JetWit is happy to share that Kate Chevarley is in the process of getting a JETAA Fingerlakes subchapter up and running.
If you live in or anywhere near a Fingerlake (or if you are a Fingerlake), then feel free to get in touch with Kate for some JET alum community (which I have to imagine will at some point involve wine tastings and/or grape pies).
If you have no idea what a Fingerlake is, then read up on the topic on Wikipedia.
Geneva Marie (Niigata-ken, 2008-09) grew up all over the U.S. but if asked will tell you she’s from Minneapolis, MN . JET Lag will recount Geneva’s experiences and thoughts as she prepares to leave the comfortable womb of her JET life and figure out her next move.
It’s been an entire month since my last JETLag post! I had an entire week of birthday activities, I did some much-needed traveling, and soon after I was…sickety, sick, SICK! Needless to say -I’m playing catch-up.
It’s no surprise. I was getting off too easy. Nearly two months with nary a cough, sniffle, or sneeze. I knew it wouldn’t last, especially given my bill of health in Japan.
I had spent nearly all winter ill. Like, totally illin’, but not in that Beastie Boys kind of way. I was told that it was probably due to the fact that I was teaching little kids for the first time. Either that, or because the whole “no heat situation” in indoor places OR the worst case scenario: there was killer mold hiding in the apartment somewhere. Whatever the case, I was sicker than I’ve ever been in my life. I got the flu which is pretty normal for the winter season just about anywhere, but I had gone out of my way to get a flu shot every winter in America for about the last five years or so. I had forgotten how freaky the flu really is: the sweating, the puking, the hallucinations. All experienced alone, in a cold apartment without a kind hand to wipe the sweat from my brow.
In any case, at least it wasn’t Read More
Job: Sales Consultant for Oxford University Press (Kanto/Kansai)
Jobs 
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Oxford University Press – Kanto and Kansai Sales Consultants
This is a key position requiring a highly organized, motivated, and forward-thinking team player. Candidates must have sales and marketing experience, and/or educational experience. Teaching experience in ELT is particularly relevant and desired for this job. Candidates are also required to have a high level of both Japanese and English and must be fit and healthy and able to travel extensively within Japan.
Based in Kansai, or Kanto, the successful candidate(s) will join our motivated and experienced bilingual sales and marketing team and be responsible for generating sales of Oxford University Press ELT products to schools. Read More
J-News Mini-Roundup: Bizarre Robberies Strike Japan
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J-News Mini-Roundup is a recurring feature written by Friend Of JET, Jon Hills, who maintains the blog for Hills Learning (www.hillslearning.com). Hills Learning is a NY-based language learning services company offering customized and personal Japanese language learning options.
Background: One of the biggest culture shocks for most foreigners who have lived in Japan is leaving the safety of the country. People that have lived there will tell stories of how you can forget your wallet in a café for hours, and then return to find both the wallet and the money intact. Guns are also illegal, so living there people feel a higher sense of security both from petty and violent crimes.
However there is crime in Japan, and although sporadic as it may be, most of the crimes I can remember are either quite bizarre or shockingly violent. Some examples are the Akihabara hit and run where a laid off disgruntled worker decided to randomly try to run over 4 or 5 people in Akihabara in the morning. There are also cases of overworked salarymen coming home and killing their whole family.
The newspapers this morning in their headlines all had reported robberies, and interestingly enough each newspaper had reported a different incident.
Asahi “Couple Charged w/ Stealing 2.6 million yen ($26k) from Pachinko…”
(CLICK HERE for the rest of the article, that includes Japanese News Summaries)
Japan America Society Roundup 6.29.09
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Current Hiroshima-ken JET Gail Meadows, co-editor of the Wide Island View, shines a light on some of the upcoming events of various Japan America societies…
Black Ships Festival — Enjoy a variety of events emphasizing Japanese art and culture at the 26th annual Black Ships Festival, an event that commemorates Commodore Matthew Perry’s negotiation of the Treaty of Kanagawa in 1854, ending two centuries of Japanese isolationism. A highlight of the festival is the annual Festival of Drums, featuring thundering performances by taiko drummers.
- Date: July 16-19
- Place:
- For more information, click here.
JAS of the State of Washington
- Summer Picnic – Beer, barbecue and yakisoba? Oishisou! Find it at this summer event co-hosted by the JASSW and the Japan Business Association of Seattle. Tickets are $20 for JAS members, $10 for children 10 and under, free for children 4 and under.
- Date: Sunday, July 26
- Time: 4 to 7 p.m.
