Steemit Meetup In Tokyo & West Japan Flood Relief

West Japan Floods

I would be remiss if I didn't start this post off without first mentioning the devastation in Western Japan. I woke up the other day to see that CZ Binance had tweeted he was donating $1,000,000 to Japan because of the floods. I was a bit perplexed because the night before only 1 death had been known and the full extent of the damage wasn't known

It's been heartbreaking watching the stories coming out of the area, especially the mother who lost her 19-year son in the blink of an eye. She stood by the rescuers every day in the sweltering heat until they only found his body yesterday. He buried under several feet of debris. There are many more stories like her's.

It's hard to believe the devastation flash floods can cause. They are fast and merciless. The scenes were reminiscent of the tsunami where entire homes were swept away by the waters. In addition to the walls of debris, flood waters reached several meters submerging homes & businesses, essentially ruining the structures and everything in them. Here is a link to more stories from the Japan Times: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/tag/west-japan-floods/

Which brings me to what we can do. The @steemit-jp Japanese community account is collecting donations for the victims of the floods. You can donate directly by sending SBD to the @steemit-jp account with a note.

I've already donated some SBD and I will be donating all the SBD I earn from this post too. The Japanese helped me immensely when I had a major problem earlier this year so and I want to repay them. Thank you.

Tokyo Steemit Meetup!

Once again the @steemit-jp team threw a great meetup. I haven't been able to attend for a few months because I have been in California so I was excited to make it to this one and meet some new faces.

Before the meetup I met up with @yasu24 for a beer & yakitori and to catch up on things. Yasu is a cool guy and an old punk rocker so I feel like we have similar pasts with my roots in punk. I told him about all the new developments with the Japanese Steemit community which he needs to be more involved with, like our 1000 user initiative and more. There is so much going on here with the Steemit Japan community that I can't fit it into this post, but I will write about this weekend.

After meeting with Yasu I headed over to Estaji, just past the red brick Shinjuku Prince Hotel. I was a few minutes late, but everyone was still arranging the tables so it wasn't a big deal.

I sat next to two new steemians, @rassy and @miju.ssw on my left and @yrtphoto on my right. As soon as the first drinks came out we did a toast to the community and then the night got started! I kept a Japanese tradition alive by grabbing a pitcher of beer and walking around filling or re-filling everyone's glass with beer. If you come to a meetup in Japan you must do this! It is a great icebreaker and a show of respect & humility.

Oh ya, just before the beer pouring I passed around some Ghiradelli​ chocolates I brought back as gifts for everyone to snack on.

I was actually quite surprised to see a pitcher of beer here. I explained to my neighbors that pitchers are normal back in the States, but I had never seen one in the wild in Japan!

As the food came out @ytrphoto played the humble host and served me and others the dishes. If you haven't seen his blog and the food he creates pause and go take a look. He really is a talented person.

I was so busy chatting and drinking that I actually forgot to eat any of that delicious food shown above! I did have some salad, but that was about it so I can't comment on how the food was.

While looking around the table I mentioned to @knozaki2015 that it's cool to be part of these early types of intimate meetings which probably won't happen much longer. What I mean by that is we are working​ hard to build the Japanese community and have added 20-30 people the last week. We are shooting for adding 1000 users in the next 5 months. When that happens the meetings will get much larger and for good or bad less intimate.

Our two hours flew by and then it was time for the after party. I suggested Yamachan, which is a wings place @rawselectmusic took me to back​ in April. They have really good chicken wings and it was just across the street so off we went! But, not before some group photos and well as some

At Yamachan somehow I ended up sitting with the ladies and @fusan paid the bill. A win-win! Every time​ we would decide to order something one of us would say, "It's fine, Fusan will pay for it! Kanpai! Arigato Fusan!" I hope he wasn't too hurt in the pocketbook​.

We snacked on wings & beer and continued for about another hour before it was time to say goodbye. It was a great night and I look forward to the next meetup in Tokyo!

Thank you to everyone for making another memorable night in Tokyo for Steemit! @yoshiko @kinakomochi @knozaki2015 @moromaro @shogo @sho-t @amblog @bigmedama @crypto.hack @fusan @kayoko @miju.ssw @miyako @tonpa @mnsk0619 @nadeshiko @rassy @tokyo2018 @ytrphoto

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