

Ask HN: What can I do to help Japan?  Prepared to travel. - Whitespace

I have a large family in Japan -- no word from them yet, but most are inland -- so the earthquake/tsunami news is particularly troubling to me.  I'm a rails engineer for a large media company, and I've been thinking about taking some vacation time (I've never been on vacation before).<p>With all the devastation that occurred, I'm wondering what I can do to help.  Flying to Sendai and helping physically rebuild things is one thing, but I feel like my skills as a software engineer would be better used in other ways.<p>I don't speak Japanese that much, but I grew up around it and I've been to Japan before, so I'm somewhat confident that I'd be able to converse after a week or so on the ground.<p>How can I help?  Any ideas are greatly appreciated.
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tnorthcutt
I know that in the aftermath of the earthquake(s) in Haiti, people were asked
to not travel there, and instead give financially to support official relief
efforts. This may be a different situation since infrastructure in Haiti was
probably more destroyed than in Japan (and thus travel more impacted), but
it's something to consider.