- Place: Newport Yacht Club, 81 Skagit Key, Bellevue, Washington
- Register here by July 22.
11th Annual Lantern Festival — JSB invites members to attend this moving memorial ceremony inspired by Buddhist rituals. Inscribe a lantern with a personal message to friends or family and float it across Lake Hibiscus at sunset. This ritual is based on the traditional Japanese Bon Festival, a time when a door opens to the world of ancestors, allowing us to send messages to the other side.
- Date: Thursday, July 16 (Rain date Thursday, July 23)
- Time: 6 to 9 p.m.
- Place: Forest Hills Cemetery, 95 Forest Hills Ave., Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts
- For more information, click here.
- Summer Family Festival — This summer, JASK introduces this new event, a large-scale outdoor festival for families to experience Japanese cuisine and culture. Visitors can enjoy origami, calligraphy, dressing up in kimono, a Nintendo Wii tournament, a Japanese flea market, martial arts performances, taiko drums and more.
- Date: Saturday, August 22
- Time: 1 to 7 p.m.
- Place: Jacobson Park, Shelter 1, Lexington
- For more information, click here.
Does your Japan America Society have an upcoming event that you’d like to share with JetWit readers? Email Gail Meadows with the info.
Job: In-House and Freelance Translation Positions At Nintendo of America (Redmond, Washington)
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JetWit job poster Stephen Palanik (Fukushima Ken, 2004-08) learned of the following employment opportunity through the Honyaku E <> J Mailing List and thought it might be of interest to former JETs in the Redmond area and other freelance translators. Stephen is a translator based in Hamamatsu city, Shizuoka Ken, and he periodically posts job listings and event information for JET alumni.
Nintendo of America is looking for a few experienced J>E translators.
Freelance and in-house work is available.
The group in question translates programming manuals, including SDKs and middleware. No game content.
The target audience is game developers (programmers) knowledgable in C, C++, and Java.
Manuals describe image and sound manipulation and deal with everything from heaps and stacks to high-level animation and audio control.
The successful candidate will be able to write native-level English suited for programmers.
Interested parties should contact John Zimet.
JetWits and Pieces: Japanese toilet training video
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Who says the JET alumni network doesn’t do enough things aimed at JET alums with kids? There are a whole slew of JET alum writers with children’s books, not to mention Suzanne Kamata’s (Tokushima-ken, 1988-90) book Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering (which I’m in the middle of reading right now and enjoying very much).
And now this helpful video (which is also good for plain old language study to boot).
Meanwhile, though the video may be unconscious satire in its own right, there are actually several parody versions of this video posted to YouTube as well.
Japan Info Newsletter – June 2009
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The June 2009 edition of JapanInfo is now available online. JapanInfo is published by the Consulate General of Japan in New York/Japan Information Center and is a great source of info for Japan-related things going on in New York and the surrounding area.
Highlights include:
- 45,000 New Yorkers Flock to JAPAN DAY @ CENTRAL PARK 2009
- Ambassador Nishimiya Visits West Virginia
- It’s Easy to Visit Japan : Visa and Quarantine Checks
- Going Global? JETRO Can Help
- The World Heritage Sites in Japan: Spiritual Heart of Kumano and Ancient Pilgrimage Routes
- From the Ambasador’s Desk
- And plenty of things to do and see on the Events Calendar.
JetWit Blog Beat: Isshoni London by Vanessa Villalobos
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Just learned about a terrific blog and resource for UK-oriented JET alums called Isshoni London (http://www.isshonilondon.co.uk/), “the Gateway to Japanese London.” And the best part is it’s written by JET alum Vanessa Villalobos who is also the Communications Officer for JETAA UK.
The site include:
As well as listing of evens covering everything from a Japanese/English meetup picnic in Greenwich to an Okinawa festival to a manga signing event.
You can also follow Isshoni London on Twitter (http://twitter.com/IsshoniVanessa), and Vanessa helpfully includes a list of the “Top Japan-related people to follow on Twitter.”
J-News Mini-Roundup: Corporate Japan Comes Under Attack
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J-News Mini-Roundup is a recurring feature written by Friend Of JET, Jon Hills, who maintains the blog for Hills Learning (www.hillslearning.com).
Hills Learning is a NY-based language learning services company offering customized and personal Japanese language learning options. Their main service is private one on one Japanese language lessons in the NYC area, where the student chooses where and when to have lessons. They’ve also recently expanded to include the Korean and Chinese languages.
