Op-ed on U.S. energy policy by JET alum
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JET alums are indeed everywhere. Here’s a recent opinion article by New York-based alum Sam Lederer (Shizuoka-ken, 2005-07), a Contributor at Americans for Energy Leadership, on potential directions in U.S. energy policy for the “lame-duck” session of the U.S. Congress.
CLICK HERE to read some of Sam’s other writings on Japanese energy and environmental policy.
Sam can be reached via his LinkedIn profile and can be followed via Twitter @samlederer
Lars Martinson interviewed in Hero Magazine re “Tonoharu: Part 2”
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There’s a nice interview with JET alum Lars Martinson in Hero Magazine. Lars recently published Tonoharu: Part 2, a graphic novel about teaching English in Japan that follows up on the success of Tonoharu: Part 1.
Here’s the link to the article: http://heromagazine.org/?p=189
Stephanie Boegeman (ALT, Akita-ken, 2006-09) gets her kicks from finding fun crazy ways to see the world and getting paid to do it. She is constantly in search of job, internship, and travel ideas to add to her site Playing With Hire, in the hopes that more JET alumni and like-minded souls join her in her quest to find creative, inspiring, and unique ways to make ends meet.
Calling all teachers at the elementary through high school level: Here is a great opportunity to travel abroad in the name of professional development. The Distinguished Fulbright Awards in Teaching program is accepting applications through *Dec. 15th*. More details on the program can be found here.
Justin’s Japan: Interview with Colin Quinn on Broadway’s ‘Long Story Short’
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- See ‘Colin Quinn: Long Story Short’ on Broadway through Jan. 8. (Colinquinn.com)
By JQ magazine’s Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02) for Examiner.com. Visit his NY Japanese Culture page here to subscribe for free alerts on newly published stories.
Give Colin Quinn 75 minutes, and he’ll give you a hilarious history of the world’s greatest empires. Written and performed by the Brooklyn-born comic (Tough Crowd, Saturday Night Live) and directed by Jerry Seinfeld, Colin Quinn: Long Story Short premiered earlier this month on Broadway to rave reviews from the New York Times, Variety and Entertainment Weekly. I spoke with stand-up’s Renaissance man about the show and his admiration for today’s Japan.
Putting this show together had to have been an educational experience on so many levels. What did you learn?
It was more like thinking about things that I sort of knew more than learning. It’s like realizing how it really is amazing that we’ve never changed at all in terms of how we behave as people.
How about for the sense of stagecraft in your act?
Definitely the sense of movement; the sense of being in different places and trying to, you know, keep it about movement—a lot more movement—which I definitely think is important. In stand-up you don’t think in those terms. Thinking in terms of acting as different characters, you do it a little bit, but not really.
Your show covers China, but Japan is totally absent. Do you have any plans to inject more of it in future shows?
It is kind of a disgrace to leave out imperial Japan; they were a giant empire, let’s face it. I had this whole thing about the Dutch and Japan and England all being these little countries that ran things. Maybe I’m going to try to find a way to incorporate that stuff in. I used to have a line about how Japan was like the little guy that used to intimidate the big guy China—China was kind of the mama’s boy at that time. So maybe there’s a way that I can incorporate that back in, but we cut it out for time.
Where have you traveled to in the world?
I’ve been to Japan, I’ve been to China, I’ve been to Africa, I’ve been to the Middle East, I’ve been to Europe a little bit. I’ve never been to South America.
What was your time in Japan like?
I was just doing shows for the USO, so I was at all the military bases. I spent two weeks in Japan, but I went everywhere except Tokyo. [laughs]
What other cities and places did you visit?
I was in Nagasaki and Hiroshima and all that stuff, just wherever the military bases were.
When was that?
About six years ago. I’ll tell you the truth, it was so beautiful to travel—we traveled by bus most of the places, and just passing the houses, everybody’s got these beautiful roofs. It’s like, wow, the people really just care, you know?
Click here for the rest of the interview.
