i was telling you the other day that i’m applying for a special job. it consists of taking 101 days to travel to all 47 prefectures of japan and report to the world your findings via a travel blog and the social media.
ever since i got back from japan earlier this year, i’ve been doing my best to tell people that the earthquake/tsunami/fukushima catastrophe was terrible but that the country is not the pile of radioactive rubble the media made it out to be. the only place in the entire country to resemble the wasteland they were showing on tv was the area where the tsunami hit. i traveled for a week after march 11 and all the places on the itinerary were completely unaffected. my short visit to tokyo on march 14 did not reveal the post-apocalyptic background my mother was hearing about on tv.
also, i know the japanese are resilient people and that they will recover sooner rather than later. among others, it’s because they have people such as the seniors who offered to go to fukushima themselves instead of younger people. a self sacrifice that speaks volumes and that left me stunned.
within a month of my arrival, i wanted to go back. i never expected japan to get so deep under my skin but it did. and now i wish with all my heart that i can use my feelings, willingness and energy in helping out.
a japanese company initiated this project called 100+1 travel volunteer. they will select a blogger who will spend 100 days between 15.09 – 23.12 traveling all over japan and telling the world their experiences in order to confirm the fact that japan is safe for visits. on 24.12, the blogger will be santa clause for the kids in the tohoku region. yes, you guessed it right, it’s the tsunami-affected area.
the decision will be made on august the 15th. i hope that my tour throughout japan last year by myself will be an advantage, as well as my english-language blog and the fact that my free lance job could allow me to take off the 3 months. please keep those fingers crossed a little longer!
still, regardless of who wins, i believe this is a great initiative i plan to support as much as i can! :)
4 comments
laurahartson says:
Aug 1, 2011
think that might be my dream job too!!
little-aesthete says:
Aug 1, 2011
:D
Eric says:
Aug 4, 2011
Thanks for the very kind post about our project!
We hope you can make it to Japan for the final round (there will be very long discussions amongst us to select 5 people ;-)!
You can also see the video which we compiled here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUfwNvvU0dI
Kind regards
Eric – Travel Volunteer Team Member
little-aesthete says:
Aug 4, 2011
thank you, eric!
i would very much like to come to japan and do my best to restore whatever needs restoring :)
keep up the god work :)
PS: in case you need extra inspiration for cool little things or places to post on your fb profile, you could search my blog using “japan”. i wrote about the spring 2011 trend of using decorative cabbage as street plants, about the penis festival in nagoya, the amazing museum on the teshima island and many others. you can use both pictures and text, just please credit my blog. :)