JQ Magazine: Book Review – ‘Orchards’ Is Elegant, Powerful, Profound
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“‘Orchards’ is at once a celebration of life and a somber reflection on the choices we make and their often irrevocable consequences.” (Random House)
By Sharona Moskowitz (Fukuoka-ken, 2000-01) for JQ magazine. Sharona is interested in fresh, new voices in fiction and creative nonfiction.
Meet Kanako Goldberg. Half Japanese, half Jewish, the teenage narrator of Holly Thompson’s breathtaking 2011 novel Orchards is more bagels and lox than natto and rice. After the suicide of her classmate in New York, Kanako is sent by her Japanese mother to spend the summer with her relatives on their mikan farm in a rural village tucked beneath the shadows of Mount Fuji. The trip to Japan is not only a chance to bond with her Japanese kin, it’s something of a temporary exile, a time to reflect on her life and her classmate’s untimely death at a safe geographical remove.
The victim’s name was Ruth and she is evoked repeatedly throughout the novel in the second person, as if to haunt the reader as much as she seems to be haunting Kanako’s conscience. Who was Ruth? What exactly was the extent of her suffering and how long did she have to endure before making the desperate decision to take her own life? Slowly we learn about Ruth’s battle with bipolar disorder and the unfortunate events that prompted her to do the unthinkable.
Despite her remorse, Kanako was not exactly the bully. She was more of a neutral bystander neither provoking nor defending the tortured teen, though in retrospect she feels just as culpable as Lisa, Ruth’s lead tormentor. (Lisa’s own fate, which I won’t give away here, adds an unexpected twist to the story.)
The tragic event took place in an apple orchard, a place where the cycle of death and rebirth is in plain, colorful view. While this metaphor might seem forced or terribly obvious, so elegant is Thompson’s language and so powerful and gentle her analogies that the overall effect is profound and genuinely moving.
JQ Magazine: San Francisco Hosts Fourth Annual J-Pop Summit Festival
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The 2012 J-Pop Summit Festival will be held in San Francisco’s Japantown August 25-26. (NEW PEOPLE, 2011)
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By Lindsay Martell (Saitama-ken, 1995-1997) for JQ magazine. Lindsay is a freelance writer and a voice-over actor in Oakland, California. Visit her website here.
Whether you have a penchant for hunky Lelouch Lamperouge (the hunky antihero of the anime series Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion) or a serious hankering for Lolita fashion, the pop-y, edgy, dynamic stuff you love is busting at the seams with this year’s J-Pop Summit Festival in San Francisco’s Japantown August 25-26.
With its campy theme of “Cyberpop Overload,” the second annual gathering is a Japanophile’s dream come true—noshing on chicken teriyaki bento or pork katsu curry from a JapaCurry food truck as you bop along to the scores of bands busting out tunes—this mecca of all things related to Japanese pop culture has something for everyone: fashion, film, anime, video games, technology and thumping music. And for JET alums who are feeling particularly natsukashii? Kite-kudasai!
Personally, I can’t wait. Not a day goes by when I don’t miss Japan. I haven’t lived there since the mid-’90s, when I was an ALT in Saitama, and yet, I can still feel the humid summer air, tatami beneath my feet, and the salty perfection of roasted senbei crunching in my mouth. At that time, I couldn’t get enough of the hypnotic pop scene. Most of it was a mere 1.5 hours away in Shibuya—a deliriously crazed hub of all things punk and pop.
And while I am now thousands of miles away from that edgy scene, J-Pop is an easy trip—a place brimming with kawaii-ness around every corner. More than 55,000 people got their pop on at the festival in 2011, and even more are expected to join in the fun this year.
JQ Magazine: JQ&A with Bridges to Japan Founder Jennifer Jakubowski
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“If you are interested in doing something Japan-related, the JET alumni community is definitely a good start, associating with people who can relate to your experiences in Japan, and getting to know people who might be useful contacts for you on the career front.”
