WIT Life #221: MoMA’s Avant-Garde Tokyo
Events, Film, Translating/Interpreting, WIT Life, Writers 
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WIT Life 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.
Last month MoMA introduced an exhibition called Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde, which looks at the creations that emerged from this tumultuous period. It features around 200 works of various media, such as paintings from Yayoi Kusama and photographs from Daido Moriyama, as well as pieces from lesser known artists. They all offer social commentary and many are confrontational, some via explicitly sexual themes such as Tetsumi Kudo’s “Philosophy of Impotence” installation, which occupies a large section of the exhibit.
Another interesting work is Hiroshi Nakamura’s “Circular Train A,” which features uniformed schoolgirls as cyclops, further fetishizing this symbol of sexuality in Japanese society. In this painting and others, the influence on modern manga and anime is undeniable. Fun fact is that Yomiuri Shimbun had served as the sponsor of a Tokyo exhibition of post-war artwork, but withdrew the following year as the content had become too controversial. The exhibition will run through February 25 and various lectures and gallery talks are offered, so make sure to check it out.
In conjunction with this exhibition, a film series called Art Theater Guild and Japanese Underground Cinema: 1960-1986 is taking place. On Friday night I had the honor of Read More
JQ Magazine: Book Review – Haruki Murakami’s ‘1Q84’
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“Murakami’s previous books were like delicious sandwiches that left you wanting more. 1Q84 is like a two-foot long sub that filled you to bursting, but you’re still not totally satisfied.” (Vintage International)
Roland Kelts, don’t kick me in the balls—
One man’s attempt to review a book honestly while still keeping friends
By Rick Ambrosio (Ibaraki-ken, 2006-08) for JQ magazine. A staple of the JET Alumni Association of New York (JETAANY) community, Rick manages their Twitter page and is an up-for-anything writer.
My girlfriend wouldn’t shut up about it.
“1Q84 is the best! Ah, when it comes out in English you need to read it!” Just talking about it made her rush to find her old copies (it was broken up into three books in Japan) and start reading them again. She was enthralled, to say the least. I’ve been a Murakami fan for a while: Norwegian Wood was emotional and sexually riveting; Dance Dance Dance was creepy as hell but lots of fun; Kafka on the Shore blew my mind. So I was hungry for 1Q84.
I picked it up shortly after it came out…and put it down for a while…then picked it up again…then down… then up…I think you get the idea. My feelings can kind of be summed up like this: Murakami’s previous books were like delicious sandwiches that left you wanting more. 1Q84 is like a two-foot long sub that filled you to bursting, but you’re still not totally satisfied.
The plot follows two people tied together by fate, love, and inter-dimensional happenstance. Tengo is an author and math teacher who finds himself embroiled in a shady plot to write an award-winning book. Aomame is a fitness instructor with a decidedly darker side job. Both find themselves in an altered version of 1984 called 1Q84 that deviates from the previous reality in specific ways. Those changes seem to revolve around a cult, a beautiful young girl, a book and mysterious “Little People.” Their battle to beat the odds and find each other, discover where they are, and who’s behind the changed world is an epic journey told through alternating perspectives.
1Q84 had all the things I love about Murakami: Super complex, interesting and engaging characters, crazy inter-dimensional sex, lots of mystery, and supernatural elements that bring it right on the cusp of reality, teetering between a fantasy realm and the real 1984. His ability to walk that line (like a cat walking a picket fence for those who love cats not only in Murakami novels, but also in reviews of Murakami novels) is astounding and he does it…for a really long time.
Job: Postings from Idealist.org 12.7.12
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Via Idealist.org. Posted by Geneva Marie (Niigata-ken 2008-09) Geneva is a contributor to both JETwit and JETAANY. Geneva is on a continuous (epic) search for Japanese-related jobs in the United States. Click here to join the JETwit Jobs Google Group and receive job listings even sooner by email.
Associate Program Manager
Posted by: Cultural Vistas
Type: Full-time
Location: New York, NY
Salary: Commensurate with experience
Application Deadline: None Specified
Cultural Vistas is seeking a full-time Associate Program Manager in its Columbia, Md. office to support in the administration of its J-1 Exchange Visitor Programs. Bachelor’s degree in international Studies, business, education, or liberal arts field preferred. Prior experience within international exchange or international education also strongly preferred.
http://www.idealist.org/view/job/DCC4fJTPHxNp/
Compliance Manager
Posted by: The Asia Foundation
Type: Full-time
Location: San Francisco, CA
Salary: Commensurate with experience
Application Deadline: December 11th, 2012
The Asia Foundation is seeking a compliance manager to work in its San Francisco, CA office. A minimum of eight years of finance, compliance and sub-recipient monitoring experience with an international development organization is required. Previous experience with USAID-funded programs and/or AusAid-funded programs is highly desirable as is prior work experience in Asia.
