Guinea Pigs Needed for Kanji Reading Experiment
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Karl Rosvold (ALT/CIR in Hiroshima Prefecture, ’93-’96) is conducting an online reading experiment targeted at foreigners who are learning or have learned Japanese. He’s looking for as many participants as possible who are native or near-native English speakers and “upper-beginner” or above in Japanese (defined as having passed the old JLPT 3/new JLPT N4). There are a few other conditions which you can see on the experiment website.
Registration will start around September 25th. To participate in the experiment, simply fill out a short questionnaire on the website, then come back two more times, about a week apart to take two short Japanese reading comprehension tests, with or without hints about the kanji in the text. Each step should take about 30 minutes. Ideally, people will participate because they feel the experiment is interesting and beneficial, but for participants living in Japan, Karl is also offering a 2000 yen QUO gift card to the first 100 people who complete the whole experiment.
Please check out the temporary website for more information: http://kanjijikken.web.fc2.com/
or feel free to e-mail Karl at kanji.experiment@gmail.com. Please let him know that you saw this message on Jetwit!
I was aware of Aaron Woolfolk’s (Kochi-ken, 1991-93) film The Harimaya Bridge. But I didn’t realize there’s also a frisbee team in Kochi called the Harimaya Bashis. (Makes more sense if you’ve been to Kochi or seen the film and the story behind the bridge.) It turns out they’re involved with a Kochi Flying Disc Association event for October 10 at the Kochi Municipal Sports Complex (shiei) consisting of a day of various frisbee-related sports and activities.
JetWit would love to post a write-up and/or any photos from the event if someone reading this happens to attend. But mostly this post is just an excuse to share the Harimaya Bashis’ super sweet logo.
New York Mets Tap JETs for Inaugural Japanese Heritage Night
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Japanese Heritage Night at Citi Field, Friday, Aug. 27.
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.
Move over, Matsui.
The New York Mets will hold its first-ever Japanese Heritage Night at Citi Field on Friday, Aug. 27 against the Houston Astros, with discounted ticket rates available for all family and friends of the Japanese community.
Pre-game entertainment includes taiko drumming by acclaimed troupe Soh Daiko; a traditional Obon dance led by the Japanese Folk Institute of New York featuring dance participants from the Japanese heritage community and friends; the Spirit Award ceremony honoring those in baseball, the military and community service; and the national anthem sung by Japanese Hispanic American Kurt Sanchez Kanazawa.
Donna Tsufura, cofounder of Japanese Americans and Japanese in America (JAJA) and one of the organizers of Friday’s event, has contacted groups like the JET Alumni Association of New York to recruit volunteers to help publicize, assist with and participate in this special night, including the ancestor-honoring Tanko Bushi dance itself in center field. Tsufura said that this helps to fulfill JETAA NY’s mission to increase the understanding and appreciation of Japan and its people in the U.S.
Read the complete story here.
JET Alumni volunteers needed for New York Mets’ Japanese Heritage Night – Fri, Aug 27
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The organizers of the First Annual Japanese Heritage Night are looking for JETAANY volunteers.
Email Donna Tsufura at thedayako@gmail.com for more details (use “JETAANY” as the subject line).
Volunteers are needed for:
1) Information Tables: setting up and manning two tables with info on Japanese and Japanese Americans
2) Pre-Game performance: coordiinating taiko and bon dance participants
3) Mets Spirit Awards: coodinating Award participants
4) Transportation: JET members w/cars driving Award participants &others to & from Citi Field
5) Partnership outreach: generating ticket donations/ funding / services from companies & individuals
6) Program: assisting with writing & production for printed program
7) Outreach: reaching communities who are not yet aware of Japanese Heritage Night
8) Press/media: assisting with media needs, individual interviews
9) Documenting:video, photo & reporting coverage of the event
A general timetable of events:
SCHEDULE FOR JAPANESE HERITAGE NIGHT
Friday, August 27, 2010
(draft as of 8/23, 2:30pm)- subject to change
4:15 Material for Information tables can be dropped off at Mets office
4:40 Information tables set up
5:40 Performers enter Bullpen Plaza Gate, escorted by Mets staff
6:30 Pre-game entertainment begins (20 min)
Taiko drumming by Soh Daiko “Hachidan Uchi” (10 min piece)
Obon dance “Tanko Bushi” led by Japanese Folk Institute of New York (3 min piece)
dance participants include people from the Japanese heritage community and friends
6:50 Spirit Award Ceremony (5 min)
Awards given to the following communities and received by members of those communities.
