The Japan Society will be hosting an upcoming concert featuring J-techno pop band  Hikashu & Tomoe Shinohara on May 13.  50% of all ticket sales from this event will go to Japan Society’s Earthquake Relief Fund.

Click Here to find out more information about the show.

Posted by Sam Frank, an ALT who taught English in Hiraizumi-Cho, Iwate Prefecture from 2002-2004 and worked in Shirahama-cho, Wakayama Prefecture as a JET from 2004-2006. He currently manages the New York Division of UnRated Magazine and works as a Project Manager/Web Producer at Arrow Root Media.

JET alum Lee-Sean Huang (ALT Oita-ken ’03-’06 / webmaster, JETAANY.org & JetWit) was recently spotted in a flash mob music video for the dance pop girl group Xelle. You can spot Lee-Sean in the back of the train, dancing with the big spotlights.

Read More

**********

Matt Leichter (matt [dot] leichter [at] gmail [dot] com) (Saitama-ken 2003-05) is a renegade attorney who plays by his own rules.  He operates a think tank of one, The Law School Tuition Bubble, where he archives, chronicles, and analyzes the rising cost and declining value of legal education in the United States.  He also maintains the “Bankruptcy Legal Topics,” and, “Bankruptcy Billables,” sections for Steven Horowitz’s Bankruptcy Bill.  For further reading regarding JETs and the law, he recommends JETs with J.D.s.

Take a break, and listen to some Rock & Roll, primate!

***********

Here’s a radio interview Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, did in Tokyo this past weekend with Tyler Brule, founder and editor of the UK-based Monocle magazine, about manga in Japan and overseas, and Japanamerica:

http://www.monocle.com/The-Monocle-Weekly

The Japanamerica segment is introduced at 1:00 and starts at 22:00

Check out this interview on Australian radio (ABC) with Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, about the anime industry in Japan, financial foibles and hentai habits.

Roland recently finished a speaking tour in  Australia where made several appearances.

• July 13-16th, Sydney, AU, JSAA Conference, University of Sydney
• July 17th, Sydney, AU, The Japan Foundation: Panel w/Susan Napier and Rebecca Suter
• July 20th, Brisbane, AU, The University of Queensland:  Panel w/ Susan Napier and Rebecca Suter
• July 22nd, Melbourne, AU, The University of Melbourne: Panel w/Susan Napier and Rebecca Suter

He also hosted a talk with Hayao Miyazaki in Berkely, CA on July 25.  Click here to see video clips of Roland speaking at the JETAA NY Alumni Author Showcase event held back in March 2009, here for photos from the event and here to read a review of the event.

Bankruptcy Bill is a cartoon created by Steven Horowitz (Aichi-ken, 1992-94) and Gideon Kendall.  To see more strips as well as original bankruptcy haiku, go to bankruptcybill.wordpress.com.

Listen to one of Bankruptcy Bill’s haiku read on the “Haiku-ing It To The Man” feature on NPR’s Studio360.  (Starts with about 1:31 left in the feature.)

Here’s the story lead from the Studio360 website:

Haiku-ing It to the Man

A few weeks ago we asked listeners to submit original haiku inspired by the state of the economy. Dozens poured in: our own unscientific proof that the financial crisis is a boon for creativity. Here are some of our favorites. (http://www.studio360.org/episodes/2009/02/13)

Robert P. Weston (Nara-ken, 2002-04) has just posted an audio file of his reading from Chapter 1 of his rhyming novel Zorgamazoo on his blog wayofthewest.wordpress.com.

Have a listen! It’s fun, and you’ll feel younger too.

When you’ve finished hearing ’bout Zorgamazoo!

(Sorry, Rob.  I couldn’t resist. :-)

**************

A sampling of what’s to air on NPR’s Studio 360 Goes to Japan on Saturday at 10 am, featuring Roland Kelts (Osaka, 1998-99):

*********

*********

JetWit just received the official press release from WNYC’s Studio 360 regarding their exclusive Studio 360 Goes to Japan program, featuring a segment written and hosted by Roland Kelts (Osaka, 1998-99), which will air this Saturday on NPR stations nationwide. Content, including video, will go live on the Studio 360 web site (http://www.studio360.org/) starting at 6 p.m. today  (See the full press release below.)

The segment Roland wrote and hosted is focused on Japan’s Youth Culture and its various pathologies, especially the struggles of haken, or temporary workers, amid the imploding global economy.

