Big names in comic, fiction, and art industry, banded together by one man, publish Fables For Japan's disaster victims.

It isn't breaking news that Japan was hit hard by a 9.0 earthquake, tsunami, and three nuclear meltdowns.  If you are reading this blog, it is highly unlikely that you are reading about it for the first time.  What may be news to you, is that the disaster isn't over yet. 

An estimated 80,000 refugees from fukushima and surrounding areas are still in government issued "temporary" housing. Even a year after the disaster.  Read more about that here. That's just the refugees living in government housing, according to Wikipedia the disaster aftermath left over 300,000 refugees.

The assistance from the government, and Tokyo Electric Power, the company that owns the reactors, has not been enough to help these people get the medical, psychological, housing, financial, or job assistance they need.  Read more about that here.

It was by luck that I stumbled upon one concerned man trying to make a difference and move mountains on his own for the suffering peoples of Japan. His name is Jason Temujin Minor, a talented comic and 3D artist. If you haven't heard of him, you have probably heard of some of the comics and games he has worked on; from TMNT to Star Wars. Being moved to lend a hand to the people of Japan when the disaster first struck, Jason made a donation to the Red Cross.  At first he felt good about his donation, and the part he was playing in helping the victims. Then he saw a video of an entire village, on fire, and being swept away by the tsunami.  His small donation just did not fill the hole in his heart for what he saw. 

Jason is not a rich man, and was not sure how one person could make a difference, but he was determined to make that difference. In his search for how to help, Jason contacted a college student, Matt Funk, that was looking for artists to illustrate some short stories he had written. Matt intended to bind the stories and art into an anthology to sell and donate the money to charity for Japan. Jason volunteered, but due to logistical problems, Matt eventually called it off. 

Inspired by Matt's Idea, Jason decided to give another try at it. With Matt's permission, he picked up the project and all of it's challenges. Jason contacted many writers, and artists from all walks of the industry to promote his idea. His determination began to pay off as many industry big names began to show interest in his anthology. Here is a list of contributors. How many can you recognize?



First Book Contributors

Mark Badger	Jeff Baker	Anna Bron	Leanne Buckley
Ross Carnes	Christopher Clements	Nancy A. Collins	Federico Dallocchio
Nathanael Dodge	Amy Evans	Mathew Funk	Joan Upton Hall
Kristen Grace Hall	Mary Elizabeth Hall	Phillip Hester	Risa Horiuchi
Ryan Kelly	Teddy Kristiansen	Patricia Morse-McNeely	Jason Temujin Minor
Stuart Moore	Martin Pèrez	Tom Peyer	Eric Prince
Ayan Sengupta	Gareth Sleightholme	Leigh Walls	Yao Xiao

 Second Book Contributors 

Carlos Cara Álvarez	Andy Catlin	Claudio Cerri	Kourtis Charalampos (Babisu)
Mitch Cook	Kristine Angela Demetrio	Carolyn Watson Dbisch	Mike Dubisch
Mathew Funk	Vasia Glava	Christopher Golden	Keith Grachow
Joan Upton Hall	Kristen Grace Hall	Mary Elizabeth Hall	Unnur Jònsdòttir
Achilleas Kokkinakis	Khoa Le	David Lloyd	Pablo Marcos
Patricia Morse-McNeely	Carol MacDonald Menchu	Amy Mihara	Jason Temujin Minor
Rebecca Minor	Viktoria Piechowitz	Neel Sawhney	Andrew Segal
Gary Shipman	Todd Shulek	Gareth Sleightholme	J.C. Vaughn
Shawn Wagner	Mark Weatley	Charles T. Whipple	Charlotte Winroth

 Third Book Contributors

To Be announced...

That's a pretty impressive list of writers and illustrators, but the content will get you hooked.  In the next few days, I will be writing detailed book reviews for both books. Strangely, even with such great support, paying for a bound book and hoping to make any money for the charity would create huge money, and logistical hurdles, and one of the many reasons Matt had given up. Jason decided to give it a shot as an e-book and set in motion the collection of artists, illustrators, and contributors.