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- By Lana Kitcher (Yamanashi-ken, 2010-12) for JQ magazine. Lana is a New York native, and just recently returned to the U.S. She wrote for the AJET online magazine Connect while on the JET Program. She also enjoys writing about her adventures on her blog at Kitcher’s Café.
Jennifer Jakubowski (Hokkaido, 1995-97) is the founder and managing director of Bridges to Japan, a Japanese-American cross-cultural consulting and training firm based in New York. Prior to joining JET, Jakubowski spent two of her younger years in Japan, one as a junior high school student due to her father’s job and one as an exchange student at Waseda University.
Following her time on JET, she worked for the Nagano Winter Olympics as a broadcaster (despite having no experience or training, she wryly recalls), acquired a master’s degree in international studies and diplomacy in London, and then returned to the U.S. to chart a professional course in cross-cultural consulting in New York City. This mixture of experiences and opportunities over the years has landed her where she is today with Bridges to Japan.
As an inspiration to past, current and future JETs, JQ caught up with Jakubowski to learn about how she made it to where she is now, and what advice she has to offer to other JETs and alumni hoping to use their JET experience in their future careers.
Tell us a little about what you do at Bridges to Japan.
Most simply put, our mission is to help bridge cultural differences between Japanese and American business communities. As anyone who has spent time in both cultures can attest to, there are significant differences in how things are approached on many levels and these differences, if not addressed, can lead to misunderstandings. In the business world especially, this can have an adverse impact on the bottom line of a business initiative. Our end goal is for each side to better understand where the other side is coming from so that the relationship is more successful and enjoyable all around.
How do you achieve this?
For American clients, this most often involves training them on Japanese business and social norms unfamiliar to them if they haven’t had prior experience dealing with the Japanese culture. On the flip side, we work with Japanese expatriates in the U.S. (or on their way) to help them adapt to American workplace norms and to navigate working with locally hired American staff.
What kind of people or companies might be interested in your services at Bridges to Japan?
Any American organizations or individuals who are doing business with Japan, but who are unfamiliar with how to effectively navigate the cultural waters. It’s truly amazing the impact that even one day of training can have on the success of a particular business relationship. I hear it time and again from my clients. As you know, the Japanese don’t expect you to “be” Japanese—they even find it a little weird or unsettling when gaijin try too hard—but the effort to reach across the aisle and demonstrate some cultural compromise and sensitivity in the course of business can make or break a relationship. Likewise, Japanese expatriates working in the U.S.—or on their way to the U.S.—are ideal candidates for the type of support we provide.
How did your experience on the JET Program prepare you for, and lead you to where you are now?
In addition to certain aspects of business that I’ve learned through experience over the years, having a solid understanding of the Japanese culture is the single most important aspect of my work. By being exposed to so many situations and Japanese people on JET—speaking to senior citizen groups, teaching junior high school students, working with Japanese government officials, playing softball with local peers, volunteering at a special education program, riding tractors with local farmers…you name it—my cultural literacy escalated significantly. While the learning curve is infinite, I feel that the JET experience endowed me with significant knowledge on this front by mere virtue of what was expected of me in that capacity. I had a strong academic base and some prior experience in Japan going into the program, which certainly helped, but the range of things I experienced on the JET Program was really astounding. Once I had a solid understanding of these cultural differences and the value of applying this knowledge professionally, I’ve been hooked on applying it professionally ever since.
JQ Magazine: Film Review – ‘Love Strikes!’ Twice at JAPAN CUTS Film Festival
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‘Love Strikes!’ star Masami Nagasawa, center, with JAPAN CUTS festival curator Samuel Jamier at Japan Society, July 14, 2012. (Shinobu Torii)
By Rick Ambrosio (Ibaraki-ken, 2006-08) for JQ magazine. Rick manages the JET Alumni Association of New York (JETAANY)’s Twitter page and is the creator of the JETwit column Tadaima!
