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Quakebook: The Twinterview

17 May

Time Out - Tokyo - Logo

On Thursday, 12 May, Time Out Tokyo published what Our Man likes to call a “crowd-sourced” interview.  In typical Quakebook fashion, he asked folks on Twitter what they wanted to know about the book, and what surprised them about it. After sifting through the best and most interesting input, here are Our Man’s answers to your questions:

http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/feature/3286/Quakebook-The-Twinterview

Our Man in Abiko speaks to Radio Australia

16 May

“The keys to the printing press have been handed out to everybody.” Our Man in Abiko speaks to Radio Australia’s Connect Asia about the creation of Quakebook, and the growing journalistic relevance of social media:

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/connectasia/stories/201105/s3218011.htm

Donate to Red Cross, download Quakebook from Sony

29 Apr

We are honoured to tell the world that Sony has done something amazing by offering Quakebook as a download from its e-Reader store (and advertising it on their homepage) to all its customers in exchange for a donation that goes directly to the Japanese Red Cross.

How much should you donate? We leave that up to you. If you can spare a lot, give a lot. If you can’t – we understand, give what you can. Download the book with our backing, in the knowledge that you have helped the survivors of the Japan earthquake and tsunami with cash, and equally importantly, with your attention.

It makes a difference.

Donate and download right here.

Quakebook will be in print – a real book

25 Apr

First, the good news. In fact, really great news.

1. Amazon has agreed to print a real book of 2:46 – Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake.
2. They are going to release an ebook in Japanese, and a print version.
3. And the same in German.

All money raised will go to the Japanese Red Cross. All money – not “after costs” (and there are many when you are talking about printing colour books in multiple languages and distributing them around the world); not “after Amazon takes a cut” (they don’t); not “after Quakebook takes our cut” (we don’t). Depending on where you live, your government may charge tax – sorry that’s beyond even Quakebook’s powers to avoid, but know this:

The only people who gain from the purchase of the book are the people suffering in Japan.

Let me repeat: 100% of the money goes to the Japanese Red Cross. None of us involved in this is making a penny from it. And that’s just the way we all want it. It’s the promise I made to every contributor, every person who buys a copy, and to the survivors of the earthquake. This book tells their story, so it’s only right that they should reap all the rewards.

And now the bad news – the news cycle.

Frankly, Japan has dropped down the list of top stories. The world listened when we said we have created a compelling book in one week. Then, the world waited and bought the ebook – making it the No. 4 top selling non-fiction book on Amazon that week – just through word of mouth. And now we must grab the world’s attention for a third time – to buy the paperback book.

That’s a tough call, but also know this: we will get the world’s gaze once more. I have some ideas that I will outline in the coming days to win the war of attention. It’s a war we must win. And we shall.

Together.

How to download Quakebook

22 Apr

So you want to buy Quakebook, but you are not exactly sure how to do it and whether you can… and just what the blazes is a digital book anyway? Can I read one even if I don’t have a Kindle reader? Enough of the questions, here’s a one-minute video that hopefully tells you everything you need to know:

 

Summary:

  1. Log in or sign up at Amazon.com.
  2. Find Quakebook
  3. Download a free Kindle reader for your PC, Mac, Android or iPhone
  4. Buy Quakebook for $9.99
  5. No money goes to Amazon or Quakebook. All cash, less any tax, goes to the Japanese Red Cross.
  6. Read Quakebook.
  7. There is no 7.

Feel free to send this Video to anyone who might need a little help dipping their toes into the digital pool.

Our Man on Tour

18 Apr

Our Man in Abiko made a surprise appearance at Pecha Kucha Night in Tokyo on Saturday, and he KILLED. Ask anybody wot woz there.

Click comic to ENLARGE.

Quake hits Nagano [Essay]

13 Apr

My last class of the day at Yasuoka Elementary School had just ended at 2:40, and I was walking back across campus to the junior high school. Elementary English was now finished for the school year, so I had a pile of things in my arms. My third graders had given me a bouquet of paper flowers to thank me for one year of teaching them. Among other things, it had been a really good day.

