Volunteering and Interviewing Opportunities?

[Michael Larson]

Hello KineJapan,

This message is not directly cinema related, so sorry about the off-topic
message.

My name is Michael Larson and I'm an MFA student in creative writing at The
Ohio State University. I'm currently planning on going to Japan this summer
to do research for a novel that I'm in the very early stages of writing.
While I still intend to do that, the recent earthquake/tsunami catastrophe
has made me want to do something more, and maybe see if I can't do a my
small bit to help out a country that has given so much. Towards that end I
have two requests:

1.) If there are any volunteering opportunities, I would like to get
involved. I've contributed financially to the relief effort and helped to do
a fundraiser on the campus here. But, since I was planning on being in Japan
anyway, I thought I might be able to do some volunteer relief work. I speak
and write Japanese, so translation is a possibility. I will be arriving in
the country in July and will be staying until September. If anyone has any
information on volunteering opportunities I would really appreciate hearing
about anything I could do.

2.) I would also like to conduct some interviews with people who were
directly affected by the quake and tsunami, for use in a non-fiction piece.
Obviously, the whole of Japan was directly affected by the events (as, I'm
sure, were many of you in the KineJapan community), but I want to focus on
people in the Tohoku region. This is because I felt the U.S. news media
presented a shallow and sometimes distorted view of what people in that area
went through, and I'd like to assemble a piece that presents a more thorough
perspective to an English-speaking audience. I'm hoping to get a wide range
of voices, so all perspectives are welcome: foreigners living in Japan,
Japanese residents of Tohoku, Japanese who've relocated to the U.S. because
of the quake - basically anyone and everyone. I would be eternally grateful
if anyone could put me in touch with people who might be willing to sit down
and have a conversation with me. I promise to make every effort to be
respectful, and to handle this topic with the nuance and delicacy it
deserves.

If anyone can help me with either of those requests, or can point me in the
right direct, I would appreciate it. To give this message a little more
context, I've included my biography below my sign off. Thanks in advance for
all your help KineJapan - I've been very happy to be part of this online
community since I joined the list in the winter.

Best Regards,


Michael Larson

Before coming to Columbus, OH I was a member of the JET Program. I spent two
year teaching and living in Mutsu City in Aomori Prefecture. I've also spent
some time in Naruto City, Chiba Prefecture, and Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima
Prefecture. I've been studying Japanese and visiting Japan for the last 7
years, since I was an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, where I minored in
Japanese and worked with James Dorsey and Dennis Washburn. I'm particularly
interested in modern Japanese culture, especially Post-War Culture and the
Counter-Culture of the 1960's and 70's. I'm also a fan of contemporary
Japanese fiction (esp. Hiromi Kawakami, Ryu Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto)
and cinema (esp. Takeshi Kitano and Kiyoshi Kurosawa).
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