Love Strikes! had its encore screening July 22 at Japan Society’s annual JAPAN CUTS film festival, and I can tell why they had to run it a second time: a main character with a wide range, beautiful girls, and the hilarious situations he gets himself into with them (though the funny stuff is a little frontloaded, but we’ll get to that).
Hitoshi Ohne’s Love Strikes! (or Moteki 「モ テキ」) is based on a manga of the same name and is the sequel to the popular television series. The main character, Yukiyo Fujimoto (Mirai Moriyama) is a young man entering middle age and finding his luck with women wanting. From out of nowhere, he has his moteki, or time of great popularity with women of the opposite sex, which is said to happen to a man just three times in his life.
The movie’s events find us after his first moteki, with Yukiyo wishing for another shot with a great girl. That great girl’s name is Miyuki (Masami Nagasawa), whom Yukiyo makes a connection with over Twitter. We then see our introspective thirty-something hero chasing her all over Japan, making laughs, breaking hearts, and learning through the whole process.
Justin’s Japan: Week Three of JAPAN CUTS 2012 Blasts Off with ‘Space Battleship Yamato’ Premiere
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Row0rYFQCHs
By JQ magazine editor Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02) for Examiner.com. Visit his Japanese culture page here for related stories.
Japan Society’s annual JAPAN CUTS festival winds down this week with a sensational lineup of cinema and stars. The DON’T STOP! JAPAN CUTS Party follows the July 26 screening of Don’t Stop!, featuring an introduction with director Kenji Kohashi.and Leonie director Hisako Matsui for the July 27 screening introduction and Q&A.
DON’T STOP! documents the journey of “CAP,” a hard-as-nails 46-year-old man who realizes his lifelong dream, to go to America and ride a Harley down Route 66. CAP’s love affair with America and motorcycles began when he was young, but when he was 26, a traffic accident immobilized his left hand and lower body. Over the next 20 years, much of his life has been spent either in bed or in a wheelchair. In a 10-day, 4200 km trip across the U.S., encounters and miracles happen along the way to breathe fresh life into CAP and his friends.
Other highlights include Toshiaki Toyoda’s enigmatic terrorist art house gem Monsters Club (July 25); tthe world premiere of moral shocker Ushijima the Loan Shark (July 25), which features the impressive film debut of AKB48’s Yuko Oshima (recipient of the festival’s first-ever Cut Above Award for Outstanding Debut); Hisako Matsui’s haunting docudrama Leonie (July 27); and climaxes with the North American premiere of one of the highest-grossing Japanese films of all time, Space Battleship Yamato (July 28).
For this week’s list of films, click here.
JQ Magazine: Book Review – ‘Monkey Business Volume 2’
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“Anyone can read this book and appreciate it. It provides a window into the heart, mind, and soul of the Japanese people following the tsunami, earthquake and nuclear disaster.” (A Public Space)
By Greg Anderson, (Fukuoka-ken, 1990-1992) for JQ magazine. Greg is part of the fourth class of the JET Program, which began in 1987. He is currently employed as an auditor with the U.S. Treasury Department and is a new member of the JETAA New York book club.
Monkey Business: New Writing from Japan is an anthology of opinions, thoughts, and stories written by some of the most prominent writers from the past and present on the subject of Japan and co-edited by Japanamerica author Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99). I love this book!
Why? Because anyone can read this book and appreciate it. You do not have to be an aficionado of Japan or, frankly, be able to locate it on a map. This book provides a window into the heart, mind, and soul of the Japanese people following the tsunami, earthquake and nuclear disaster. Just as in the United States following the events of September 11, 2001, Americans were forced to pause and consider American values, the American way of life and America’s relationship with rest of the world, along with what it means to be an American.
The events of March 11, 2011 were a watershed moment for the people of Japan. Nothing will ever be as it once was in Japan. The loss of life, failed technology, and deceit/lies are themes that are all addressed in this issue of Monkey Business, released earlier this year. What’s great about this book is that there are two ways that it can be read: You can read it chronologically from page one through page 210, you can browse the index to find an interesting story, or you can simply thumb through the book (like I did), find a story that strikes your fancy, and begin reading (I assure you that you will not be disappointed).