Through incredible persistence and perseverance, Jason realized his project with the final construction of the first book on September 11th 2011. He put the book up for sale for $3.95, and announced it to the world! Even though he made a few sales and collected some money for charity, few people were buying the book compared to the supporters he had. After the second book was released January 9th, 2012 a lot of the hype for the book had subsided.  People weren't talking about it as much any longer. Charity sales were dropping.  There was still one more book to release but the support wasn't growing. He dropped the price to $2.95 and still nothing much changed.

When I found Jason it was the beginning of March 2012.  I was online searching for e-books to review for my websites and came across his.  I asked him if I could see a few pages of the books so that I could write an article about them on my blog and give his project some promotion.  I was pleasantly surprised when he gave me a free copy of both book one and two and asked me to promote it as much as I could.

I poured over the books, enjoying the stories and artwork and just delighted by the product overall. The writers and illustrators are first class, the stories are interesting and the entirety of both books are beautifully put together.  Even if it were $19.95, which is what this e-book should be priced at in my opinion, the value within the digital pages is worth every cent. I couldn't fathom why he was having difficulty selling these books.

After some thought, I realized what the problem was.  Jason was just one man promoting his idea.  He didn't have the marketing clout of a publisher necessary to promote this book and get noticed by enough people to really set it into sales motion. I encouraged into him that he would make a lot more sales for his charity if he could get more people talking about it on their websites. After some convincing, and willing to try whatever he could to keep his charity drive going, Jason joined an affiliate program.

It wasn't an easy decision for Jason. He had already collected $1,200 for International Medical Corps, doing a lot of work dealing with relocating the Fukushima evacuees and treating the psychological needs of the survivors (along with basic medical care.) Being in an affiliate program means he will have to give up a small portion of what he makes to pay the people marketing his book for him. However, the amount of marketing exposure he will get could really shoot his charity project into success!  His creativity, motivation, and care knows no bounds, and I hope everyone get's a chance to read this wonderful book and support his project.

To really show the people his idea, story, book and charities, Jason will be on the Grinning Studios Podcast April 2nd in an open interview to tell us all about it. The podcast will be available for download on April 8th. Comment on this post or send any questions you might have specifically to me in the contact me page and I will make sure they get asked in the interview.

I can't wait to talk to Jason and hear how this story progressed from desire to help, to fantastic e-book and beyond.  I hope you will join me in celebrating this creative, philanthropic adventure. Good job Jason, I admire you and though you don't call yourself a hero - and don't like it when other people call you a hero - heroes don't get to chose who calls them heroes. The victims get to choose, and as a first hand participant in the Japanese Disaster, I can tell you that you and the great list of people you have brought together for this production, are my heroes. 

Keep up to date on this and other events coming to Grinning Studios by Joining the mailing list. As an added bonus, anyone that joins the Grinning Studios mailing list will get an update on the release of the third book and more bonuses in the future, including information on how to promote your idea, tips and tricks for getting the word out and selling your creativity, and much more!

Stay Creative Jason Temujin Minor, It's Good For You.

Join the grinning studios mailing list here.

Jason Temujin Minor's bio page.

Update 3/30/2012

I am writing a review for the contents of the books, Please look for it in the next few days.

I paid for my books today.  Both books. It was nice to get them for free, but now I feel legit.

Dear Steven,

Thank you for your purchase. Your Invoice ID is 3xq2dri4jrmj2oby8dwfdra0gs0wsk

0swso0gsk.

You can download your order here:

Hidden.

We appreciate your support of Fables for Japan and sincerely hope you enjoy the e-books.

70% of the money from this purchase will be going directly to those affected by the March 11th, 2011 earthquake in Japan.

