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).

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.

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.

How can I help? Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

[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.