Justin’s Japan: Week Two of JAPAN CUTS 2012 Spotlights Late Film Legend Yoshio Harada
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‘Shall We Dance?’ returns to the big screen July 21 as part of this week’s JAPAN CUTS offerings at New York’s Japan Society. (Daiei Co., Ltd )
By JQ magazine editor Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02) for Examiner.com. Visit his Japanese culture page here for related stories.
This week, Japan Society’s annual JAPAN CUTS film festival pays tribute to the late actor Yoshio Harada, screening his final film Someday and 9 Souls, (both July 19). The festival also highlights the career of living legend Koji Yakusho, presenting five of his most inconic films over July 20-21: Chronicle of My Mother, Cure, Shall We Dance?, Toad’s Oil (which Yakusho also directed), 13 Assassins, and The Woodsman and the Rain.
Yakusho will be on hand for the Woodsman’s sold-out July 20 screening for an introduction, Q&A and reception. On that occasion, the festival will award the star the first ever JAPAN CUTS prize, the Cut Above Award for Excellence in Film. Yakusho will also appear for the July 21 screening of Takashi Miike’s hit samurai action movie 13 Assassins. Other highlights include Toshi Fujiwara’s provocative and poetic documentary on post-tsunami Japan No Man’s Zone (July 22, includes an introduction and Q&A with director Toshi Fujiwara).
Also, fans can enjoy encore screening of the irresistible blockbuster love comedy Love Strikes! (July 22). The film’s debut on July 17 welcomed a very special guest, Japanese Academy Award-winning actress Masami Nagasawa, who appeared following a live taiko performance by the legendary group Cobu.
For this week’s list of films, click here.
By John McGee (Nagano-ken, 2004-05) for JQ magazine. John is the Tampa Regional Representative for the Florida JET Alumni Association, and the founder of Tampa Natsu Matsuri, a free annual event organized by local residents with an interest in Japan.
The balmy breeze blew in through the screened doors of our house, floating the sheer curtains in soft billows. Late May in southern Nagano is damp…it’s always damp on the wet side of the Alps. But being from Florida, this was comfortable weather.
My good friend was visiting from America. He’d made quite a stir in our sleepy town striding around with his seemingly angry Native American scowl way up there brushing two meters, from which nearly a meter of black tresses flowed down like raven waterfalls.
We were watching the shadows slip up the mountains across from our home when the phone rang. It was our friend Sayaka. “The fireflies are here!” she said excitedly. “Want to come see them?”
Sure we would. If they were as big as other Japanese bugs, this could be a great sight. She told us where to meet her, so we carefully folded my wife, my three-year-old son, our giant Indian friend Bass, short for Sebastian, and myself into our Toppo and sputtered down our ski jump of a street to the main road.
We soon pulled up to the intersection where Sayaka was waiting. This miniaturized beauty stood out in our town every bit as much as Bass. She was dressed to kill as always, standing next to her shiny new Cube. Her family owned a ryokan and she had been all over the world. She quickly waved us to get going and we followed her down out of our crevice of a valley into the wider spot where a smaller river joined the local Kiso River, forming a rare broad flat spot.
This area was checkered with small rice fields and ancient farm houses. As we neared the junction of the rivers I started to see quite a few cars. I was a bit surprised, but that quickly turned into open-mouthed shock as we saw that there was not one available place to pull off the road for nearly a kilometer! Lightning bugs were apparently a big attraction in this sleepy town. Sayaka spotted a driveway open at a farmhouse and told us she’d ask if we could park there. “That’ll never work,” I thought, but of course this was Japan, so in a moment we were parked in the best spot on the field.
We stepped out into a dusky green sward dotted with families. Children hopping here and there. Some had jars. Others had nets. Some just walked along with heads back and mouths agape. Against the black silhouettes of the steep mountains there were literally thousands upon thousands of small bright lights flashing as high up as I could see. In answer, the rice and grasses along the river were twinkling like Christmas lights.