Video: English Teachers – The Series
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Thanks to JET alum Jennifer Wang for forwarding the link to “English Teachers: The Series,” an original web-based comedy series about teaching English in Japan. (Kind of like Scrubs if it took place in a private English school.)
http://englishteachersseries.com
Here’s the first episode. Click the above link to see more episodes:
Job: Government Affairs Job Opening in Tokyo
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via Jet alum Marea Pariser. Posted by Dipika Soni (Ishikawa-ken, 2003-06). Dipika currently works as an in-house translator for PFU (a Fujitsu company) in Kahoku-shi, Ishikawa-ken. She is also the vocalist for the Japanese hardcore punk band DEGRADE.
——————————————————————————————————————
Job Position: Government Affairs Job Opening in Tokyo
Job Details:
Aflac International Inc. in Tokyo is looking for a Government Affairs Specialist to handle a wide range of duties as a member of a highly-effective government relations team. Aflac — the #1 life insurance provider in Japan in terms of policies in force — is a Fortune 200 company with more than $14 billion in annual revenues in Japan.
Responsibilities include researching and writing policy papers, presentations, and other advocacy materials; close monitoring of legislative and regulatory developments in Japan and the United States; providing a variety of staff support for senior executives; and project management, including event planning. A close attention to detail, multitasking, and the ability to work under tight deadlines are all key skills for this position.
Compensation competitive and commensurate with experience and skills.
Requirements:
Note: The person does not have to be living in Japan currently
Contact:
Nathaniel Graddy
graddy_n@aflac.co.jp
Thanksgiving in Japan?
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J-DOC, C-DOC, and K-DOC are recurring features 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, Chinese, and Korean language learning options.
Japanese Class listing can be found at: Japanese Classes
So wait, I know what you’re thinking. There were no colonists coming to the “new world” and mixing with indigenous peoples in Japan? I lived in Japan, and it was very difficult for me to even get a turkey, let alone get together for a turkey dinner with local Japanese?
Although there is no direct holiday that mirrors Thanksgiving in Japan, there is a holiday that’s very similar in terms of how it’s celebrated.
Click here Thanksgiving in Japan for the rest of the article.
JETAA Chapter Beat 11.22.10
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Freelance writer/editor Jonathan Trace (Fukuoka-ken, 2005-08) takes us on a walk around the JET Alumni community for another edition of JETAA Chapter Beat.
- Happy Hour – Monday, November 22nd, 6:00 at Sushi Raku in Midtown. Join the crew in Houston for a little sushi and sake, and start the holiday week out right.
- Yukata Workshop/Christmas Party – Saturday, November 27th, 6:00 at the Oaks Hotel in Neutral Bay. Get ready for the holidays and warm weather with JETAA Sydney at this fun event, including a charity raffle and prizes.
- JBook – Monday, December 13th, 7:00 in the Adams Morgan/Dupont area. Spend some relaxing time this holiday reading in preparation for the next meeting of JETAADC’s book club. Next month’s selection is Namoi Hirohama’s “Snakeskin Shamisen.”
- Sierra Madre Hike – Friday, November 26th, 8:30 at the trail head of Mt. Wilson Trail. Work off that turkey with a short hike along the Sierra Madre, followed by a causal brunch in town.
What happened at your chapter’s event? If you attend(ed) any of these exciting events, JetWit would love to hear about them. Just contact Jonathan Trace with any info, stories or comments.
Japan America Society Round-up 11.22.10
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Gail Cetnar Meadows (ALT, Hiroshima-shi 2007-10), co-founder of Hiroshima JET webzine the Wide Island View, shines a light on some of the upcoming events of Japan America Societies…
Inside a Japanese Kitchen: Let’s Make Sukiyaki — In this two-part workshop, participants will learn about the wide variety of Japanese condiments such as dashi, miso and ponzu, and then how to use some of those condiments to make sukiyaki.
- Date: Sunday, Dec. 5
- Time: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Place: Maneki Neko Restaurant, 238 West Broad Street, Falls Church, Virginia
- For more information, click here.
- Japanese Business Culture: Working With Japanese Colleagues — Do you work at or with a Japanese company? This seminar is designed to help cover some of the challenges you may encounter, including: ways to communicate, styles of communication, Japanese style decision making, hierarchy of workers, role of the group, protocols (gift giving, greetings, business cards, etc.), and brief language introduction.
- Date: Friday, Dec. 10
- Time: 8 a.m. to noon
- Place: Dublin Entrepreneurial Center, 7003 Post Road, Dublin
- For more information, click here.
