April 2011
31 posts
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March 2011
48 posts
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update from tokyo
The majority of these photos and the following letter are from Roger & Abi Lowther, fellow MTW missionaries to Tokyo at Grace City Church. They have some extraordinary footage of the destruction of March 11th’s earthquake & tsunami. The rest of the world seems to have moved on with the catastrophe in northern Japan, but our teams are still there cleaning up and meeting...
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Newly Homeless In Japan Re-Establish Order Amid... →
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As Tsunami Robbed Life, It Also Robs Rite of Death
via NY Times:
It was neither the place nor the time for a proper goodbye: not here, on a homely hilltop that used to house the city garbage incinerator. And not now, fully 12 days after a tsunami erased this town’s seacoast and forever sundered hundreds of families and friendships.
Yet on this raw, wind-whipped Wednesday afternoon, Fujimi and Ekuko Kimura watched as a procession of soldiers...
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In Kesennuma: Destruction So Complete, It's Hard... →
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a dark legacy
via Wired.com:
A strange legacy of the Japanese power system’s infancy in the late 1800s is complicating efforts to keep Tokyo supplied with electricity.
The problem, as explained by IDG News Service’s Martyn Williams, is that half of the country uses power whose current alternates at 60 Hz, while the other half gets its power at 50 Hz.
The discrepancy has to do with the founding...
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japanese earthquake relief prints
The Poster Cause Art Project has some great Japanese Earthquake Relief Prints for sale.
From their blog:
We have released the first batch in a large series of prints to directly aid Doctors Without Borders with their Japan earthquake relief efforts. On March 11th, 2011, Japan was hit by the most powerful earthquake in at least 100 years at 8.9 magnitude, the fifth largest in history. All...
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Sendai Mediatheque public library in...
via The New Yorker:
Among the many things the Japanese people are mourning this week are their libraries. Twitter has been flooded with pictures of local branches and university stacks, and you can view many of them on the Web site Togetter.com (here’s a link to the Google-translated page). Why libraries?, I wondered, as I scrolled through the images. I think it has to do with what is not shown...
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into the lion's den
These photos are from our team in Nagoya. They loaded up a ton of supplies to send up to relieve the disaster victims in the North. Our team leader Wayne Newsome, along with a Japanese Pastor, Mamoru Otake, and our other team member, Tom Wilson, are driving up there right now. Their destination is Iwaki, Fukushima. This city is on the southern edge of the disaster area. Please keep them in...
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Japan Tsunami (Before & After) →
“Looking back, I identified ten ideas or insights important to me and for which I...”
– Anthony Aguirre, essay ‘The Enemy of Insight’, from the book Is The Internet Changing The Way You Think?
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がんばって! Ganbatte!
*recent ad telling people in Japan to conserve their use of electricity.
Interesting read from a U.S. citizen living in Japan as a JET teacher.
It’s entitled, ‘After Disaster, Laundry’.
An excerpt:
Why is Japan going back to work?
Mostly, it’s because perseverance is as deeply embedded into Japanese culture as earthquakes and tsunamis. Without this kind of...
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faceless fukushima fifty
This is like something out of Armageddon (sans Steven Tyler - thankfully). No, seriously, this is Japanese resilience at its fiercest. We all could learn something of this - putting the group before ourselves and our own interests. This should be impetus enough for all of the couch potatoes out there to quit trying to conquer a fantasy kingdom on their Xboxes and put their (real) lives on the...
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Japanese officials say they fear that at least 10,000 people could be dead as a result of Friday’s earthquake and tsunami. So far, about 2,000 bodies have been found. With so many people still missing, thousands of Japanese are crisscrossing the area where the tsunami hit in northeastern Japan, trying to find their loved ones.
via NPR:
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Watch
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WatchThe Rescue Operation in Japan looks completely different from any other earthquake or tsunami because of the enormous amount of elderly individuals involved.
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how japan's religions confront tragedy
Via CNN.com:
By Dan Gilgoff, CNN.com Religion Editor
Proud of their secular society, most Japanese aren’t religious in the way Americans are: They tend not to identify with a single tradition nor study religious texts.
“The average Japanese person doesn’t consciously turn to Buddhism until there’s a funeral,” says Brian Bocking, an expert in Japanese religions at Ireland’s...
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MTW Minuteman Appeal for Japan
MTW has issued a Minuteman Appeal for Japan.
The situation is unclear, and will be for some time, but we are committed to making a strong response. We do know that God has placed us in a position of strength with the depth of our team, their broad presence, and long ministry history in Japan. Please join MTW and our Japan team in urgent prayer that God will open many hearts to the...
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“Dear Friends and Supporters,
(I apologize if you inadvertently receive this...”
– Email from Wayne & Amy Newsome (Our Team Leaders in Nagoya)
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Watch
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WatchThe worst earthquake (8.9) in over 100 years just hit Japan. Our teams in Nagoya and Tokyo are safe, but please keep them in your prayers. Pray for the families they know in places like Sendai (the hardest hit with the earthquake and tsunami so far).
From the BBC:
A massive earthquake has hit the north-east of Japan, triggering a tsunami that has caused extensive damage.
Japanese television...
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japan's suicide rate for job seekers jumps
Via CNN:
The number of people in Japan who killed themselves last year because they couldn’t find a job jumped 20%, the National Police Agency reported Thursday.
The figures were released as part of the agency’s annual study of suicides.
In 2010, 424 people killed themselves because they failed to find a job, according to the NPA. In 2009, the number was 354.
Police said the...
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“I can’t look back from where I am now and feel that I have been very much...”
– Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow
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greenville, sc
Anna Claire and I took a day trip to Greenville yesterday. We didn’t realize how cool of a place it is. In the back of our minds, whenever we’ve heard of ‘Greenville’ we’ve always thought of cities like Myrtle Beach or Anderson, SC (no offense if you live there!), but basically we haven’t thought of Greenville as being this vibrant, college town-esque place....
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