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Since the March 11th earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan, there have been a number of charity projects targeted specifically at raising much-needed funds and support for disaster survivors. Giant Robot has written about one of the most notable, 2:46: Aftershocks (Quakebook), and one of the newest, Kizuna: Fiction for Japan. And you are strongly encouraged to support these projects and their worthy causes by buying a copy of both Quakebook and Kizuna. Both books are quite different and remarkable. But if you want to donate to Japan disaster relief in a way that appeals to your inner (or outer) child’s love of toys, there’s another way you can help: click on over to Singapore toy company Play Imaginative’s website and buy yourself a Supporto-fu figure. Designed by Japanese toy designers Devilrobots and manufactured by Play Imaginative, Supporto-fu is a happy little four-inch figure whose message is “Little help from everyone can put smile on everyone’s face”. Supporto-fu will cost you U.S. $16 (excluding shipping), and all the proceeds from the sale will be donated to the Singapore Red Cross for the 2011 Japan Disaster Relief Fund. The figure is limited to 1,000 pieces, but Play Imaginative spokesman Jacky Teo estimates around 450 of the figures remain in stock. Supporto-fu is a marvelous little toy figure (this writer’s is pictured above) that really will put a smile on your face. And he’s a must for Devilrobots fans. But the really wonderful thing about Supporto-fu is every time you look at him or play with him, you’ll know you did something to help “put smile on everyone’s face”. Play Imaginative’s Supporto-fu page, which includes figure artwork and ordering information, is here.
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It is easy to admit that we’re about to exploit about a month of diary entries from a brave man’s life in order to get you to read this piece, and the other things we publish here on Giant Robot. Because, well, it’s partly true. But the majority of the truth about what we are presenting to you is that it gives detailed (one might even call some of it dry and mundane) insight into the thoughts and processes one Japanese man experienced before, during and after participating in the cleanup of radioactive debris at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Japan.

He isn’t one of the Fukushima 50. The diary entries he made available online start on May 26th and end on July 3rd, 2011, well after the day of March 15th when the 50 stayed behind to control the damage and fire at Fukushima Unit 4. No, the man who wrote these diary entries is (if he still has his job) a robot operator, of a robotic system called “Warrior”. From the diary entries it is apparent that he was assigned to Fukushima to prepare and operate specialized remote-controlled robotic equipment for the purpose of assessing damage and clearing debris within Fukushima Unit 3. 

We’re presenting only about half of the robot operator’s diaries here, the entries which cover June 11th through July 3rd, 2011. These entries detail the operator’s thoughts during the days right before preparing for and performing the dangerous task assigned to him in the debris and radiation of Fukushima Unit 3. Some of his thoughts are humorous, but most are very business-like and even grave. We have pulled some of the more interesting, insightful and inspiring quotes from the diary entries and printed them below. 

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When you’re thousands of miles away from a problem you want to solve, you do what you can. Although I live in California, some months ago I had the good fortune, quite by happy accident, to become involved with a book project for Japan March 11th disaster relief called Quakebook. It’s a powerful collection of true stories and images about what people in Japan felt and experienced during and just after the earthquake and tsunami. I helped edit the book, which you can learn more about here. Well, the world spins, and things were more or less settling back into the comfortable routine I had established writing news pieces for this humble website, when another happy accident occurred. Through the friend of a colleague on Facebook, I heard about a project called Kizuna: Fiction for Japan, an anthology conceived by an American expatriate in Niigata, Japan. His idea was to do with original, fictional short stories what Quakebook had done with true-life narratives. And he needed stories. Fast. He had only given himself a few months to put the book together and get it published, first as an Amazon Kindle, then as a printed hard copy. Well, seeing as how I had a short story about Japan lying around, and that the purpose of Kizuna would be to donate all proceeds to disaster-related Japanese charities, I figured I might as well send my story to Brent Millis, the project’s creator and editor, and see what would happen. And I’ll be damned if he didn’t decide to publish it. But for me it got even better. I soon found out that not only was I to be published, but my story would be in some pretty prestigious company. Very prestigious company. We’re talking science fiction and fantasy writers like Michael Moorcock and John Shirley. Yeah, the guy-who-wrote-the-screenplay-for-The-Crow John Shirley, and THAT Michael Moorcock. And these two guys aren’t the only amazing, world-class writers in the book. Some of the writers you may know, many of them you won’t but should. But as I did, I urge you to discover that for yourself. Although I am a contributor to Kizuna, the book is being sold for charity. So I bought the Amazon Kindle for $9.99. If you do the same it will go a long way towards helping charities like Smile Kids Japan give some hope and aid to survivors of the March 11th disaster. Survivors who are still homeless, dispossessed and trying to rebuild their lives. Parts of Japan are still broken and hurting; and like I said, when you’re thousands of miles away from a problem, you do what you can to help. Click on the links below to learn more about Kizuna: Fiction for Japan, and to buy a Kindle copy of this amazing and timely book. Kizuna: Fiction for Japan homepage. Buy Kizuna for Kindle from Amazon.
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Supposedly it’s a bad idea to judge a book by its cover. With this particular volume, however, doing just that is highly recommended. This is because the rich and colorful design on the outside is the perfect introduction to the varied and detailed tour of the fuzzy, furry, odd and wonderful Japanese mascots within. “Fuzz & Fur” is the second book about Japanese pop-culture icons by English brothers Edward and John Harrison. Their first book, “Idle Idol”, was a photographic guide to the inanimate figures which attract and greet customers outside Japanese shops and restaurants. “Fuzz & Fur” takes that premise and logically expands upon it by using pictures and detailed text to introduce the reader to a huge variety of animated, three-dimensional Japanese characters, basically guys in costumes playing fictional or mythological figures.

Here in the United States, at least, when you think of a person in a character costume, you typically think of a sports mascot, something like the Philly Phanatic or the San Francisco 49ers mascot Sourdough Sam. Or you see giant mice and anthropomorphic dogs, rabbits and ducks at amusement parks created by entertainment companies such as Disney and Warner Brothers. But that’s about it. However, in Japan fuzzy, furry costumed characters are far more ubiquitous, and are created and used for a wider variety of purposes than just promoting sports and entertainment. Japanese mascots are used to promote tourism, consumer products, government programs, and agriculture.

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Written by GR long lost friend, Kaori Shoji who lives in Tokyo, this piece is moving. It’s not just another experience from hell story. Instead this letter from a 74 year old about living in a shelter is written from the perspective of being thankful, but more so of a person who might be looked as older, still has something to give. “Some of us may need care, but many kōreisha have a huge reserve of knowledge and experience to draw on, namely those awful years during World War II. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: sensochū no kotowo omoeba nandemonai(戦争中のことを思えば何でもない when I think of what it was like during the war, this is nothing.)” “The nationwide slogan now calls for all Japanese to be as one (ひとつになろう、日本 hitotsuni narō, Nippon) but it feels like we oldies are being left out. I speak for many when I say, we want in! Chikarani naritai (力になりたい I want to help) is not just the battle cry of the young.” Good job Kaori on an interesting piece that gives a perspective that I haven’t heard yet. That’s hard to do with the bombardment of news about the disaster in Japan. Link
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