Press Club YPG Bonenkai — Bid farewell to 2010 by sampling a wide variety of wine with Japan Society friends and food at the Press Club with its eight winery-exclusive tasting bars.
- Date: Thursday, Dec. 16
- Time: 6 to 9 p.m.
- Place: Press Club, 20 Yerba Buena Lane, San Francisco
- For more information, click here.
- The New Era of Medicine with iPS Stem Cells — This lecture will be given by Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, Japan’s best known scientist in the field of stem-cell research. In addition to his Center for iPS Cell Research & Application at Kyoto University, he is also Senior Investigator, Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, and Investigator in Stem Cell Biology at the University of California at San Francisco. He is the 2010 recipient of two of the world’s most prestigious awards for scientific research: The Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology and The Balzan Prize.
- Date: Monday, Dec. 13
- Time: 4 to 6:30 p.m.
- Place: The Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, Harvard Medical School, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston
- 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 Cetnar Meadows the info.
New JET Alum China-Chinese Connection group on LinkedIn
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With the economic rise of China, there are an increasing number of JET alums who live in China, do work related to China, have an interest in China or speak or want to learn Chinese. On top of this, there are already a number of JET alums who have a connection to Chinese culture.
As a way to connect JET alums and friends of JET who share this connection, there’s now a new LinkedIn group you can join called:
“JET Alum China/Chinese Connection.”
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=3691966
This admittedly awkwardly-named group is an attempt to encompass all of the above and create a way to help each other out in various ways. For example…
- You’re planning a trip to China or want to work in China and want to find other JET alums there to talk to in advance.
- You live in China and want to link up with other JET alums, or better yet, start a JETAA chapter there
- You want to learn Chinese and learn about creative study approaches for people who aren’t intimidated by the whole “kanji” thing
- You’re just curious about the intersection of JET alums and China
Culture Spreader: John Gauntner – The Sake Guy
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Culture Spreaders is a new feature intended to shine a spotlight on JET alums involved in spreading and sharing Japanese culture in their home countries. If you know of a good JET alum for a future post, just e-mail jetwit [at] jetwit.com tell us why you think that alum is a Culture Spreader. (Self-nominations welcome too.)
JET alum and leading sake expert John Gauntner (aka “The Sake Guy“) has established himself as the leading non-Japanese sake expert in the world. See, e.g., this 2009 Japan Times article titled, “Nihonshu evangelist preaches heady mix of culture, taste.”
Not only does John spread the sake gospel through numerous appearances and events in the U.S. and elsewhere, but he also offers a Sake Professional Course in various locations to teach others how to be sake experts and evangelizers. As a result, there are now four sake-only specialist shops in the U.S.–True Sake (San Francisco), Sakaya (NYC), SakeNomi (Seattle) and The Sake Shop (Honolulu)–and the owners of all four attended John’s Sake Professional Course for the purpose of starting their respective businesses.
For his work spreading Japanese sake culture around the globe (and helping the Japanese sake industry expand its markets), John Gauntner is hereby recognized by JetWit as a serious “Culture Spreader.”
Editor’s note: In the “JET’s a small world” department, it turns out that both John Gauntner and last week’s “Culture Spreader” Bruce Rutledge are both originally from Cleveland and previously have met at SakeNomi in Seattle, where Bruce currently lives.
JetWit Diary 10.21.10
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JetWit Diary is a new feature by Steven Horowitz (Aichi-ken, 1992-94), founder and publisher of JetWit. Steven is available on a consulting basis to assist organizations with any membership building, social media consulting, creative communications and writing needs.
There’s a lot going on in the JetWit (i.e., JET and JETAA) world right now. New ideas. New information. New projects. New people.
Seattle
I had a great trip to Seattle, primarily to visit JET alum friends (and take in the JETAA Pacific Northwest Happy Hour). I reconnected with former PNW Newsletter Editor Liz Sharpe, former PNW officers Ryan Hart and Shun Endo, and current President Sandra Sakai. Also got to meet a lot of new people, and even JetWit contributor, Stephanie Boegeman, whom I’d never met in person and who is heading to Cambodia to work for JET alum-founded PEPY Tours). As a chapter, PNW very much has their unchi together. e.g., At the happy hour, they had a staff of 2 or 3 alums manning a spreadsheet on a laptop, taking everyone’s orders and keeping track of who owed what so that the bill worked out right in the end.
