The donation was made a few hours ago.
Unfortunately the exchange rate for both bitcoin and JPY have been very volatile.
If I use Mt.Gox rate at this very moment:
319.67 x (0.795+0.8325)/2 x 79 = 20 550 Yen
Anyway, the donation made was 21000 Yen.
This is the info about how to make a donation in Japanese Red Cross website:
http://www.jrc.or.jp/contribution/l3/Vcms3_00002069.html■ 郵便振替（郵便局）
口座記号番号 00140-8-507
口座加入者名 日本赤十字社 東北関東大震災義援金
取扱期間 平成23年3月14日（月）～平成23年9月30日（金）
※郵便局窓口での取り扱いの場合、振替手数料は免除されます。
※郵便窓口でお受取りいただきました半券（受領証）は、免税証明としてご利用いただけますので、大切に保管してください。
※通信欄にお名前、ご住所、お電話番号を記載してください。
This is the receipt (in Japanese).
https://doc-08-74-docs.googleusercontent.com/docs/secure/ha0ro937gcuc7l7deffksulhg5h7mbp1/vrgf3vggnem9g8o4cqvom2phmmhnffc0/1300449600000/15949510141229870193/*/0B5QHyyV_GD85ZGEzY2ZmMTEtZjE0ZS00YTZkLWFlMGItMWI1ZjRlMjkzMDEw?authkey=CPfC5_UB&e=downloadThe left side is a photo copy (that's why it is in black and white), which the post office keeps. The right side is the stub receipt.
You can see the bank account number is 00140-8-507, the amount in Yen is 21000, and the organization is 日本赤十字社 東北関東大震災義援金 (The Japanese Red Cross Society Earthquake Donation).
Actually they have a small stack form with the everything filled out ready for people to come and donate.
You can see the date is 23-3-18 (Year-Month-Day). The year "23" is Japanese year. (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisei_period )
So, what can you buy for 21000 Yen?
For a regular meal in a family restaurant, you can get a meal for about 1000 yen.
21000 = 1000 x 21 meals
In Japan, there are convenient stores that sell cheap stuff for 100Yen.
You can buy a rice ball for 100 Yen (
http://www.su-gomori.com/archives/images/14_onigiri_100en.jpg).
You can buy one 1L bottle of cold Japanese tea for 100 Yen
21000 = 100 x 210 Rice balls
or
21000 = 100 x 210 bottles of 1L cold Japanese tea
By the way, even in Tokyo city center, the racks in all supermarkets and convenient stores for rice balls and bread or other instant foods are empty. Someone just told me that even junk foods such as potato chips are gone.
There are still many people in the disaster areas that need help. It is snowing in the disaster areas, and they have little food, and no electricity therefore no heat. Even blankets are in short supply for many of them.
International news are all focusing on the nuclear power plant trouble at the moment. But for many of the victims, they are still stuck in near the disaster zones which are much closer to the nuclear plants than anyone in Tokyo. Their main concern is not the nuclear radiation, but finding lost ones and their own survival. Especially for the elderly and sick, medical care and medicine are in critical short supply.
There was a clip on TV showing an old man and his old wife searching for their young son who worked in a post office. They had to search and ask other people if they could see the post office, because everywhere was just piles and piles of debris. At last they found the post office. The old man had to carefully climb on top of a pile of debris to see the top of the post office. He climbed up and shout the name of his son, hoping there will be a response... a week after the tsunami.
I don't think there will be a second run for this donation as interest has already fallen. See how this thread has already fell to the bottom of the page.
Contribution from the bitcoin community is very meaningful. A week after the earthquake, some of the victims are getting their first bowl of hot soup. Let us hope this contribution can help as many people as possible.