Justin’s Japan: Week One of JAPAN CUTS 2012 Serves Up ‘Love Strikes!’, Adult Anime
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‘Love Strikes!’ has its U.S. premiere at New York’s Japan Society July 14. (© 2011 TOHO CO.,LTD. / TV TOKYO CORPORATION / DENTSU INC. / KODANSHA Ltd. / Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. / Office Crescendo Inc. / PARCO CO., LTD. / Yahoo Japan Corporation / TV OSAKA CORPORATION / TV AICHI CORPORATION)
By JQ magazine editor Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02) for Examiner.com. Visit his Japanese culture page here for related stories.
From July 12-28, Japan Society ushers in its sixth consecutive year of JAPAN CUTS: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema. Bigger than ever, JAPAN CUTS 2012 boasts the most feature films in the festival’s history: 37 full-length and 2 shorts, encompassing blockbusters, high-concept art house titles, mature anime, audacious documentaries, delirious rom-coms and a splatter of J-horror/gore genre busters. Running alongside the New York Asian Film Festival (June 29-July 15), which co-presents 12 films from July 12-15, JAPAN CUTS 2012’s selections sport the unyielding artistry and out-of-control eccentricity that define modern Japanese cinema.
“This year’s expanded and expansive edition of JAPAN CUTS reflects our (slightly maniacal) ambition to be the ultimate platform for Japanese cinema in North America—in the world perhaps?” says Japan Society’s chief film programmer and festival curator Samuel Jamier. “In this respect, the explosive, purposefully off-balance mix of dark-themed hard-core actioners, blockbusters, hit comedies, nano-budget indie titles and philosophical art house pieces emphasizes the wild diversity of the production in the archipelago, as well as its incredible resilience, despite the rise of its East Asian neighbors and the current severe economic conditions. We might not be solving the epistemological conundrum that is Japanese and world cinema (or event zombie apocalypse), but we’re giving it a good try.”
Upcoming events include the sold out Striking Love! JAPAN CUTS Opening Party following the July 14 screening of Love Strikes!, with an introduction and Q&A with star actress Masami Nagasawa (this year’s recipient of NYAFF’s Rising Star Asia Award) and an introduction and Q&A with Monsters Club director Toshiaki Toyoda for the July 15 screening.
For this week’s list of films, click here.
JQ Magazine: JQ&A with Darryl Wharton-Rigby on ‘Don Doko Don: The Yamakiya Taiko Drum Club Project’
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“This story is about the resiliency of community; how a community comes together in times of crisis. It’s a story about our shared human experience. It’s in some ways my own story, as my family still lives in Fukushima as well.”
By Nichole L. Knight (Shiga-ken, 2007-09) for JQ magazine. Originally from Waterbury, Connecticut, Nichole became active with the JET Alumni Association of New York even before moving to the city. Since returning from Japan, she’s played with the University of Connecticut Taiko Team, and trained with Soh Daiko, the East Coast’s oldest taiko group.
Darryl Wharton-Rigby (Fukushima-ken, 2005-07) is a playwright, poet, professor and filmmaker, who hails from Baltimore, Maryland. He has written for NBC, MTV, and BET. He lectures for Morgan State University’s Screenwriting and Animation Program, and is in the process of writing three books. Married with three children, he splits his time between Baltimore, Los Angeles, and Japan.
From 2005 to 2007, while teaching English in Kawamata-machi in Fukushima Prefecture through the JET Program, Wharton-Rigby was introduced to the talented members of the Yamakiya Taiko Club, a local community group which he would soon join. He began filming their story in 2006, but was inspired to continue after the group was misplaced in the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami and ensuing Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant area evacuations.
Of the documentary, now titled Don Doko Don: The Yamakiya Taiko Drum Club Project, Wharton-Rigby says, “…[T]his very well may be my most ambitious project. I never imagined my journey would bring me to [a] project with such an international scope and [is] profoundly personal on so many levels.” As the film’s writer, director and producer, he has unveiled an ambitious Kickstarter campaign to fund the project that closes July 11. In this exclusive interview, JQ caught up with Wharton-Rigby to discuss the origins of the film, the significance of Yamakiya on its devastated community, and the troupe’s international highlights so far.
