Saturday, April 9, 2011

Adding up number - it still is going up.

Yesterday, we finally managed to do Japan Tsunami Appeal at Hull University Student Union. Thanks for great help from volunteer people from the University, the University staff, Nippon Gohsei and our local friends from Japan, UK and the rest of world.

We had various activities and finally added up a total amount around 4 p.m yesterday.

so far, we raised...

£2710.15

and this number is still going up.
This is the total amount of cash and some cheques, which are confirmed to be processed later on Monday.

And I would like to say special thank you to a local company in Hull -Nippon Gohsei Ltd. The company offered to donate £1000 for our Tsunami Appeal. I hugely appreciate help from Mr. Hamada, Watanabe, Fujimura, and Uemura.

Also it cannot be forgotten to say very many thanks for our voluntary staff. We could not make this event without your effort! I do, massively, appreciate your help. Thank YOU.

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As for us or, rather, for me I should say, I had thought we Japanese had been a very small minorities in Hull, and felt almost powerless when just countable people had been in such a large area, across East Yorkshire. Overlooking something happening in places where we brought up, or know well, are extremely hard. And we are concerned if our family and friends there are coping ok.

There's a good thing throughout this Hull- Japan Tsunami Appeal.We had known that some Japanese had spread locally, in Yorkshire, though not had a chance to get together either. However, through the event, I thought this was the first time most Japanese in the area came to the same place and said hello to each other. This was an extremely rare opportunity for us, and it was a bonus of doing the fundraising event. I reassured that when something happens we can unite like as we did yesterday, not only Japanese but also locals, and people from all over the world. Thank you for your supports.

I have spoken to my father earlier today on skype. My family is in surbarban Tokyo and did not have massive damage from Tsunami. Though my family experienced huge impact from the earthquake. He told me something which came across to my mind too. He says:

"Although this was an unbelievable disaster we learnt one thing. We can unite. People probably had forgotten after the war, though, now, we learnt that Tohoku and the rest of Japan, and the rest of world can be united, to overcome this situation. That's what we learnt from the earthquake"

Yes, indeed. People in Hull are a part of that too. I am proud of everybody who helped us, and very much hopeful that our donation will be used for people who suffered from this disaster. Yet, still, people in Japan have the problems of radiation being spread in air and water from nuclear plants, and these will be a long-term issue. We hope, pray and try something with them. That's for sure.

Thank you for your thoughts and kind help everyone!

Lastly, I need to say greatest thank you for these girls.
Tough, gentle and wonderful organisers -Tomoko and Tsuneko - you are the stars!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Yorkshire Post

News, News, News!

Tomoko, a Japanese language tutor in Hull University, and an organiser of our Japan Tsunami Appeal event had a telephone interview from Yorkshire Post today. Check out newsagent on Thursday - our event may be mentioned there.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Our Volunteers and Friends


Hull - Japan Tsunami Appeal event
8th April (Friday) 2011 12.00 - 16.00
Hull University Student Union



As you probably noticed from our previous post, we made Japan Tsunami Appeal posters which are displayed in various buildings in Hull University and local areas, such as Newland Avenue, Princes Avenue and Hull City Centre. I would like to say thank you for the university design team and press, for us to have a chance to provide a great piece of work to public.

Also I would like to introduce our volunteers who stood up and said "We will help you!" to our upcoming event, from the university and from our local area. Thank you in advance.

As we have teamed up about 40 people now, we will all welcome you to our Japan Tsunami Appeal event in Hull University, and hope you will come and enjoy whole experience of Japanese culture.


Note that the donation of this event will be passed to the British Red Cross, Japan Tsunami Appeal campaign. We will sum up a total amount of collection on 8th April, after the event, and one of the event organisers will be handing over the donation to Hull Red Cross branch on Monday 11th . We will update the total amount as a report through a post on this blog.


List of Volunteers in the University of Hull

Tomoko Miyairi, Kenta Shinohara, Tomoko Inoue, Tomohiro Matsuno, Mai Obata, Shuhei Kinoshita, Shoji Ito, Akira Shionoya, Hidetoshi Shibayama, Raymond Fee, Stuart Hicks, Simon Cowell, Wan Teng Tan, Ada Li , Jenius Ho, Yilin Wang, Hannah Afford, Lauren Feather, Marc Day, Vincent Nhin, Kirstie-Anne Stewart, Kendall Pickup, Vanessa Longthorpe, Dazheng Jin, Matthew Baker, Gabriella Roelofs, Nicola Lynn, Cara Hessey, Sophie Davison.


Outside the University of Hull

Tsuneko Lead, Seiko Hatfield, Kimiyo Whitlam, Tomoko Kidahashi, Antony Hatfield, Satomi Ettenfield, Maki Uemura, Gabi Breithaupt, Shiho Kotaka.


Special thanks to

Hull University, Marina Mozzon-McPherson, Angie Lead, Richard Madden, Katie Starkey, Sarah L Lilleyman, Marina Mozzon-McPherson, Kerry A Dobson, Helen J Hunt, Jonathan Hall, Pippa T King, Jonathan Hall, Paul Tatton, Martin Arnold, Jenny R Macleod

British Red Cross: Max Newton, Neene Gichaara, Liz Adams-Graves.

Nihon Gohsei Ltd: N Hamada, K Uemura, H Watanabe, K Fujimura.

Our Friends: Keiko Oikawa, Yukiko Iwata, Keiko Cole, Vince Coleman, Anna-Lisa, Rob Byass, Sufi.


Premises who agreed to display our posters

Hull Univerisity, Tesco Beverley, Tesco St. Stephans Hull, Chong Wah, Planet Coffee, Pave , Indian and continental food shop , Grain, Newland Avenue Post Office , Waitrose Willerby, Jing Jing Oriental Food, Adelphi.



Friday, April 1, 2011