I also learned that the Kobe-Seattle sister city relationship is strong, and that despite the reduction in Aichi prefectural JETs, Hyogo-ken is still a big supporter of JET and perhaps a good model of how to really extract value from JET and from sister city relationships. In fact, there’s a Hyogo Business & Cultural Center in Seattle that typically employs a JET alum. (Currently it’s Ben Erickson who also serves as PNW’s Webmaster.)
Sister Cities
Speaking of sister cities, I recently spoke with Laura Giroux, Membership Director of Sister Cities International (based in D.C.) The conversation came about thanks to Carlo Capua, a Fort Worth, TX-based JET alum who is on the Board of SSI and who got in touch after seeing the JET-Sister Cities List Project on JetWit. The purpose was to learn more about SSI and see if there’s any potential for collaboration with the JET alum community. But in the process, I gained some historical perspective on sister cities from Laura.
Did you know that the first ever sister city relationship was apparently formed in the 1930s between Toledo, Ohio and Toledo, Spain? Also, SSI was formed thanks to President Eisenhower who, following WWII, pushed for grassroots cultural exchanges especially among the Axis Powers (Japan, Germany and Italy) which led to the creation of SSI as well as many other sister city relationships in those countries. As many of us have noticed, Japan in particular really took to the sister city concept.
FYI, the potential for collaboration with JET alumni may lie in the fact that sister city relationships often involves the over-60 set who have time to maintain the relationships and high school students who have time to go on exchanges. As a result, it sounds like energy from internationally-minded folks in the 23-to-50 age range could be beneficial in some form. Just something to tuck away in your brain for future use and ideas generation.
State of JET
The reason I’ve been focused on the sister city relationships is because it’s becoming clear that one of the key links to sustaining JET lies in identifying its value to Japanese local governments. Based on feedback from knowledgeable sources, I’ve heard that the value of JET has been strongly recognized at the central government level. The JETAA USA press release, the series of op-eds in the Japanese media (including one by JET alums Jim Gannon, Michael Auslin and Paige Cottingham-Streater), pressure perhaps from the U.S. State Department and general common sense of have merged to make key political constituencies aware of how significant a role JET has played and continues to play in US-Japan relations.
That said, there remain long-term concerns about JET’s survival. And attrition at the local level figures as a major one of those concerns.
JET-Visitors Tally Project
In addition to the JET-Sister Cities List Project, another upcoming JetWit project aimed at the JET-local government relationship will be the “JET-Visitors Tally Project.” (That project name is not set in stone, btw.) The gist of the project is that JETs are directly responsible for some amount of tourism revenue for Japan given that most of us had family and friends visit them in Japan. Hence, JETs have been directly responsible for significant tourism dollars (or rather, yen) pouring into Japan’s economy. And this tourism income, as far as I can tell, is not being factored into any cost-benefit analysis or discussion of the JET Program or JETAA.
So, working off an idea raised by Dennis Li (an officer of the Texoma JETAA chapter) at this year’s JETAA USA Conference in NYC in August, this project will invite JETs and JET alums to tell us how many people (and “people-days”) they have been directly responsible for bringing to Japan. The result will be a minimum estimated amount of tourism revenue that JET has generated for Japan. So start reaching back into your visitor memories and stay tuned for the official announcement.
JetWit Funding
And lastly, it’s time to have a potentially uncomfortable discussion about money.
In a nutshell, for the last 3+ years I’ve been building JetWit as a free resource for the JET and JET alumni community. This has all been an extremely enjoyable labor of love. But I’m at the point where I need to start generating enough revenue to justify the time I’ll need to continue spending. (And ideally to be able to pay other key contributors at some point.)
I’m going to put up a more detailed post about this in the near future. But I believe to make JetWit continue to work and grow, the 3 most likely sources of revenue, and the 3 ways you can potentially help are:
1. Direct member contributions – If you think JetWit is a public good worth supporting and that you’d like to see continue to exist, please feel free to contribute via PayPal.
