theatlanticvideo:

One Man’s Quest to Bring Good Coffee and Hope to Japan’s Tsunami Zone

After the earthquake and tsunami, Yoshi Masuda set out to share his love of coffee and vintage gramophone tunes with survivors, driving across Japan in a VW bus and setting up outposts of the HOPE Cafe. His humble goal is to create a scene of normalcy and warmth in a devastated area. Mackenzie Sheppard’s entrancing short documentary, Yoshi’s Blend, captures his inspiring energy.

I had a rough day yesterday - hell, I’ve had a really rough three or four weeks now - and this helped me put things into perspective a little bit. I shared this across the social media channels I manage for my freelance client as well as my own Facebook (which I have been a lot more personal on lately thanks to being able to use “lists” and custom privacy settings for each update to hide things from my family and professional acquaintances). But I feel like not many people looked at it or watched even a little bit of it. It’s eight minutes of wonder and hope, you guys. Check it out over your morning coffee break at work or at home.

Full Disclosure: I love coffee flavored things, but heavy doses of caffeine can trigger migraines for me, so I don’t touch the stuff. Girly herbal teas with killer packaging design, all the way.

(And note, I wrote and scheduled this post several hours before the one I posted at 5:30 in the morning)