“Rural” JET alums write columns for Kyodo News series
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Thanks to JET alum Celine Castex, currently a CLAIR Tokyo staff member, for posting this to the JETwit Group on LinkedIn:
New JET alumnus’ article in local newspapers: the 「外・宝・人」column
News agency Kyodo News has recently been publishing articles written by JET alumni who were appointed in rural areas of Japan, as part of promotion for the JET Programme. The October edition features an article by Hughar Hartzenberg (Iwate Prefecture 2006-2009). Scroll down the page to the 「外・宝・人」column
http://www.47news.jp/localnews/chiikisaisei/39/chiho_net/
≪変わる大学と地域の関係≫ 地域に学生の受け皿を アイデア、人材に期待 47news.jp
大学と地域の関係が変わりつつある。少子化に悩む大学にとって地域とのつながりは、新たな可能性を開く。地域にとっても、大学は貴重な資産だ。全国の地方新聞社と共同通信社が識者らとつくる「地・宝・人（ち・ほう・じん）ネット」は、第３８回意見交換で「地域が大学に期待すること」をテーマに将来像を探った。…
Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Nippon Club Start Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund
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Visit www.jcciny.org for more information or to make a donation.
Info courtesy of Heather Tomoyasu (Ibaraki-ken, 2004-06), who currently works for the JCCI NY. Posted by JQ magazine editor Justin Tedaldi (Kobe-shi, 2001-02).
The tragedy and devastation that Hurricane Sandy brought to the New York Tri-State Area has affected us all deeply. The Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of New York, Inc., in cooperation with The Nippon Club, has decided to establish the Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund to aid the victims of the disaster.
Hurricane Sandy forced the cancellation of JCCI’s 28th Annual Dinner, originally for October 30th, with 1,000 guests scheduled to be in attendance honoring the 100th Anniversary of Japan’s gift of cherry trees to America, JCCI’s 80th Anniversary, and awardees Professor Gerald L. Curtis and recording artist Cyndi Lauper. Through Dinner Sponsorship, JCCI was able to contribute a total of $500,000 to the hurricane relief effort: $250,000 to both the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City (supporting relief in the 5 boroughs) and AmeriCares (supporting relief in New Jersey and Long Island).
JCCI and The Nippon Club are now accepting additional donations through their Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund, for which the receiving organization will be decided at a later time. All donations will be 100% tax-deductible. Checks should be made payable to “J.C.C. Fund” (please note “Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund” on the memo line), and mailed by December 31, 2012 to the attention of Mr. Shigeo Kimura, The Nippon Club, 145 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019.
Send inquiries to: Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of New York, Inc. (JCCI) TEL (212) 246-8001 / E-Mail: info[at]jcciny.org / Web: www.jcciny.org.
Isn’t Japan Supposed to be Polite?
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Posted by Benjamin Martin, a 5th year JET in Okinawa, publisher of the blog MoreThingsJapanese.com and author of the YA fantasy novel Samurai Awakening (Tuttle).
For those of you who don’t know, I spent my first three years in Japan living on Kitadaito Island. Kitadaito is a small island 320km east of the mainland of Okinawa. While I was there, I experienced the close community of rural Japan, and started writing. A bit over a year ago, I moved to Kumejima which his far larger. Since this is my last year with the JET Programme, I decided to visit Kitadaito during their annual Daitogusai Festival. While I still stayed in contact with many people from Kitadaito, and even saw them occasionally on the mainland, it was the first time I had really seen everyone in over a year.
A year might not seem like a long time to you, but in Japan things can change a lot. Teachers, doctors, and other civil servants often change jobs every few years. On Kitadaito, Junior High graduates have to leave the island since there is no high school for them. So even though it had only been a year, some students and friends were gone, many students had gotten bigger or changed, and there were new people to meet.
Perhaps most surprising was the fact that I had changed too. When I came to Japan I weighed 80kg (that’s 176lbs for all you non-metric people). If you’ve read Samurai Awakening, you probably figured out I played a lot of sports while I was there, and with all the running and sports festivals, I kept in decent shape. Things change though
Back to Daito
So last month, I went back to Kitadaito for 5 days. Nearly the first thing, every single person said to me was “太った” (futotta). Now if you plug that into Google Translate, you’ll get a translation of “Fat” with alternatives of “Chubby” and “Plump.”
Why did literally at least 15 people say this to me on my first day back? Well because when I went I was about 91kg (200lbs). But aren’t Japanese people supposed to be polite? Don’t they ignore stuff so that they can live through dealing with stuffed subway cars and close quarters? Strangely enough, there’s a lot going on in that simple little phrase, and a lot of different meanings.
…Read the full article at MoreThingsJapanese.com
2012 Kitadaito Festival Day Two
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The 2012 Kitadaito Festival was a two-day event in September marking an important time of community inclusion and tradition. The second day of the Festival was on the 23rd and, as in years past, featured sumo competitions as a traditional Japanese offering to the kami and ancestors of the village. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out my post on day one. Below is a video showing excerpts from the day, with more information and photos farther down. Enjoy!