If you'd like to leave a comment or a review, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Please feel free to post them here: http://www.fables4japan.com/p/reviews-and-comments.html

Follow our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Fables4Japan  and this Blog: http://www.fables4japan.com to keep up to date with what's next for the Fables for Japan project.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Fables for Japan

Podcast episode 6: Japan Blog List Webmaster, Jonathan Allen

Last week I was able to sit down and have a chat with, Jonathan Allen, the webmaster for www.japanbloglist.com. First I asked him all about how he got started being the webmaster for Japan Blog List. It was an interesting story spanning many years and three countries; England, South Korea, and Japan.
He also talked about some of his favorite blogs and here is the list of the blogs he mentioned.

http://www.tokyoreporter.com/: The slightly seedy side of Japan.
http://greeneyedgeisha.
blogspot.jp/: Sadly seems to have stopped posting.
http://JapanProbe.com
http://muza-chan.net/: She doesn't even live in Japan , but posts
something interesting everyday.
http://www.ourmaninabiko.com: The British guy who put together the book 2:46
http://shibuya246.com/: Combini's and travel.

http://yonasu.com/
http://www.wordpress.
tokyotimes.org/: A photo blog.

We also talked about monetizing our blogs, the steps we have done to monetize, and how other people have monetized. We talked about Adsense, adwords, and more.

There is a possible chance for a collaboration between Japan Blog List and Grinning Studios. Jonathan Allen and I spoke about possibly doing a feature blog interview promotion.  We'll hopefully keep in touch about that and see where it leads.

We talked about Jonathan's life in Japan, his hobbies, his wife's hobby/job as a yoga master, and things that he likes and enjoys In Japan. One of these likes was a program for people that want to study Sake (Japanese rice wine) and his experience drinking Sake's to earn a good appreciation of good sake.  The link for that is at  http://www.sake-world.com/html/about-john.html
Jonathan Allen's Wife's website is http://yogasan.net.

Hope you liked the show and enjoyed the interview with the creative, Jonathan Allen, webmaster of www.japanbloglist.com.

(OFFLINE!!) Go to http://grinningstudio.blogspot.jp/p/podcast.html
Listen to the podcast:
On iTunes:
On Grinning Studios Blogcast:

Stay Creative, It's Good For You.

Website networking: bloggers in Japan find their audience from Jonathan Allen's, Japan Blog List.

Veteran bloggers know the value of Internet marketing and networking. Every link to their blog is plated with a golden opportunity to grow audience, and search engine ranking. Exposure is needed for growth and the search for that exposure never ends. For bloggers in Japan, one of your first back-links should be Japan Blog List.

Japan Blog List is a monthly list and summary website for blogs in Japan. Submit your blog and summary and the web master, Jon, will post it on the list the next month.  The only stipulation is that your blog be something about Japan.  The original site was started in 2007 by a man named Gary living in Vancouver Canada.  Gary is a lover of all things Japanese, but didn't have the time to keep up with the website.  Jon took over the website August, 2010, and it has been growing quickly ever since.

Jon is an IT man with a creative pension for blogging.  His first Blogger blog was "I'm A Seoul Man in Tokyo," but now he spends his creative free time blogging and tweeting for The Japan Blog List. He has worked in IT for companies such as Goldman Sachs and lived in  London, Amsterdam, Zurich, Seoul South Korea and now Japan.  He is an interesting and creative person, and I will be welcoming him on my podcast, to talk about his creative projects and life in Japan, this weekend.


Stay tuned, and Stay Creative, It's Good For You.

Tokyo Kids & Radiation Interview: Japan Earthquake, Tsunami, and Radiation Disaster Anniversary

Earlier this week, I had a chance to interview David moore, a concerned husband and father of two living in Tokyo. He built a home radiation lab consisting of Geiger counters, dosimeters, a multichannel analyzer for nuclide spectrometry, and a lead shielded testing tube for his two inch Scintillator. He has been testing for radiation, and radio nuclides in samples from all over Japan.  He has tested everything from food to dirt and is accurate down to 6.5 Bq. His website is http://sites.google.com/site/tokyokidsradiation/ where he posts all of his data, charity work, clean-ups, and information. He also has a community Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tokyo-Kids-Radiation/227762067240468.

Summary of the interview.