Baseball – received by Satoru Tsufura (Nisei ballplayer) and Shuji Kato (JAA baseball league)
Military Service – Kaz Yamagushi (WWII vet) and Lt. Janelle Kuroda (Navy, active duty in Iraq)
Community Service – Suki Terada Ports and Sam Kiyomi Turner (activists, HIV AIDS, Ninth Ward)
In attendance: Ambassador Nishimiya
6:58 National Anthem sung by Kurt Sanchez Kanazawa
7:10 Game starts
5th inning Information Tables broken down
Also, for our pre-game event, JET alumni are invited to dance the Tanko Bushi on the Mets centerfield! It is a simple and fun bon dance honoring one’s ancestors. Here are the online instructions for the dance and an an mp3 of the song for you to practice.
TICKETS: All JET alumni volunteering and/or dancing at Citi Field must have a ticket to the game. The Mets have made available discounted tickets in specific areas of the stadium. I believe your website has a draft of the flyer with outdated information saying that the ticket purchase cutoff was August 5. Please inform your members that discount tickets are now available until Thurs, August 26. Regular tickets can be bought on the day of the game.
PROfessional Japanese-English Conference on Translation PROJECT Tokyo 2010
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JetWit job poster Stephen Palanik (Fukushima Ken, 2004-08) learned of the following translator’s conference through the Japan Association of Translators, and thought it might be of interest to current and former JETs in the Tokyo area (or those that can get to Tokyo relatively easily). Stephen is a translator based in Hamamatsu city, Shizuoka Ken, and he occasionally posts job listings and event information for JET alumni.
PROJECT Tokyo 2010 is the third in a series of one-day conferences on translation and interpreting organized by the Japan Association of Translators (JAT; 日本翻訳者協会) for participants to build skills and exchange information about their professions.
Theme: Tools and Workshops: Better, Faster, Richer
Date: Saturday, September 11, 2010
Time: 9:30 to 17:00
Registration opens at 9:00
Venue: TKP Shinagawa Conference Center
3F Takanawa Court, 3-13-1 Takanawa, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Approx. 5 minutes’ walk from Shinagawa Station (Takanawa Exit)
Admission:
Students: ¥4,000
JAT Members: ¥5,000
Non-Members: ¥6,000
Post-conference networking event: ¥5,000
Two-hour buffet meal and open bar
* Registration for the conference and post-conference networking event closes at midday on September 4, 2010. Registration is via the conference website only.
The program will consist of introductions to translation tools, workshops to improve practical skills, and informative sessions from industry specialists.
* Visit the conference website for more details.
Come to PROJECT Tokyo 2010 and find out how you can change the way you work!
Event: “Sake With the Haiku Geisha” reading, August 13 (NYC)
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JET ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK (JETAA NY)
with support from the Consulate General of Japan in New York
Presents
A Special Play Reading of critically acclaimed Off Broadway Play
SAKE WITH THE HAIKU GEISHA
Graphic by JET alum Amber Liang
The JET Alumni Association of New York is pleased to present a limited one-night reading of the critically acclaimed play “Sake with the Haiku Geisha,” written by JET alumnus and playwright, Randall David Cook (Fukui-ken, 1991-93).
Date: Friday, August 13
Start time: 8:30 p.m.
Location: Tinker Auditorium (between Park & Madison Aves.) 22 E 60th St, New York, NY 10065, (212) 355-6100
Cost:
- $5 in advance ($10 at the door) for JET alumni
- $10 in advance ($15 at the door) for Friends of JET
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS ON-LINE VIA PAYPAL
“Sake with the Haiku Geisha” premiered Off-Broadway in 2006 and was based on the collective experiences of three JETs who were placed in Fukui-ken from 1991-1993: an American from South Carolina, a Canadian from Nova Scotia and an English woman from Devon. The structure of the play is inspired by the classic Noh play: an opening ceremony, five acts (each of which uses a different speaker and a spirit or ghost), and a closing ceremony. The show starts on at a farewell party for the visiting JETS, and first three acts are told from the perspective of the visiting JETs, and then the tables turn, and the final two acts are told from the perspective of two Japanese: the supervisor of the Canadian JET, and the geisha’s story, which closes out the play.
The first act, “Sushi and Scones” was a finalist in five major festivals in the USA and England, won the “Best Play” award at the Southeastern Playwrights Conference and was taped and broadcast by as a BBC radio play in late 2005. See a full review of the play in the New York Times.
This event is being organized in cooperation with the Consulate General of Japan in New York.
