Japan has long been a country very dear to my heart, and now more than ever, I wish I was there to help and comfort the Japanese people in their time of need. As you know, the entire country has been in distress due to a large Earthquake and the aftermath that it brings. There are various ways to help, even if you can’t afford to give up a dollar.
Twitter has proven itself to be more useful than ever in helping people around the world keep in touch and stay up to date on current happenings. If you have an account, make sure you re-tweet this post from Bing, claiming they’ll donate a dollar towards Japan relief efforts for each time it’s RT’ed.
Headfone Dreamy by Yoko Furusho
If you prefer to donate in the form of an actual purchase, there are many artists out there selling artworks and giving the proceeds to disaster relief in Japan. Japanese illustrator Yoko Furusho is donating the money from sale of her lovely “Headfone Dreamy” print, so you can get a great piece of art and at the same time know you’re doing something to help out.
Bracelet design by Lady Gaga
Music superstar Lady Gaga designed a $5 “We Pray For Japan” bracelet that you can now purchase at her online merchandise store.
If you are skilled at translating Japanese, you can translate the latest Japanese news and post headlines or translations onto Twitter or a site like Reddit. There’s been a lot of criticizing aimed at CNN for the fact that their news just isn’t up-to-the-minute and accurate enough. The good news is, many English-speakers currently residing in Japan have been doing everything they can to keep the rest of the English-speaking world as informed as possible.
Those with a Pixiv account should see the scores of artworks tagged as 日本頑張って (Nihon Ganbatte) or “Good Luck, Japan”. There are thousands of hopes and prayers on Pixiv in the form of illustration submissions. If you’re an artist and you possess a Pixiv account, you can be a part of it by submitting your artwork and adding the 日本頑張って tag. While some insist that money donations are the way to go, the Japanese sincerely DO care about all of the well wishes that the world is sending their way, and this is just another little way that you can reach out to them.
To everyone in Japan, we are hoping for your safety! We will do what we can to help you recover from this disaster. You aren’t alone!
Plastic Pleasures 
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