http://www.idealist.org/view/job/34C755cFJGfCp/
Development Associate
Posted by: The Asia Society of Northern California
Type: Full-time
Location: San Francisco, CA
Salary: Commensurate with experience
Start Date: February 1, 2013
The Asia Society of Northern California is seeking a Development Associate to provide support for development efforts, including: membership, corporate membership, program underwriting, Annual Dinner, special events and other fund raising activities. Bachelor’s degree and 2-3 years development work experience required. Familiarity with Asia and Asian American issues and the philanthropic community preferred.
http://www.idealist.org/view/job/33phX4cj7TwSP/
I’ll Make It Myself!: Whole-Wheat Ginger-Squash Muffins with Chocolate Chips
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L.M. Zoller (CIR Ishikawa-ken, Anamizu, 2009-11) is the editor of The Ishikawa JET Kitchen: Cooking in Japan Without a Fight. A writer and web administrator for The Art of Travel, ze also writes I’ll Make It Myself!, a blog about food culture in Japan, and curates The Rice Cooker Chronicles, a series of essays by JETs and JET alumni on the theme of cooking/eating and being alone in Japan.
New Rice Cooker Chronicles submissions always welcome. Just e-mail it to jetwit [at] jetwit.com.
One last(?) squash purée recipe for the season!
I live in a country where the only cold cereals available at regular grocery stores (Tokyo Metro, you don’t count) are frosted flakes and cocoa puffs.* As a result, I’ve learned to make a variety of breakfast foods. I’m actually not sure how I only ended up with one muffin recipe on the blog onsidering the frequency with which we eat them at home. Muffins are the ideal food for the Japanese kitchen: their size means they cook through easily, unlike some quick breads; silicone muffin cups are easy to find; and the infinite variations you can make means you can adapt them to whatever flours (including gluten-free), milk, or seasonal fruit you can find in your area. Plus, they’re just fun to eat.
Tohoku Holiday Greeting Project
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Thanks to JETAA USA Board of Advisors member Jessyca Wilcox for sharing this information:
Tohoku Holiday Greeting Project
American students can send holiday greetings to students in the Tohoku area of Japan devastated by the 3/11/2011 disaster. Cards, which can be written in English, will be distributed beginning December 17. Postage for a regular-size envelope is $1.05.
Send cards to:
Boys and Girls
c/o Mr. Choji Sugihara
Shoshi High School
14-18 Nakamachi, Koriyama-shi
Fukushima-ken, 963-8004
JAPAN.
Hibari-sensei: 2012 Japan-America Grassroots Summit
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Jen Wang (Miyagi, 2008-09) is a lab tech in Dallas and a writer for the Japanese music sites, JRock247 and NekoPOP. Her love of cosplay and her junior high school students inspired the name for her own blog about Japan, Hibari-sensei’s Classroom.
Last August, I had the opportunity to be part of a great opportunity for cultural exchange. The skills I acquired came in handy, as North Texas hosted a delegation of over 150 Japanese visitors for the 2012 Japan-America Grassroots Summit. The Summit was inspired by the friendship between John Manjiro Nakahama and Captain William H. Whitfield, which would lead to official relations between the United States and Japan and a 171-year-old bond between the two families. The John Manjiro Whitfield Commemorative Center for International Exchange and the Japan-America Society of Dallas/Fort Worth worked together with fifteen cities (which included my hometown) to give the visitors an unforgettable experience.
Click here to read about my experience with the Summit.
Kyodo News “Rural JET alumni” series: Charlotte Green (Hokkaidō)
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News agency Kyodo News has recently been publishing monthly articles written by JET alumni who were appointed in rural areas of Japan, as part of promotion for the JET Programme. Below is the English version of the column from November 2012. Posted by Celine Castex (Chiba, 2006-11), currently programme coordinator at CLAIR Tokyo.
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“The subtlest things we observe in children are often the most significant. Of all the lessons I learned from JET, this is perhaps the one I have carried with me the furthest.”
Charlotte Green (Hokkaidō, Biei-chō, 2006-08), is from St. Helens, Merseyside, in the U.K. After studying abroad in Tokyo for one year, she graduated from university with a degree in Japanese and Politics in 2006. The same year, she came back to Japan on the JET Programme and spent two years in the lovely town of Biei. Now back in England, Charlotte is currently studying for a post-graduate diploma in Psychoanalytic Observational Studies and working as a play worker with Barnardo’s.