Thanks to JETAA Chicago President Robert Corder (who also works for JETRO) for letting JetWit know about this interesting upcoming event:
Skoop on Somebody (S.O.S.) Charity Concert in Chicago
The Japanese R&B group Skoop on Somebody (S.O.S.) will play a charity concert in Chicago on Saturday, August 21.
This is the duo’s first live performance in North America. The concert will be held at the Harper College Performing Arts Center, 1200 W. Algonquin Road, Palatine, Illinois. Doors open at 4:30 pm, with the show scheduled from 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm. Seating is first come, first served and limited to 420 seats. Tickets are $40, with all proceeds going to the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Chicago (JCCC) Foundation. The JCCC Foundation supports Japan-related education, cultural and community organizations though out the Chicago area.
To purchase tickets, fill out the application form (http://www.jccc-chi.org/docs/SOS_Event_8.21.pdf) and send it to JCCC Foundation along with the admission check (payable to JCCC Foundation)!
Questions? Contact the JCCC Secretariat at 312-245-8344 or jccc@jccc-chi.org.
- Skoop on Somebody official website: www.skoop.jp
- Wikipedia entry (Japanese): http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skoop_On_Somebody
WIT Life #109: Parade
Anecdote Article, Events, Film, Translating/Interpreting, WIT Life Comments Off on WIT Life #109: Parade
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.
At Japan Society on Friday night I saw what has been my favorite movie of the Japan Cuts festival so far, Parade. A special treat was the attendance of the director, Isao Yukisada, to introduce the movie and take questions after. He presented the movie as a “slice of the dark side of Tokyo,” and expressed his nervousness and excitement at having his work screened here in New York for the first time. The movie explores the relationships between four young people sharing an apartment in Tokyo, as they deal with their respective troubles as well as the danger of an assailant who has been attacking women in the area. The title refers to Read More
Japan Society kicks off annual JAPAN CUTS film fest
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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.
July is here, and that means hot dogs, fireworks, and a horde of Japanese films served up by New York’s Japan Society for their annual JAPAN CUTS contemporary Japanese cinema festival. Launched at the tail end of the New York Asian Film Festival, Japan Society and NYAFF have teamed to co-present a whopping 24 films from July 1-16.
“JAPAN CUTS presents the roughest, sharpest, and smoothest of today’s cutting-edge Japanese film scene,” notes Japan Society’s chief film curator Samuel Jamier. “This year the lineup includes psycho dramas, thrillers, period pieces, bizarre comedies, refined melodramas, artistically adventurous indies, j-horror, and even anime. But when the lineup came together, I realized a number of these great films were made by female directors or featured a large number of prominent women’s roles and powerful performances by women–a reflection of industry trends in the last ten years, and the impact women have been making in Japan’s film industry. Overall, I like to think this year’s festival is exemplary of where Japanese cinema is today.”
For this week’s list, see the full article here.
WIT Life #105: Samurai in New York
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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.
Last night I had the chance to preview the Samurai in New York: The First Japanese Delegation, 1860 exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York. There was a reception to celebrate its opening hosted by Ambassador Shinichi Nishimiya and those affiliated with the museum. In his opening remarks, he detailed how descendants of members of the original 70-plus person delegation were in attendance. One was a woman who currently makes her home in New York, and another was a Buddhist monk who had traveled from Japan. It was a wonderful tribute to the original delegation to have these representatives present.
The exhibit itself, though limited in scope, contains some interesting artifacts. Evidently they had been Read More
An International List of Writing Organizations and Opportunities
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Laura Popp (Mie-ken, 2009-Present) is a current JET who writes fantasy and science fiction for children and young adults, and is an occasional playwright/film maker. Her short work includes a short story titled “In theShadow Realm” and a documentary she made in Malawi. To read about her amazing adventures all over Japan, go to her blog at laurajanepopp.blogspot.com.
Here is a practical list of organizations, market guides, and networking opportunities for jump starting your writing career. My apologies that it is heavy on the America and Speculative Fiction side, but that is who I am and what I write, so that is what I know best. But hopefully everyone can find something useful from this list:
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.
It’s the return of a modern tradition as Japan Day @ Central Park 2010 hits the East Meadow Sunday. With an array of free family-friendly and traditional activities, samplings of popular cuisine and powerful stage performances featuring entertainers from Tokyo and New York, this year’s festivities are expected to top the estimated 45,000 New Yorkers drawn to last year’s Japan Day.
