Konichiwa Everyone!

A Fuji Mountain of thanks for all the support we received from amazing caring people all over the world. You not only opened your pockets, but also your hearts, with inspiring words and encouraging thoughts. Your contributions, for which we are deeply grateful, gave us and the many families we met in affected areas, a great amount of confidence, and fortunately, allowed us to make another trip to Tohoku.

We revisited families that we met on our initial trip, took some more photos for them, and extended our project to even more of their loved ones, and many new faces as well. Some of the children were even shouting out our names when we arrived again. And again, we were completely humbled by the courage and fortitude these people sustain in the face of such adversity.

We were able to give away ~100 photos, and start half a dozen new photo albums. Whats more, is that we were able to meet some beautiful, warm-hearted people, and listen to their unforgettable personal stories, from heroic to heart-breaking. Having lost so much, its simply a miracle that some of these people even have the will to carry on. Its hard to understand or explain without listening to the stories first hand, and what we see on TV, if anything, is really a far cry from the actual state of affairs.

We felt that the photos and albums we made for people truly brightened their day. Perhaps they were reminded of their old family albums, and all the good times that they commemorated with photos. In a way, we felt like they were getting back a little piece of themselves that they had lost.

The Photohoku Project really does have the possibility to truly and actually rebuild a small but important part of these peoples’ lives. The photos and albums we can make, with your help, are not only a way for the people of Tohoku to look back and reminisce about happy times passed, they’re also a way to look forward for more to come.





Fuji Film has graciously provided enough Instant Film to the Photohoku Project for us to continue indefinitely. We still need to purchase albums at a small cost as well as finance the travel expenses to and from the affected areas. Please consider sharing anything you can, even if its just your moral support and this link. We’ll be visiting again the first week of November.

Please also consider donating previous working digital cameras (and chargers), as we will give them to the same families that we are providing started albums for, so they can continue them. Eventually, we would like to facilitate printing the photos that they will take with your cameras. We need help realizing all of these efforts.

Please mail cameras (or anything else you want to get to Tohoku) to:

Photohoku
Entre House Komazawa　
1-3-2-102 Komazawa
Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, 154-0012 　
Japan

Check out the Facebook Page, as well, as most of the photos from both our trips are there. We ironing out the kinks on how to properly display them here (need some web help).

Finally, we just initiated the process of setting up a foundation that can operate within Japan’s proper regulations and discovering it will be a huge mountain to summit. If you have knowledge about these matters, we are all ears.

For more information, please contact Brian@photohoku.org (Eng) or Yuko@photohoku.org (JP).

DOMO ARIGATOU GOZAIMASU!