Looking Back with Letters
In a childishly-decorated shoe box at the back of my wardrobe is a collection of items I keep from interesting times in my life. A lot of it was generated from my time as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) on the JET programme. I spent two years teaching in Biei, a rural town in Hokkaido with a population of 12,000 people. Like most other ALTs, I arrived with only an anachronistic picture of the place in my mind. I worked at three different junior high schools, the smallest of which had twelve students and lay amidst rice paddies frequented by storks and warblers, and hills of birch trees that, in the autumn, turned a spectacular yellow. Snow fell thick and fast for six months of the year. The landscape was a constant source of intrigue. I can remember walking home from work one afternoon and hearing Read More
Job: Part-time Volunteer Coordinator (Queensboro Plz-LIC) (NYC)
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Thanks to JETAA NY Secretary, Pam Kavalam for sharing this NYC listing. Posted by Kay Monroe (Miyazaki-shi, 1995 -97). Click here to join the JETwit Jobs Google Group and receive job listings even sooner by email.
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Position: Volunteer Coordinator
Posted by: Materials for the Arts
Type: Part-time
Location: Long Island, New York
Salary: N/A
Start Date: N/A
Overview:
Two month part-time worker needed to oversee groups of special needs volunteers in a warehouse setting. Three days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday 10am-2:00pm, candidate must have experience working with special needs population of teens and adults.
Duties will include selecting appropriate projects, preparing materials and delegating tasks to group leader with instructions. All groups have counselors and leaders that accompany them.
Candidate must be able to work independently and also within a team environment.
Salary is commensurate with experience – $12 – $17 per hour.
Long Island City location near Queens Borough Plaza.
Please e-mail resume and work references to jkraft@mfta.nyc.gov.
No phone calls please-phone call applicants will not be considered.
Contact Audra Lambert (alambert@mfta.nyc.gov) for more information…
Job: Consulate General of Japan in Detroit – Political Affairs Section
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Via JETAA Chicago. Posted by Kay Monroe (Miyazaki-shi, 1995 -97). Click here to join the JETwit Jobs Google Group and receive job listings even sooner by email.
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Position: Research Analyst in the Political/Economic Affairs Section
Posted by: Consulate General of Japan
Type: Full-time
Location: Detroit
Salary: N/A
Start Date: N/A
Overview:
In 1993, as a result of the growing number of Japanese residents and businesses in Michigan and Ohio, the Consulate-General of Japan in Detroit was established. Consulate surveys indicate that there is now a combined total of 900 Japanese owned facilities in Michigan and Ohio. The current two-state population of Japanese nationals exceeds 18,000.
Important consulate missions include: providing support and service to local Japanese nationals, promoting trade and business development between Japan and the U.S., and strengthening U.S.-Japan relations and mutual understanding through various local economic, educational and cultural activities and exchanges. Read More
JET alum Bruce Feiler’s latest NYTimes column on Maria Popova, creator of Brain Pickings
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Here’s the latest NYT column by JET alum Bruce Feiler (Tottori-ken, 1989-90), author of Learning to Bow, The Council of Dads, and, most recently, The Secrets of Happy Family, as well as several books on the Middle East including Walking the Bible, Abrahamand Where God Was Born. To read prior columns, please click here.
This Life: She’s Got Some Big Ideas
By Bruce Feiler
SHE is the mastermind of the one of the faster growing literary empires on the Internet, yet she is virtually unknown. She is the champion of old-fashioned ideas, yet she is only 28 years old. She is a fierce defender of books, yet she insists she will never write one herself.
CLICK HERE to read the full column.
Cracked.com: 5 Things Nobody Tells You About Living in Japan
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I don’t know if the author is a JET alum, but it’s definitely a unique perspective that most JETs will appreciate and could likely write themselves. Thanks to JET alums Carol Elk and Shannon Copp for alerting me to this article via Facebook.
5 Things Nobody Tells You About Living in Japan
By Charlie Jones
Two years ago, I achieved alpha-geek status among my friends by moving to Japan. Since then, all I’ve been hearing from them is how lucky I am and how they would murder any endangered species still clinging tenaciously to existence in exchange for permission to live in my closet. And I totally get it, because come on, it’s Japan — the wackiest, most interesting place on the planet. Who wouldn’t want to live here?
Well … you might not, actually. Because while there are plenty of great reasons to live in Japan, such as the low crime rate and the amazing public transportation system, there are a few things you should know before you decide to pack up your manga and hop on a jet across the Pacific, wearing rabbit ears and flashing peace signs at everyone who makes eye contact with you. For starters …
#5. Everything is frightfully low-tech
CLICK HERE to read the full article on the Cracked.com website.