David talked about his experience in Japan during the Earthquake, Tsunami and Radiation disaster. It was amazing to hear him describe a concrete tunnel he was in during the earthquake twisting and turning like a snake.  He spoke about how, even though the Japan earthquake unnerved so many, once over, they were quick to line up for the next train and continue as if nothing had happened.

"For me, I had that, 'oh shit! I have to run away,' feeling." David admitted.

His wife, stuck in a building on the ninth floor, was forced to stay in the building by her boss, and had to walk 6 hours home across town in high heels after work ended, because by then all transportation had been closed down.

David had actually lived through the two major natural disasters of the century. Not only had he lived through the Japan earthquake, but also lived through the Katrina Hurricane Disaster in New Orleans. He explains how people cleaned store shelves and horded everything they could in both disaster.  The Japan disaster food hording wasn't so bad, he explained to me. "In my home town, a man killed his sister over the last bag of rice," during the Katrina disaster.

After the initial shock of the earthquake and tsunami the Nuclear power plant in Fukushima was on the news.  Plant Dai Ichi in Fukushima had three nuclear meltdowns with reactors spewing radioactive particles into the air.  David explained to me how the school he worked at, on his advice as the nuclear meltdown began, and for the safety of the children, canceled classes for their protection.

As the nuclear situation got worse, their care and safeguarding efforts grew.  They had taped up their windows, created a decontamination area in their entry hallway, and wore masks anytime they went outside the house.

As time passed, and they grew more and more discontent with the lack of radiation information being reported by the news and government, David's family began reaching out for information.  He brought some dirt that he had measured with a simple dosimeter from an area around his home to a Nuclear Scientist at Tokyo University's Isotope Center, Dr. Shozugawa.  The good doctor initially measured the dirt with a scintillation probe and was surprised by the level of contamination.  The doctor requested to take some of the sample to test further.  After some time the doctor reported back to David that the dirt was in excess of 22,000 Bq of cesium. That is when he and his wife realized they had to work to protect their environment and children on their own, because the Mayor of the town dismissed his findings. David put teams together and began doing cleanup/radiation decontamination in his neighborhood.

David began building his own Radio Nuclide lab and with the help of many people from FaceBook Groups like Tokyo Radiation Levels, Japan Food Safety, and his own community, Tokyo Kids and Radiation, he was able to calibrate his equipment to detect as little as 6.5 Bq of radiation.  THe process wasn't easy as most radiation detector making companies were charging up to 3.5 times the value of their equipment in Japan. Unfortunately, these companies are still gouging the market and an underground of radiation testing equipment sales is a movement of it's own in Japan. David explains how he detects radiation, how a scintillation probe works, how gamma spectrometry works and other information you may find useful in building your own lab.

After months of building his data, and website where he posted that data, and thousands of dollars - he began to draw a picture of the situation in Japan.  The Japanese agricultural economy was going through a slow suicide, and it is still happening.

Overall, this interview was very insightful and informative.  If you want a first hand account of the stress of the march 11th earthquake, tsunami and the stress of the ongoing nuclear disaster, this interview will provide that.  I hope you like the interview and hope that you will support TK&R and other groups like it in Japan.  They are growing in number and need all the support they can get.

You can find the Podcast on iTunes. Search for Grinning Studios, the episode is number five. Or you can listen to it online: http://grinningstudio.blogspot.com/p/podcast.html

If you like the podcast, please leave a review on iTunes.  5-star reviews will get a 5-star shout-out on the next show.

If you want to support the Grinning Studios blog, and what I do to promote creative people, please make a donation.  There is a donation link in the right sidebar.  You can donate one dollar, five dollars, one Million dollars - or any amount you like. Or buy me a Redbull to keep me up and posting.

Thank you for your support!  I couldn't do it without you. 


David Moore from Tokyo Kids & Radiation, 
Stay Creative, It's Good For You!

Japan Earthquake, Tsunami, and Ongoing Nuclear Crisis Anniversary Podcast: Special Interview - with David Moore.

