Nippon Makeruna! prints for sale:
100% of the proceeds will go to the Red Cross.

Please continue to support the relief efforts in Japan by purchasing a print for a minimum donation of $10!

All proceeds will go to the Canadian Red Cross.

8.5 x 7.5" digital print on 12pt cardstock, coated on one side

Please purchase through my Etsy store: www.helloyumiko.etsy.com

or email me directly at helloyumiko @ gmail.com

These prints have been made possible by a generous donation from the Financial Literacy Counsel Inc. who so kindly paid for the printing costs. www.flci.ca

I initially drew this drawing because I felt quite distraught and useless in the days following the disaster in Japan. Drawing surprisingly made me feel better as it expressed how I felt from the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Requests for prints have turned into a fundraising effort and I thank you kindly for your care and support for Japan. This is the least I can do to try and help Japan, as I watch in awe of the stories of courage, leadership and spirit that come from that country.

(A little 3-4 year old boy who clung onto his mom, was interviewed on NHK. He showed his drawings of the tsunami that had chased after him. They were drawn in black and blue crayon with swirls and sharp lines. He probably feels a hundred times more distraught than I did, but maybe drawing made him feel a little better, as it did for me.)

***Update: I have been invited to sell my prints at the Friends Across the Pacific: Japan Earthquake Benefit tomorrow at the VIVO Media Arts Centre on March 31st. Maybe I'll see you there :)

http://bc-jerf.ca/friends-across-the-pacific

"Nippon! Makeruna!"

I guess that loosely translates to, "Japan! Don't give up!"

Thank you for caring about Japan. My relatives are all okay but my brave uncle is helping to restore the electricity so our prayers are with him, as well as the rest of the country.

My mom saw a moving story on NHK last night of a boy in junior high who has, despite either losing or is missing loved ones, rounded up people to create a big banner and hung it in his high school, which is now an evacuation centre. It reads, "Gambare! Ikiteru koto o yorokobo!"

Japanese is so hard to translate the emotion behind the words, but it says (excuse my unjust translation), "We can do it! Let's all be joyful in knowing that we are still alive!"

I can't find a link about it, but if I do, I'll put it here because I'm no news reporter.

***Update: I am selling prints for a $10 minimum donation. 100% will go to the Red Cross. To purchase, please visit www.helloyumiko.etsy.com or email me directly. Thanks :)

Here's the last of them. More bank talk... blahblahblah....