SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Seiji Suzuki, owner of Sushi North, finally connected with family and friends in Japan and heard reassuring voices say those close to him were OK on Friday evening.

Pictured here on Monday, Seiji Suzuki, owner of Sushi North, is collecting donations for the tsunami relief efforts in Japan. - Katherine Hudson/NNSL photo

Thousands are homeless, many are missing and thousands more, some presuming as many as 10,000, are dead after a 8.9-magnitude earthquake spurred a tsunami off the northeast coast of Japan on Friday.

Suzuki said the staff of about 10 at Sushi North all finally received confirmation that family and friends in Japan avoided tragedy, after a weekend of constant calling to get in touch.

Suzuki, who moved to Yellowknife about 18 years ago, has family in Osaka and Tokyo. Osaka, located in the country's south, is relatively quiet, according to Suzuki; however, Tokyo, with a population of more than 12 million, is impacted by the Tokyo Electric Power Company rotating power cuts to manage blackouts in areas due to several failing nuclear power stations.

"There is not enough power to run the city. People, they can't go in the office. Nothing," he said.

Suzuki is hopping on a plane to Japan on Wednesday, a trip he had already planned, to visit family.

It is the northern coastline that is so dramatically affected, with entire communities wiped out and cut off from the rest of the country.

"The fishing towns, there's only access through one road so tsunami destroys all the coast and help can't go there," said Suzuki.

"Still 20,000, 30,000 missing because they cannot reach them. It's really painful. I'm still far away. My family is OK but it's still very sad."

Japan is no stranger to earthquakes. Suzuki said as a child he would feel small earthquakes and remembers that the country's people are always usually prepared.

"They expected a big one for the near future. Then people prepare, so if only an earthquake, should be OK. But it's the tsunami that they didn't expect this much. Especially on the coastline, the houses on the shoreline," he said.

Suzuki has a donation box for tsunami relief on the counter of Sushi North, which he said raised more than $200 over a few hours on Saturday.

He said during the months of March and April, five per cent of all Sushi North profits will go to help the country reeling from the disaster some say Japan hasn't seen the likes of since the Second World War.

"I'm OK for two months. That's my profit but spend it over there. I don't know if five per cent is enough or not enough but it's a lot of my profit. If I can help, I will," he said.

Other businesses in the community, such as Javaroma, have set up donation boxes to fundraise for the disaster relief efforts.

Brian Birch, director of programs at the Salvation Army Church, said during Sunday's service the congregation was told about the organization's "Japan Earthquake Disaster Relief Fund."

"The Salvation Army in Canada is allocating $75,000 to tsunami relief efforts in Japan. Anything that we can donate, we'll be giving them to our pastors and they'll pass it along to the appropriate Salvation Army representative," he said.

The Rotary Club is also donating funds to ShelterBox, an international disaster relief charity that delivers emergency shelters to people affected by disaster. According to Charles Dent, member of the Rotary Club responsible for communications, the organization is donating funds for two shelter boxes, at about $1000 each, which can house up to 10 people each and comes with art supplies for children, survival equipment such as blankets, a stove, tools and water purification supplies.

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