Additionally, JetWit has learned that Roland is booked for an interview tomorrow afternoon with Nippon Television for their nightly news and entertainment program, News Zero.  He will be interviewed by pop idol and actor Sho Sakurai of the band Arashi, and director Takashi Miike, both of whom are in town to promote the latter’s forthcoming live action film version of the 70s anime series, Yatterman.  The interview will be about the Japanese pop culture juggernaut. Read More

**********

Roland Kelts (Osaka, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, will be at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston on Wednesday, February 11 for a screening + discussion of the animated film Grave of the Fireflies.  More details here.  (Side note:  Lyle Sylvander (Yokohama-shi, 2001-02) wrote an excellent and succinct review of Grave of the Fireflies for the Spring 2008 JETAAA NY Newsletter.)

BONUS:  Roland’s story on Japanese Youth Pathologies for WNYC’s Studio 360 will air on NPR nationwide as part of this coming weekend’s special Japan edition of the show.  (See the recent JetWit post on last week’s Studio360 Japan feature.)

Correction:  This post previously listed the date of the MFA event as February 9, but it has now been corrected to February 11.  Apologies for any confusion.

NPR’s Studio 360 has a Japan fetish this morning with three separate and excellent stories on different aspects of Japan collectively titled “High Finance & Old Japan.”  Definitely worth visiting their site to listen to the stories and watch accompanying video slide shows as well.

Below are the summaries taken from the Studio 360 website:

Pico Iyer: Outside Man

Travel writer Pico Iyer has lived in Japan for 20 years. And while he knows the locals still see him as an outsider, he told Kurt that this status helps him pay attention to his surroundings. Iyer says Japan is like a “2000-year-old person wearing a micro-skirt, with an artificial tan and carrying a surfboard.” Special thanks to Matthew Cavnar.

No Time for Tea

The tea ceremony is a 400-year-old ritual for making and presenting green tea. But in Japan’s fast-paced techno-centric society – one increasingly fueled by coffee – we wondered how the tea ceremony can survive. Studio 360′s Jenny Lawton talked with tea masters, old and young, to find out.

Suicide Forest

Aokigahara is the name of the forest at the foot of Mount Fuji. It’s been mythologized in Japanese literature as a sacred place for people to end their lives – and every year close to a hundred suicides are committed there. Studio 360′s Pejk Malinovski went to the forest to uncover its haunting allure and how the place lingers in the Japanese psyche.

James Kennedy (Nara-ken, 2004-06), author of The Order of Odd-Fish, was asked to do a fun feature on the music blog Largehearted Boy a couple weeks ago. They have a feature called “Book Notes” in which an author is invited to compile a mixtape appropriate for their book, and explain it. So he put together a kind of movie soundtrack for “The Order of Odd-Fish.” You can listen to his “Odd-Fish” mixtape, and read the explanations for his choices, here:

http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2009/01/book_notes_jame_2.html

******Roland Kelts (Osaka, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica and frequent lecturer on the topic of Japanese pop culture, was interviewed recently on Tokyo FM. Below is the link to the post on his blog (japanamerica.blogspot.com) as well as links to the interview clips.

Interviewed in New York, Aired in Tokyo, on Tokyo FM

The interview is in English, but the DJ translates in Japanese over Roland’s voice when he speaks and then expounds on her own at times.  (I think it’s a little easier to hear the English in Part 2.)

It would be great if someone out there would post an English-version summary of the interview in the comments section below.  Or perhaps one person could do a small portion and then others could add to it.

Click here for Part 1

And here for Part 2

Listen to Roland Kelts (Osaka, 1998-99) being interviewed on NPR’s “The World.”  http://www.theworld.org/?q=node/23341 Summary below:

As a global power, Japan is fading, but increasing numbers of people outside the country are opting to learn Japanese. What’s fueling the new interest is a growing obsession with Japanese Manga comics and Japanese animation. The World’s Patrick Cox has the story.

Adren Hart has started a new Google Group for JET alumni (and Friends of JET) who are interested in or have any connection to music, musical events, etc.  The group is called JETAA Ongaku Connection and it’s goal is to help connect JET alums who are interested in going to music events, following Japanese bands, playing music and anything esle having to do with music.  A great way to stay connected with the JET alumni network.

http://groups.google.com/group/jetaa-ongaku-connection

Go to the link above to sign up.  (FYI, you’ll need to have (or create) a google or gmail account to sign up for a google group.)