The 1st year anniversary of the Japan triple disaster - Earthquake, Tsunami, Nuclear Meltdown - is this March 11th.  Fukushima took most of the hit, but all of Japan suffers. How is Japan doing?  What is going on?  How has the radiation from the nuclear meltdown affected those still living in Fukushima?

On March 11th, 2012 the Grinning Studios podcast will be joined by David Moore, operator of the Tokyo Kids & Radiation website. We'll be discussing the Japan Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Meltdown, the nuclear fallout and cleanup, the Fukushima refugees, and anything else we can squeeze into an hour long show. 

David is a concerned husband and father of two living in Tokyo. He is taking his family's safety into his own hands, and measuring his area for radiation.  He has an expensive home lab, that he has built himself, capable of measuring radioactive isotopes down to 8.5bq of Cesium. He has a multichannel analyzer and can do radio spectroscopy to detect specific isotopes of all kinds.  He has participated in education events, clean-ups, and works hard in his community to help the people understand the effects and affects of the nuclear disaster.

He also provides testing services and is quicker and less expensive than most industrial labs.  All his work, equipment information, test results and anything else you could possibly want to know can be found at his website, and his Facebook community page. He has tested food and soil from Fukushima and many other places in Japan.  He has found Cesium in some samples and continues to work tirelessly for the benefit of everyone in his community.  In my book, this man is as much of a Hero as the Fukushima 50. He's the nicest most caring man anyone can meet and I am thrilled to be able to talk to him this Sunday.  Stay tuned!






http://sites.google.com/site/tokyokidsradiation/







https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tokyo-Kids-Radiation/227762067240468





Detecting radiation and posting the results in the most transparent efficient manner possible, I can't think of a more creative or effective way to help in Japan.  Stay creative, David, it's good for you!

On Friday February 17th, I was interviewed by Thomas Janak for the Wild Time Radio Show in the UK. 

Thomas Janak is an amazing host. I felt he really had control of the interview and lead it from topic to topic in a very interesting way.  His quick wit and confident voice really made me understand the professional quality that I myself strive for. Thomas Janak has achieved that professional quality.

Topics of the show:

What brought me to Japan. Cultural differences. What Grinning Studios is all about.  My life in Japan.  Rewards of living in Japan and difficulties of living in Japan. The earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown. The Animal Friends Niigata NPO.

Over all, the show was a lot of fun to do and I am very thankful to Thomas Janak for the interview. 

Adventures with Linh Vien Thai

The newest podcast is up! Episode 3: Adventure with Linh Vien Thai.

Linh Vien Thai is a prolific adventurer struck with wanderlust. He's been all over on expeditions, and documentary filming. Linh is the most interesting character I have met in Japan to date.  He has been an intern at Saturday Night Live, He's been all over Asia, North America, Africa and Europe. Linh is a Kung Fu master, "Combat Monkey,"  and has been in a hilarious Kung Fu movie where he gets his ass handed to him by a woman. HAHA! a must see below:



A part of Linh's Documentary can be seen below: This part of the documentary is about the Mongol Archers.




Linh's Blog is The Life of Me.

Linh's photography can be found at Flickr: linhvienthai

Linh's IMDb director page for, The Heart of Asia: documentary.

Linh's Youtube Channel.

There's just too much to list! If you find something with Linh Vien Thai in it, post it up!  He's everywhere. You've probably met him and never knew it.  Stay Creative, It's good for you.

Other links from the podcast:

Breakdancing, DJing and the CEO of FUN!

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Today I have the pleasure of announcing the newest Grinning Studios podcast! Last week, my interview with Control Freaks, DJs Tha Boogie Bandit and Foxx Boogie!  The podcast is up and ready for download.  Check out the podcast page for more info on the show and links!

One of the greatest guys I have to give a shout out to is Masatoshi!  CEO of Fun for Control Freaks!  Masatoshi is a great guy and life of the party at Boogie Bandit's DJ events.  Masa, you the man!

Due to Softbank (no love here) and a cooking appearance from Foxx Boogie's girlfriend, (making eggs and bacon,) this episode took days to get edited and published!  All worth it!  This interview was crazy fun and I think you will love it!

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