2. Advertising– Advertise your business or services on JetWit. Or introduce JetWit to businesses likely to advertise. (Contact information for a specific person at a company is always helpful.) JetWit has become the de facto central source of JET-relevant information, original content and job listings, is read by key people at CLAIR, the Consulates and MOFA and gets over 13,000 hits/month. Pretty good demographic, right?
3. Grants – Do you know of a grant or foundation that would be a good fit for JetWit? Even better, can you help put a proposal together?
I’m always open to ideas, suggestions and experimenting. So feel free to get in touch with ideas and suggestions or just to brainstorm.
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Here’s wishing JetWit readers a Happy Thanksgiving (and a belated Happy Thanksgiving for our Canadian readers). I should mention that I’ll be in Tampa, FL around Christmas time and will be looking to meet up with folks from the JET alum community down there on Dec 26 or 27. So get in touch if by any chance you’ll be nearby at that time.
Yoroshiku onegaishimasu,
Steven Horowitz (Aichi-ken, 1992-94)
Brooklyn, NY
jetwit [at] jetwit.com
Justin’s Japan: ‘Summer Wars’ Anime Aims for Oscar (Film Review)
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- ‘Summer Wars’ comes to New York’s IFC Center Dec. 29.
By JQ magazine’s Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02) for Examiner.com. Visit his NY Japanese Culture page here to subscribe for free alerts on newly published stories.
The opening scene of Mamoru Hosoda’s animated film Summer Wars transports us to the virtual world of OZ, a place where hundreds of millions of users chat, shop and play via customized avatars in a breathtakingly trippy space that owes much to contemporary Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami and Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell movies. But it’s in rural Nagano where most of Summer Wars occurs, and this setting gives it a heart in a world that’s becoming increasingly addicted to online social networks and mobile devices.
The film enjoyed a sold-out reception of its English language premiere at Asia Society yesterday as part of distributor GKIDS’ annual New York International Children’s Film Festival. Fueled by Internet buzz and rapturous word of mouth upon its initial release in Japan last year, the film won a clutch of awards and is an official entry for Best Animated Feature at the 2011 Academy Awards.
The plot: teenage OZ moderator Kenji (voiced by Michael Sinterniklaas) agrees to a “job” escorting his popular schoolmate Natsuki (Brina Palencia) to her great-grandmother’s upcoming 90th birthday celebration at the family’s enormous estate in Ueda. The catch: he’s asked by his secret crush to pose as her fiancé, which hits complications as her crazed extended family enters the picture. To make matters worse, Kenji unwittingly triggers a malicious AI program called Love Machine that threatens not just the existence of OZ, but the rest of the real world with its interdependence on technology. It’s up to the boy—a girl-phobic math prodigy—to gain new confidence in himself in order to right OZ and win his dream girl’s heart.
Click here for the rest of the review.
Job: Private ALT position in Naganuma (Hokkaido)
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Via the Hokkaido JETs yahoo listserv:
Naganuma Town, near Sapporo & Kitahiroshima, is looking for a private ALT to start a contract in April, 2011. The pay is approximately 300,000 yen/month. The successful applicant will work closely with JTEs in 3 junior high schools and 4 elementary schools. Housing will be in town and will possibly be subsidized.
If interested, please contact Mrs. Chika Kubota at dontmorry@yahoo.co.jp for more specific details and to set up an interview.
WIT Life #137: Tokyo Sky Tree
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
Very interesting article in yesterday’s NYT about how efforts are being made to reduce the presence of yakuza in various business transactions. The story focuses on the recent construction project of Tokyo Sky Tree, a communications tower. This is a huge change as traditionally yakuza have been an integral part of this industry, often seeking “protection money” from developers. Developers might also call on the yakuza to give an extra push to people unwilling to give up their land. I liked Jake Adelstein‘s quote calling the yakuza “Goldman Sachs with guns.” Check out the adjoining picture to see a comparison between Tokyo Tower and the “new Tokyo Tower,” what Sky Tree was called before decided on its official name. Other candidates were Tokyo Edo Tower, Mirai (Future) Tree, Yume Miyagura (Dreamwatching Tower), Rising East Tower and Rising Tower. It is due to be completed next year.