JQ Magazine: Concert Review – ‘The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses’
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“There was so much attention paid to the nuance, so much consideration given to the fans, that the show became a kind of homage to both the franchise’s legacy and to every avid gamer whose collective fealty raised Zelda into one of the highest echelons of video game lore.” (Preston Hatfield)
By Preston Hatfield (Yamanashi-ken, 2009-10) for JQ magazine. Preston moved from San Francisco to New York City in January 2012 and is now accepting submissions from people who want to be his friend. Abduct him from his house in the middle of the night, or find him on Facebook and ask about his JET blog in which he details his exploits and misadventures in that crazy Land of the Rising Sun we all love.
If life is one ongoing adventure and each day is its own side quest, then several days ago the already labyrinthine halls beneath Madison Square Garden were not those of a theater but a dungeon, and the spirited host of attendees was nothing short of raiders in pursuit of plunder. Their coveted treasure on this magical evening of Nov. 28 was The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses from Jason Michael Paul Productions. Wielding the baton like her own personal Master Sword (or, as was the case at the onset of the Wind Waker movement, an actual replica of the Wind Waker), conductor Eimear Noone led the Orchestra of St. Luke’s into an epic musical campaign that toured across Hyrule and the 16 games in Zelda’s renowned platform, which is currently celebrating 25 years since its American debut on the original 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System.
The evening commenced with a rousing overture in the form of “The Legend of Zelda Medley” before embarking a four-part movement that began with the crowd favorite Ocarina of Time, and concluded with A Link to the Past, the game where many of the now iconic Zelda themes first premiered. Each movement in this symphonic journey—this Tour de Triforce, if you will—began at the beginning of each game and proceeded to tell the familiar tales of heroism and mystic wonder, transitioning almost fairylike from one key moment to the next, as large screens over the orchestra showed in-game footage for context and intermittently focused on soloists and the choir.
Via Pasona NA. Posted by JQ magazine editor Justin Tedaldi (Kobe-shi, 2001 -02). Click here to join the JETwit Jobs Google Group and receive job listings even sooner by email.
Position: Full-time boy’s dormitory supervisor
Location: Westchester, NY
Duties:
– Responsible for the management and daily operations of campus residence dormitories
– Build good relationships with co-workers and students
– Other duties as needed
Qualifications: Must have bachelor’s degree. Must reside on campus. Several years of experience at educational institutions preferred. Education background is a plus.
Compensation: Salary commensurate with education and experience. Health Insurance, 403B Pension Plan benefits for full-time position.
Starting Date: ASAP
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Please mail resume and cover letter to mtakemura[at]pasona.com.
Via MultiLing. Posted by Kay Monroe (Miyazaki-shi, 1995 -97). Click here to join the JETwit Jobs Google Group and receive job listings even sooner by email.
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***Note: If you apply for this position, please let them know you learned of it from JETwit. Thanks.***
Position: Translator Apprenticeship
Posted by: Embassy of Japan
Type: Full-time (One-Year)
Location: Provo, UT (Feb-Apr 2013) and Yokohama, Japan (May-Jan 2013)
Salary: See Compensation below
Start Date: February 2013
Overview:
MultiLing Corporation is looking for a talented and capable individual to join its subsidiary, MultiLing Japan Y.K., on location in Yokohama, Japan for a full-time one-year apprenticeship position Responsibilities will include translating, editing and reviewing Japanese to English documents and other related tasks. Please see list of specific requirements below:
Qualifications:
• Demonstrated oral and written fluency in English at the HIGHEST LEVEL required;
• Demonstrated oral and written fluency in Japanese with an emphasis on reading ability required (JLPT level 1 or equivalent);
• Ability to pass pre-interview language proficiency test required;
• Bachelor’s degree required (conferred or to be conferred by May 2013);
• Genuine interest in living outside of the U.S. on a long-term basis preferred;
• Computer and communication skills preferred;
• Some translation experience preferred; and
• Familiarity with technical or scientific terminology preferred. Read More
Job: Japanese Language Teacher Needed in Philadelphia
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Thanks to Therese Stephen for sharing this JET-relevant opening. Posted by Kay Monroe (Miyazaki-shi, 1995 -97). Click here to join the JETwit Jobs Google Group and receive job listings even sooner by email.
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Position: Freelance Teacher
Posted by: Language Trainers
Type: Part-time
Location: Philadelphia
Salary: N/A
Start Date: N/A
Overview:
Language Trainers have a part-time, freelance teaching position listed below. If you are interested please send your updated resume to Ms. Julie Ann Dy (Teacher Recruitment Coordinator) Julie@languagetrainers.com. She will contact prospective candidates to schedule a phone interview.
Type of Course: General
Number of Hours: 42 hours
Level of Student: Beginner; 4-year old girl
Preferred Start Date: ASAP
Preferred Schedule: Mostly Sundays
Compensation is negotiable depending on qualifications and experience. They are also happy to discuss travel costs. The company requires very little administration or paperwork.
You can find more information about Language Trainers by clicking here:
http://www.languagetrainers.com/
