The government here finally started advising against non-essential travel, and so we decided to call off our trip.
It was a hard decision to make, one we've been struggling with since Fridays earthquake and tsunami, but in the end it didn't seem worth the risk.
We had friends and family here at home worried sick, and going started to seem both unnecessarily risky and a little selfish too.
We're not exactly the praying kind, but rest assured, Japan is on our minds all the time.
We've been in contact with our friends in Japan who are all unharmed, but due to the continuing problems at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, we still worry about their safety.
According to Hata from Inkrat, the power is out on and off, there's no water in the super markets, shops and restaurants are closed down and Tokyo is basically a ghost town.
We're feeling pretty helpless, or useless even, over here, doing nothing, so we decided to do something.
Last night i asked Allan if he had some painting or other lying around that we could possibly make prints of and maybe sell to help out, and it turns out he did. So we talked to our printer guy and it's happening, and hopefully soon too. They'll be limited and they'll be awesome and we'll donate all the money to an emergency relief organization, probably Red Cross since they seem to be the ones who get in there and do the most good the fastest.
So stay tuned for updates!
And until then, please donate if you can, and if you're in Tokyo, go get tattooed and support the tattoo artists over there who, like everyone, are in for some rough times.
Sweet Kōenji
I don't know exactly when we'll be back in Tokyo, but hopefully things will get better there soon, and we can get back over there.
And when we do i hope we'll be able to reschedule the clients who had already booked in with Allan.
ごめん なさい, we will be back!