Sumo Competitions
The second day began in the morning on Sunday around 9:00. Villagers gathered again before the Daito-gu shrine. There, a Shinto priest led a ceremony blessing both the sumo ground and the people. New babies were also brought before the shrine by their parents so that the adults could ask for safe and prosperous lives for their children.
After the ceremonies were complete, the villagers settled in to watch Edo and Okinawan Sumo competitions. Although Kitadaito is in Okinawan Prefecture, it was originally settled by people from Hachijo Island, which means the traditions of the island are a unique mix of mainland Japan and Okinawa. At the Daitogusai festival, both types of sumo take place. Pre-school through junior high students take part in edo style sumo.
… Read the rest and see more photos on MoreThingsJapanese.com!.
JET Alum Author Beat: Nicholas Klar’s “My Mother is a Tractor” now free on Kindle for a limited time
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JET alum Nicholas Klar’s (Niigata-ken, Omi-machi (now Itoigawa-shi), 1995-97) My Mother is a Tractor: A Life in Rural Japan, originally published in 2006, is now available for free on Kindle for the next couple days. Click here for more details.
Here’s some more info about the book:
Less than six months after chucking in his management job to take up teaching Nicholas Klar finds himself on the JET Program and a plane to Japan – ending up as an ALT teaching English in Omi (now Itoigawa City) in the far reaches of rural Niigata prefecture.
Never one to be taken too seriously he spends two years far beyond the beaten tourist path in often carousing encounters with Elvis impersonators, love hotels, toilets, train schedules, cults, hostess girls, freezing weather, the local garbage-man and postal workers, plus the recording of a bizarre incident where a cow apparently falls out of the sky.
Combining humour, wonder and a good deal of eclectic research the author veritably crams his pages chock-full of tales of culture shock, humorous anecdotes and insights, reflections upon his own life and cultural baggage, strange facts, plus cultural incongruities and marvels. He inevitably falls in with a motley crew of acquaintances along the way and revealed are many of the personalities he encounters – both Japanese and foreigners.
My Mother is a Tractor is rollicking, fact-filled ride through the Land of the Rising Sun that will both amuse and inform.
Hiroshima JET’s “The Wide Island View” is back in action
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From The Wide Island View, the JET Program Webzine of Hiroshima Prefecture:
Greetings!
Hello everyone and welcome to the first Wide Island View email for 2012!
After a long hiatus, WIV is back in action! We have an enthusiastic new team and we are all very excited about bringing you lots of interesting stories over the year. Apologies if today’s email seems a little large – we promise to update you more regularly in the future!
How are the new jobs going? How are you coping with the summer heat? In the interest of helping you feel better in the intensity of Japanese summer, we have had a summer focus on many of our articles this August.
First up, for those of you that struggle to eat in this heat, or are not sure what you can eat in this new country full of kanji, Emily has written you an article on eating, Eating to Keep Cool and Energized During Japanese Summer (or, Centuries of Advice on How Not to Become a Melted Slug). Thanks to Emily’s article I have discovered tasty tofu soumen. I hope you discover something new too!
Should you want to escape the heat, check out Charly’s article on Jinseki-kougen. This is the first in an inaka series that will focus on parts of the prefectures that are off the tourist trail. If escaping to the cool mountains sounds like something you would enjoy, readWelcome to Jinseki-kougen. Or just let the pictures persuade you.
If Jinseki is too far away, or you have checked out Jinseki and can’t wait for some more inaka, try Akiota-cho for size. Before she left, Harriet kindly spilled all the secrets Read More
Nagasaki JET alumni meet Nagasaki Governor and Assembly members together with Nagasaki Group in New York
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Via the Japan Local Government Center blog:
(Click link above to see photos.)
In early September, Four Nagasaki JET alumni participated in an exchange meeting with a delegation from Nagasaki Prefecture (led by the incumbent Governor Nakamura) and the Nagasaki Association in New York (New York Batten-kai).
In the first part, Nagasaki residents in New York and the alumni spoke of their ideas and opinions about how to revitalize Nagasaki Prefecture. The alumni proposed the promotion of eco-tourism, making the most of the newly introduced Shinkansen, etc. The Governor, assembly members including the Assembly Speaker Mr. Watanabe and other prefecture officials listened to them earnestly.
After that, they happily spoke with each other about their memories of JET life in Nagasaki and so on.
