the remains and memorials.
Closer than seeing documentaries, and reading contemporary accounts.
Closer than touching a stunted tree that survived the blast.

A friend of mine on mixi wrote about how her grandfather died in Hiroshima that day.
Read the rest of this entry »