Continuing in the custom of previous years, the day kicks off with the four-mile Japan Run mini-marathon at 8 a.m., followed by the Japanese Day Festival in the East Meadow at 10 a.m. with the unveiling of all activity tents and the main stage show. The year 2010 is especially promising—it marks the 150th anniversary of the first Japanese diplomatic mission to New York—and there will be special activities to celebrate this historic milestone.
Click here to read the rest of the article.
Theatre de Moon is casting for “Kutsukake Tokijiro ～a Makaroni Western～”, Benefit Staged Reading Performance.
We are seeking actors who are interested in our newly translated Japanese play.
As we had a success of the studio performance in June, 2009, we are keep on going this production to make a Off-Off-Broadway theatre.
To make it possible, we’ll have a Benefit Staged Reading Performance on July 31st.
The play by both in Japanese and English.
Please bring your monologue for audition.
This is for the Benefit Performance, however, there might be a chance for casting for the Off-Off-Broadway production in near future.
To make your reservation for audition. Please send us email:kurotama@cybercap.com
- Date:Thursday, June 3rd
- Time:6pm-10pm
- Place:CRS- 123 4th Ave., 2nd FL(between 12th&13th St.)
- New York, NY10003
- Play:Kutsukake Tokijiro
- Playwright:Shin Hasegawa
- Director:Jun Kim
- Translator:Keiko Tsuneda
- Music:Ryo Yoshimata
- Choreography:Kayoko Sakoh
- Benefit Staged Reading Performance:July 31st, 6pm-10pm
- Rehearsal Schedule:starts from June, weekends in June and July. Additional rehearsals in mid July.
- Tech & Dress rehearsal:July 30th, 5pm-10pm
- No pay
- www.kurotamakikaku.com
Yes, New York has Japanese belly dancers, too
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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.
Nahoko Sugiyama discovered her niche at an early age. As a little girl growing up in Tokyo, she imitated the moves of the Japanese idols she saw on TV. As a teenager, a penchant for clubbing set the foundation to become a dancer, and in her twenties she took up Oriental (belly) dance, Quickly becoming a popular draw through professional appearances, she decided to make a career out of this exotic form of expression.
Moving to New York in 2006 for more in-depth training, Sugiyama joined the Mosaic Dance Theater Company a year later. “One of my teachers in here is a choreographer for this company, therefore I joined it,” she explains. “We have a wide range of Middle Eastern dance numbers, not only Oriental dance, which makes us unique. We focus on theater shows, [and] have big theater shows both in New Jersey and New York every year.”
This Friday, she will perform at Manhattan’s Arena Event Space with six other dancers as part of the Alternative Belly Dance Show.
MEGU Chefs Teach Secrets of Miso This Tuesday
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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.
Contrary to its most popular form, miso is not a soup, but a seasoning (usually resembling a paste) made with soybeans and rice or barley fermented for a period of time. It’s also right up there with rice as a Japanese diet staple—in Nippon’s olden days, miso was the fundamental currency exchanged in the market. Now, New Yorkers can treat themselves to a free cooking demonstration and tasting courtesy of Marukome Miso (one of the oldest miso manufactures in Japan) at the French Culinary Institute on Tuesday, May 11.
Presented as part of the Gohan Society and FCI Lecture series with Marukome USA, the demo and tasting is hosted by Chef Noriyuki Kobayashi of MEGU Midtown and Chef Katsuhisa Inoue of MEGU Downtown. The Zagat rated restaurant maestros will apply their Japanese cooking techniques to prepare Western-style dishes, all featuring Marukome Miso. (Insert your own Iron Chef zinger here.)
On the menu for the two-hour showcase: traditional grilled miso onigiri (rice ball); thickly sliced toasted white bread with miso garlic butter; cream cheese and miso egg roll; miso bagna cauda blue cheese and miso paste on baguette with honey; miso minestrone; and washu-gyu steak with miso fond de veau sauce.
Participants will learn how miso enhances foods and flavors, gleaning tips and creative ways to boost its versatility and umami (deliciousness) appeal. And just to be clear: this is good-for-you deliciousness, since miso is made from protein-rich soybeans containing amino acids, boasts a surprisingly low salt content, contains fiber, can aid in lowering cholesterol and preventing arterial blockage, and (smokers take note) is renowned for its mouth-cleansing properties.
Learn the secrets of miso at the French Culinary Institute, 462 Broadway (at Grand Street), on Tuesday, May 11, 3:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Admission is free. To RSVP, contact Sarah Marino or Amy Krakow at (212) 710-0529, or by e-mail at sarah.marino@agitproppr.com or amy.krakow@agitproppr.com.