Suddenly, I felt violently dizzy. The world swayed like a boat, and I noticed the heavy gymnasium doors were rattling. A moment later, I knew what was happening, and I quickly turned and headed away from the building. Looking back at that moment, I was surprisingly composed. My equilibrium was thrown, which is an awful feeling, but it was nothing compared to what people had felt many miles north of me.

As my students evacuated the school to the sunny parking lot, we had no idea how different this quake would be. It wasn’t until all the students washed their shoes and entered the building again, that I saw images from what seemed like a movie on live television. The Pacific coast of Miyagi, where I had visited less than a year previously, was on screen. Water rushed up and flooded a section of the expressway. Cars were turning around; they had no choice but to go back the wrong way. Then, a huge freight boat smashed into the side of the highway. The water rose higher and carried away all the vehicles. Other teachers in the staff room gasped, and my vice principal yelled at the cars on TV, telling them to turn around. I suddenly felt dizzy again. The name cards on the far wall clicked and swung on their hooks. Aftershock.

I left work that day feeling sad and confused about the fate of people who lived near Sendai and East Iwate. I also wondered if there was chaos in Tokyo with traffic frozen. Nothing had solidified. There wasn’t even a death toll yet. I simply had no idea what would unravel in the next week, or even month.

Only hours after I had fallen asleep that night in Nagano City, I was shaken awake by another one. This one felt stronger and closer; I could see things on the shelf rattling in the dark. It passed without harm, but it was the first of many more I would feel in the days to come.

To sum up, the first weeks of aftermath were a blur of dizziness, lines at gas stations, urgent emails from family, nuclear research, graduation prep, tearful news stories, sleepless quake-alarm nights, and news fueled with fear. Nagano, however, was turning out to be fine. Fear did more damage than radiation. However, our fears weren’t wholly unjustified. There were warnings of aftershocks along an active fault in our prefecture. It could have been us, we thought.

My husband and I wanted to help. We donated blood, money, blankets and water, but we still needed something to settle our minds. We found a volunteer NGO, Peace Boat, and went to Tokyo to see about opportunities to help. My husband was sent up to Ishinomaki, north of Sendai, less than a week later. My school started earlier than his, so I had to stay behind for work. During his time there, I had limited contact with him. On the night before he came home there was a massive 7.1 aftershock that shook Ishinomaki and a tsunami warning. The experience was surreal for him, as I sat at home helplessly watching the news, wondering.

Now it has been a month, my husband is home and the sakura are in bloom. It seems life – for us – might finally return to normal. But the Tohoku situation is still on our minds often. The last big aftershock set off another assault from the ground to the shores of the northeast. I felt one again just last night: dizziness, M7.0 in Fukushima. These shocks could continue for months or even years, and the Daiichi power plant is now classified a Chernobyl-level disaster. It has made me think about life, and death too, respectively. Everyone’s wave comes to claim them at some point. We’ve lived here for about two years, now. In that time we’ve been given a comfortable life, limitless opportunity, and heaps and heaps of kindness. We want to give back, and we’ll soon go up to Ishinomaki for more volunteering (a second time, for my husband). I can’t deny that I’m a little fearful, and a part of me knows I can’t even relate to the situation. But now I know the person I want to be when my wave comes.

I hope I can live up to it.


Submitted by: Emma Pierce
2nd year JET (ALT), Nagano, Japan


Quakebook on sale now

12 Apr

This is the moment we have all been dreaming about and working so hard for: 2:46 – Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake is now on sale. Let me rephrase that.

GET YOUR QUAKEBOOK NOW!

The Kindle ebook is available to buy from anywhere in the world at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk. You don’t even need a Kindle. Just go to the order page and download (for free) a Kindle reader for your Mac, PC or smart phone.

The book is $9.99. In some cases, the price may be quoted as $11.99 for international customers. But Amazon has assured Quakebook that any international handling fees will be reimbursed.

Every single penny that you spend on Quakebook will go directly to the Japanese Red Cross. Nothing for Amazon, nothing for Quakebook. Everything for the survivors of the Japan disasters.

I’d just like to say two things:

1. Well done everyone involved in this, I’m so proud of all of you.
2. Buy the book, and tell the world to buy the book.

It makes a difference. You make a difference.

