As I posted earlier, I went to the Mashiki area today to see if there was anything I might do. I asked people I happened to meet if they had enough water and other supplies. I thought I might ride my bicycle to a store to get some supplies for them. What I wound up doing was going to the Mashiki-machi Town Hall (yakuba), picking up supplies that were being handed out free of charge, and delivering them to people for whom it would have been a bit of hardship to walk all the way to the town hall and back.
I did this for four families. My impression is that the town hall will have enough supplies but that getting them to people who are not very mobile may be a problem. If you can meet the following conditions, you might want to consider doing what I did – making your way to Mashiki and going through the neighborhood offering to fetch supplies for people from the town hall:
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You can converse in Japanese or go with someone who can converse in Japanese (you need to able to ask the people what they need and explain what you can do on their behalf).
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You can get to Mashiki without trying to park a car in Mashiki (congestion is a real problem – if you can get to Mashiki via bicycle that would probably be best).
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You are healthy and can handle the physical exertion required to move back and forth between residential areas either on foot or a bicycle, preferably a mountain bike with big tires.
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You understand that the work may be dangerous (there is a lot of broken glass, rubble, opening and breaks in the pavement and there are also dangers of aftershocks, etc.).
While I was there I asked about formally organized volunteer efforts but was told that nothing had been put together yet.
– Kirk