Tell us a little about the Yamakiya Taiko Club and how you first came to know about it.
When I was a JET in Kawamata, I had to go to the Yamakiya District high in the mountains to teach at the elementary, junior high, and kindergarten schools. I met Megumi Endo, who was a school worker and head of the group at Yamakiya Elementary School. She invited me to play taiko drums with the Yamakiya Taiko Club and I was hooked. I loved the sound and power of the drums. There are three teams: Kodama, the beginning students; Suzaku, the intermediate students; and Yamazaru, the experienced members. I practiced with the younger members of Kodoma.
What inspired you to start making a documentary about them?
I started shooting footage of the group after breaking my finger. I couldn’t play the drums, but I still wanted to remain connected to the group. My background prior to JET was in film, so, I pulled out my camera and started shooting footage of the group. I would shoot rehearsals, performances, meetings, and on bus trips. I even followed around Genki Endo, who is the leader of the group. Megumi-san mentioned that it would be great to have a documentary about the group. I agreed. She came up with the title Don Doko Don—it’s the basic sound of the taiko beat. Over the years, I had compiled more than 80 hours of footage and when I would return to Japan, I would make sure to visit Yamakiya and I would bring along my camera and shoot more footage.
Why is it important to share this story with the world?
When I learned that Yamakiya was going to be evacuated because of high levels of radiation after the events of March 11, 2011, it broke my heart. I could not fathom this was really happening to a community and people I adored. Then I found out that despite the circumstances, the group was still practicing and performing together. I knew there was a story to be told. This story is about the resiliency of community; how a community comes together in times of crisis. It’s a story about our shared human experience. It’s in some ways my own story, as my family still lives in Fukushima as well.
Job: Asahi Shimbun – Full-time receptionist/assistant reporter (NYC)
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Thanks to JETAA NY President Monica Yuki for forwarding on the below JET-relevant job listing. Posted by Kay Monroe (Miyazaki-shi, 1995 -97).
________________________________________________________________________________
Position: Speechwriter/Public Affairs Specialist
Posted by: The Consulate General of Japan in New York
Type: Full-time
Location: New York, NY
Salary:
Start date: N/A
Overview:
The New York Bureau of The Asahi Shimbun, a premier Japanese newspaper, seeks a full-time receptionist/assistant reporter. Main duties include office maintenance (distributing newspapers/mail to staff; answering phone calls; restocking supplies; handling correspondents’ credentials; making coffee, etc.) Secondary and occasional duties concern helping the correspondents cover a variety of news areas, particularly sports (researching; making appointments; phone-interviewing; transcribing voice files, etc.). Read More
Justin’s Japan: Interview with Jason Michael Paul on The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses
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“My company produced and promoted the 25th Anniversary concerts. It was truly an honor to do this for Nintendo. We worked very closely with series composer Koji Kondo and his team to create the best of Zelda.” (Courtesy of Fresh PR)
By JQ magazine editor Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02) for Examiner.com. Visit his Japanese culture page here for related stories.
Big in Japan for decades, symphonic concerts of that country’s most popular (and hummable) classic video game tunes have now hit critical mass in America. It’s a dream come true for fans of the blockbuster Nintendo series The Legend of Zelda, as Jason Michael Paul Productions presents the first-ever North American tour of its kind called The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses.
With a high profile performance in Los Angeles last month hosted by Zelda Williams (the star of last year’s Nintendo DS commercials with papa Robin, who named her after the series’ eponymous princess), Symphony of the Goddesses is playing to packed houses and has dates lined up all through November. Next up are a pair of gigs at Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in Houston July 6-7.