Our Man in Abiko

The Making of the #quakebook video

11 Apr

Like a lot of people shocked by the earthquake and tsunami, but living in Ireland with my Japanese wife Tomomi, I (@Crank_Dub) felt pretty far away and helpless. With limited news coming out for the first few days we were obsessively following the newsfeeds, blogs and Twitter for any snippet of information. It was while doing this that I just happened to see Ourmaninabiko’s first tweet, the one where he put his idea for the book out into the ether. I followed his subsequent tweets and it was like seeing little thought bubbles, like watching someone else think out loud.

Not being a writer and feeling that any written contribution I might make would be puerile, inadequate and, at best, semi-literate, I didn’t respond to Ourman’s request for submissions, but kept a weather eye on proceedings as they developed. Watching Ourman and his growing team of volunteers felt like the worldwide response to the quake, only in microcosm. However, unlike the foreign media who quickly became jaded and moved on, #quakebook stayed with the story.

When Ourman put out a request for translators, I alerted Tomomi and she was delighted that, at last, there was something tangible she could do. When a subsequent request went out for other volunteers, I felt I had to respond, expecting my involvement would be small and pretty limited. But like Silvio Dante in the Soprano’s, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!”

During an online brainstorming session on Yammer one of the volunteers suggested making a promotional video and, since video is what I do for a living, I couldn’t in all conscience sit there and say nothing. But how could I even begin to promote Quakebook in the manner it deserved and, at the same time, respect the plight of the Japanese people? Like leaving your homework until Sunday night, I put it off for a couple of days, trying to figure out what to do.

It was seeing the amazing photographs taken by Max Hodges when he travelled into some of the affected areas just after the tsunami that clicked with me. I was particularly taken by his photographs of the ‘Small Things’, people’s everyday possessions now lying lost within the all pervasive mud. I contacted him and he very graciously gave permission for them to be used.

The second part of the puzzle was Scala and Kolacny Brothers, the amazing girls choir from Belgium, who recorded a truly heartfelt version of the Kings of Leon song ‘Use Somebody’. I uploaded the song to the computer, edited it down to 60 seconds, put it with Max’s photographs and, using an adapted Adobe After Effects template, pretty quickly compiled a rough video. I then tried the video with lots of other music and songs but the only piece that was perfect in every way, that made the video more than the sum of its parts, was ‘Use Somebody’.

The difficulty was, if I was going to use the song, I would have to get permission. Now we all know that famous bands get pestered constantly by people looking for a piece of them and I didn’t want to join that throng. But I figured I wasn’t asking for myself. I was borrowing the voices of those who survived the tsunami and asking on their behalf.

The Scala choir were immediately positive:

“”We would of course be more than happy to help, but this song is publishing controlled so you would need permission from the publisher”.

So, one step forward and two steps back into a world I use to work in. Knowing the music business, I was expecting it to be impossible to even find the right person to talk to, let alone get a response. But two guys, Rob Christensen of Bug Music and Steve Barton of Warner/Chappell publishing, responded quickly and positively. Rob researched who controlled all the bits of the publishing, contacted the Kings of Leon and, with the minimum of fuss, granted Quakebook a worldwide licence for 2 years to make a promotional video in multiple languages to advertise the book. When I thanked him and his company on behalf of Quakebook, he responded

“We’re glad to help out and honestly, the majority of the credit should go to Kings of Leon for being willing to donate their song…”

With the publishing clearance obtained I again contacted Scala and Kolacny Brothers and Glenn Stone of their management team got back to me within a few hours:

“The group is happy to co-operate in a charitable endeavor to support Japanese quake relief.”

So a huge vote of thanks to all those who could have been difficult and unhelpful but instead immediately went out of their way to assist the people of Japan at this time. Thank you all so much.

Credits

Giant Robot interviews Our Man in Abiko

11 Apr

Eric Nakamura, editor and publisher of Giant Robot, does a superb interview with @ourmaninabiko for Mr. Nakamura’s blog. Please enjoy this excellent piece at the link below:

Giant Robot interview with Our Man in Abiko.