Background: The business news today is full of negative headlines for corporations, such as: the necessity to let people go, the difficulty of being in the red, fear of bankruptcy, sales at record lows, etc. Reading the American news it feels as if America is the country being most affected by the Recession. After all, the credit crisis developed from bad sub prime loans mainly being held by U.S. banks, insurance companies, and other unfortunate entities.
Image from "The Nikkei"
Reading the headlines from Corporate Japan today, however, the dismal economic world seems like a small one. Each newspaper reported a different aspect of Corporate Japan that was getting embattled by the current economic crisis.
Yomiuri “Japan Made 40% Less Cars…”
(CLICK HERE for the rest of the article, that includes Japanese News Summaries)
Job: Exec Assistant at law firm with advanced Japanese skills (D.C.)
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Via JETAA DC:
Erin Barnes at Kellen Resources contacted Abby at JETAA DC to say they’re looking for someone with very advanced Japanese skills (i.e., someone who can read and speak Japanese comfortably) . The position is as an executive assistant at a law firm. No prior legal or secretarial experience is required, but she wants someone smart, adaptable, and with strong administrative skills.
If you’re interested, please call her at 202-349-4050 or email her at erin [at] kellenresources [dot] com.
The Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations is seeking an Administrative Assistant for diplomats in the Political Section at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations.
Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
1. Respond to telephone calls, both incoming and outgoing, with efficiency and professional etiquette
2. Assist in logistics/protocol for conferences, meetings, briefings, receptions, and other official functions
3. Draft and prepare letters and diplomatic correspondence
4. Manage appointment schedules for visiting diplomats and VIPs
5. Edit letters and speeches
6. Give oral or written briefings to diplomats depending on the situation
7. Assist other officers and staff when needed
Requirements/Preferences:
1. U.S. citizenship required
2. Excellent English writing and verbal communication skills at native level required
3. Computer skills, typing skills (Microsoft Word, Excel, and plus) experience required
4. Japanese language skills preferred
5. College degree preferred
6. Basic knowledge about the UN preferred
Position begins: August 2009
Please send a cover letter and resume by Monday, 3 July 2009 by 1:00 p.m. to kentaro-orita@un-japan.org or gochaku@un-japan.org with “PMJ Administrative Assistant Position” in the subject line. No phone calls please.
I don’t know how other JET alumni chapters deal with this issue, but in JETAA NY we refer to members of our community who are not officially JET alums as “Friends of JET” or “FOJs” (pronounced fahjz).
Additionally, the term “WOJ” (i.e., “Wife of JET”) occasionally comes up.
And lastly, while it hasn’t caught on yet, I propose increased use of the term “SOJ” (i.e., “Significant Other of JET”) for those vague and undefined relationships that require a category in the JET context. (Though I suppose FOJ could also apply to “Fiancee of JET” as well.)
How you do deal with this issue in your chapter or JET-vironment? Share comments on this post, or send JetWit an email.
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Miguel Gervais (Saitama-ken, Fukaya City, 2000-03) founded and runs the M.L.C.英会話 (eikaiwa) school in Fukaya City, Saitama-ken which currently teaches approximately 45-50 students. He is originally from Canada and was kind enough to write this article in response to a JetWit request to share his career experience.
Any other JET alums interested in sharing their own career advice, experience and perspectives are encouraged to e-mail your article idea to Steven at jetwit [at] jetwit [dot] com.
Having a Job is Irresponsible
My friend Jack is a fine, upstanding person and a great teacher. He’s been in Japan for untold years, had a job that he liked well enough and is blessed with a wonderful family. Unfortunately, the college that had hired him for the past 10 years or so suddenly refused to renew his yearly contract. In their magnanimity, they told him this one month before he was due to start the new school year. Obviously, this was much too late to find another job.
Jack is a great teacher. He is a valuable asset… and yet he is now unemployed and in rather desperate straits. But things could have been even worse… he could have been forced to leave Japan, just like untold numbers of other teachers after the NOVA debacle. Luckily, he is on a spousal visa and was spared this final humiliation.
Don’t let this happen to you! Life-time employment has never been in the cards for foreign teachers in Japan. Unless you are Read More
JETSites: JET Prefectural Websites and Newsletters?
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JetWit has just created a new page in the JETLinks section of this site called “JET Prefectural Websites and Newsletters.”
So far, the only ones listed are Hiroshima-ken and Akita-ken. There are, of course, many more out there. So please send an e-mail to jetwit [at] jetwit [dot] com to share links for your prefecture’s:
- Website
- Blog
- Yahoo or Google group
- Wiki-site
- Facebook page
- Twitter feed
- LinkedIn group
- Any other crazy new form of media the kids have come up with recently
Thanks and yoroshiku.