In this exclusive interview, I caught up with JMP CEO and the show’s executive producer Jason Michael Paul to discuss his pioneering history of bringing video game concerts to America, the special surprises planned for the tour, and his rebuttal to Roger Ebert’s notorious opinion on the artistic merit of video games.
Tell us a little about how this concert tour came to be. How did you get Nintendo’s blessing?
I have been producing VGM concerts since 2004 when I created Dear Friends: Music from FINAL FANTASY. Since then I have produced successful concerts including “PLAY! A Video Game Symphony.” Given my track record and working history with Nintendo, it was natural for my company to participate in the 25th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda with symphony concerts in Tokyo, Los Angeles, and London. My company also produced the orchestral CD that was included in the bundle with [the 2011 Wii game] Skyward Sword. The success of the opening of the Nintendo 2011 press event, the 25th Anniversary Concerts, and the recording paved the way for the license to produce The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses.
How did The Legend of Zelda game series first appear on your radar?
In 1987, when my parents purchased it for me to play on my NES.
What’s your favorite Zelda game and why? How would you define the series’ appeal?
My favorite Zelda game is the latest release because I feel as if I contributed to the tile. I was honored to produce the orchestral CD that accompanied the release of the game. The series has appeal through excellent gameplay and music. Throughout its 25-year history Zelda has consistently featured a solid mixture of action, puzzles, battle, adventure gameplay, exploration, and questing.
For the complete story, click here.
JQ Magazine: In Texas, Metroplex Lolitas Paint the Town
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Photo shoot by Anvil Photography.
By Jen Wang (Miyagi-ken, 2008-09) for JQ magazine. Jen is a research technician from Dallas who also writes for Purple SKY, a Japanese music website. Her love of cosplay and her junior high school students inspired the name for her own Japanese pop culture blog, Hibari-sensei’s Classroom.
The Japanese fashion subculture Lolita is based on Victorian and Rococo aesthetics. Its trademark look consists of a blouse, a knee-length skirt or jumper, a petticoat, stockings, and Mary Janes or platform shoes. Since its inception in the 1970s, Lolita has developed several sub-styles: gothic, sweet, classic, punk and more. There is also a mature variation known as aristocrat and a masculine equivalent known as ouji.
Although I had been interested in Lolita since college, I didn’t really start compiling a Lolita wardrobe until I was a JET. It was easier to figure out what styles worked when you could try on the clothes. I visited the seventh floor of Sendai Forus—the location of punk, gothic and Lolita stores—so frequently that the shopkeepers started to recognize me. The budding fashionista in me missed the shopping trips and opportunities to dress up once I returned to the U.S. Then I discovered the Metroplex Lolita LiveJournal group.
The Metroplex Lolitas are a group of from the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Prior to their creation in January 2010, several of the girls had been arranging meet-ups through another group, Texas Lolis. They decided to branch off to encourage more conversation and gatherings.
My first meet-up was in March 2010. We went to watch Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and sat down for tea and a gift-exchange afterwards. The Metroplex Lolitas meet around once a month to enjoy a meal—true to our Victorian influences, we do love tea and pastries—or an activity, which can be anything from a trip to the museum to ice skating. The Texas heat has never deterred us from getting together in our layers of frills since many members have come up with more summer-friendly outfits. We also host meet-ups with out-of-town Lolitas at anime conventions.
JQ Magazine Seeks Writers for Summer 2012!
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Visit JQ magazine online at http://jetaany.org/magazine
As we slide into summer, JETAA New York’s JQ magazine continues to provide content with an ever-expanding array of articles, interviews and features (see our recent stories here). We’re now looking for new writers, including recent returnees and JET vets, from all JETAA chapters worldwide for posting stories via our host at the global JET alumni resource site JETwit.com. (Scribes are also encouraged to join the JET Alumni Writers group on LinkedIn.)
Below are story ideas grouped by JET participants and alumni (JET World) and those more on Japanese culture (Japan World). And if you’re a JET or JETWit contributor from anywhere in the world with a story idea of your own, let us know!
Click “Read More” below for our summer 2012 ideas pitch package, and contact JQ editor Justin Tedaldi (magazine [at] jetaany [dot] org) to sign up for stories.
JQ Magazine: JQ&A with Mark Flanigan, Program Director of the Japan ICU Foundation
Article/Journalism, Interview/Profile, JQ Magazine Comments Off on JQ Magazine: JQ&A with Mark Flanigan, Program Director of the Japan ICU Foundation
Mark Flanigan volunteering with local fisherman for tsunami relief during Golden Week in Oshika Hanto, Ishinomaki, 2011.
By Shirley Dang (Yamanashi-ken, 2009-10) for JQ magazine. Shirley enjoys sipping chai latte and devouring scrumptious cakes while continuing her pursuit for Japanese- and education-related jobs. Visit her Facebook page here.
Mark Flanigan (Nagasaki-ken, 2000-04) currently lives on the campus of International Christian University (ICU) / 国際基督教大学 in Tokyo, where he is finishing up his two-year M.A. in peace studies as a Rotary International Peace Fellow. Last year he volunteered at Ishinomaki post-3/11, playing a vital role in tsunami relief. Following graduation, Mark will move to New York City in July to work as a new program director with the Japan ICU Foundation (JICUF). JQ recently caught up with him to learn more about his extraordinary experiences.
Hi, Mark, welcome to the Big Apple! What’s your background story and how did it influence you to be a JET?
Thank you, Shirley! I’m glad to have the chance to introduce myself here. Well, I actually came into JET through my interest in teaching, rather than a specific focus on Japan. I wasn’t an Asian studies major in college, and I had never traveled anywhere except Europe and the Americas at that point. My first direct experience with Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) was spending about a year in Morelia, Mexico, which I really loved. After I returned to the U.S., I taught English at an international school for a while, but I wanted to experience the feeling of living in a different culture again. That led me to apply to JET, and I was lucky to have some great advice and support from both Japanese people and JET alumni living in D.C. I still remember how happy I felt when I received the acceptance letter in the mail!
What was your time on JET like, and how did it play a role in your future career plans?
My original plan, like many JETs, was to stay just one year. I had applied to grad school and thought I would finish up with my original contract. Needless to say, I became quite fascinated with the people and culture I found as a municipal ALT in Hirado, Nagasaki Prefecture, and decided to re-contract. I was then offered a promotion of sorts, and became the Teacher-Trainer ALT at the Prefectural Education Center, which was a great experience. In my last year, I also served in tandem with my other duties as the Nagasaki Prefectural ALT Advisor. In all, I ended up staying in Nagasaki for a total of four years! After that, I returned to D.C. and attended grad school in Public Policy at George Mason University. I was selected as a Presidential Management Fellow and worked for the U.S. government until 2010.
I see that you were a Rotary Peace Fellow at the ICU in Tokyo—how did that happen? And as a fellow, what were your roles and responsibilities? Anything you want to share?
I was very fortunate to have met Daniel Sturgeon (Gifu-ken, 2000-02), a JET alumnus and former Rotary Peace Fellow, in Washington. He and I shared many similar interests regarding public service and international exchange, and he strongly encouraged me to pursue the Rotary Peace Fellowship. As ICU in Tokyo is one of the partner universities with Rotary for administering the Peace Fellowship, it was a perfect way for me to return once more to Japan.
Daniel was absolutely instrumental in helping me prepare for the application and selection process, which is certainly rigorous, but very much worth the time and effort. In two years, I was able to graduate with a fully-funded M.A. in Peace Studies, with direct experience interning at the United Nations in Geneva in summer 2011, thanks to the generosity of Rotarians worldwide who enable this outstanding Peace Fellowship program to develop.
I would certainly encourage any former JETs who are interested to review the current application at www.rotary.org/rotarycenters. Being a JET means you have already experienced Japanese culture directly, which is a huge plus with Rotary! You can also find a local Rotary Club for endorsement at www.rotary.org/clublocator. The annual application deadline is coming up, so if you are interested, apply ASAP!