September 17th, 2012
Counselor / Deputy Executive Director, Hotaka Kawasaki
Kagura Tours the East Coast; Some Memories of Kagura in Japan
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Posted by JETAA Northern California’s Mark Frey (Kumamoto, 2002-06):
For those of you on the East Coast of the U.S., there will be rare Kagura dance performances at the end of October and beginning of November. If you are in the vicinity, I highly recommend you go to see it:
http://www.japansociety.org/event/kuromori-kagura-folk-music-dance-from-tohoku. As you may know, Kagura is an extremely old shinto ritual dance that relates the stories of ancient Japanese mythology. The stories are told through a series of dances with colorful masks and costumes. The dance cycles are long and performed in full can last 20+ hours. The cycle often culminates in the Japanese Ur-story of how by means of a wild and raucous dance the gods lured the Sun Goddess Amaterasu out of her cave in order to return sunlight to the universe.The overall atmosphere of Kagura on and off stage is one of alternating solemnity, spectacle, and shared mirth, overall an entertaining and life-affirming ritual experience. The music, which is very percussive and uses repetitive pattens, quickly becomes hypnotic, at times lulling you into a kind of trance.
Fukui JET alumni meet Fukui Group in New York
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Four Fukui JET alumni participated in a recent exchange meeting with a delegation from Fukui Prefecture (led by the incumbent Governor Nishikawa) and the Fukui Association (Fukui Kenjinkai) in New York.
The alumni happily spoke with the governor and others about their memories of JET life in Fukui, artworks on traditional Echizen paper (Echizen-Washi), plays featuring the sometimes amusing daily life in Fukui, and many other topics.
JETAA Northern California: Pacific Bridge: Fiber Futures: Japan’s Textile Pioneers Opens
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This summer and fall, the Museum of Craft and Folk Art (MOCFA) in San Francisco is proud to present a traveling exhibition co-organized by the Japan Society (New York), Tama Art University (Tokyo), and International Textile Network Japan. Fiber Futures: Japan’s Textile Pioneers explores a new art that is emerging from a remarkable fusion of Japanese artisanal and industrial textile making. Coaxed from materials as old as hemp and as newly developed as microfilaments, a varied array of more than 25 works by artists from multiple generations will be on view in this extraordinary two-part exhibition.
By transcending and cutting across the limitations imposed by the inherited oppositions between art, craft, and design, this two-part exhibition brings together over 20 contemporary Japanese artists who are active at the cutting edge of the global fiber-art movement. These men and women transform fabrics into sculptures, pictures, emulations of nature, and even abstract meditations on memory and identity. The materials range from silk, cotton, recycled cocoons, antique paper scraps, jute, and hemp to stainless-steel wire and weaving and dyeing technology. Ultimately the goal is expressing an environmentally sustainable ethos.
The opening reception of Fiber Futures was on July 20, 6-8pm and offered an exciting opportunity to preview the exhibition and meet several artists and curators visiting from Japan. Special guests in attendance included Joe Earle, Vice President and Director of the Japan Society Gallery, and distinguished artists, Machiko Agano, Akio Hamatani, and Hiroko Watanabe (President of International Textile Network Japan). In addition to a delicious sake tasting hosted by the innovative and contemporary Japanese restaurant, Ozumo, who shared some of Japan’s finest premium and limited edition sakes, entertainment included TOMOSAITO, the guitarist/beat producer of FOTOS. The exhibit runs until the 3rd of November this year.
Nicole Crescenzi, Development and Curatorial Associate
Museum of Craft and Folk Art
51 Yerba Buena Lane
San Francisco, CA 94103
For a print version of the article, click here.
Roy Moneyhun (Mie-ken, 1996-98), founder of Tohoku Forward
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JET Alum Cycling for Tohoku
For more information, contact Roy Moneyhun at roy@tohokuforward.org. The web address is www.tohokuforward.org. The Facebook page is Tohoku Forward.
We all know what happened in northeast Japan on March 11, 2011. The devastation remained front page news for weeks following the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Now—more than a year later—news of Tohoku must be actively sought out by anyone wanting to know what is going on up there. Tohoku has been relegated to the back burner of the international news cycle.
As the drama in Tohoku unfolded during the spring months of 2011, the world’s media understandably focused on the devastation, the death toll, and the threat of nuclear radiation escaping the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. A less generally reported catastrophe during the early weeks and months following the disaster was the creation of a new wave of orphans in Tohoku. If this crisis was overlooked during the initial period of the tsunami, it has now become close to invisible. Agencies such as Smile Kids Japan and Living Dreams toil in near-obscurity to address the crisis with little attention and limited funds.
Enter Tohoku Forward, the one-man project of JET alumnus Roy Moneyhun (Mie-ken, 1996-98) of Jacksonville Beach, Florida, USA. With Tohoku Forward, Moneyhun hopes to reach thousands of potential donors around the world, most of whom can be found in the JET alumni community.
Many orphans of the Tohoku disaster are babies, meaning that they will need support for at least another fifteen to eighteen years. Read More
JET alum Lars Martinson publishes “Kameoka Diaries Volume 2” e-comic
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Lars Martinson (Fukuoka-ken 2003-2006), author of the graphic novels Tonoharu: Part Two andTonoharu: Part 1, has just published the Kameoka Diaries Volume 2. This is a follow-up to Kameoka Diaries Volume 1, Lars’ insightful and entertaining (especially to any JETs) e-comic about his return to teaching English, this time in Kameoka, Kyoto.
Notably, you can purchase a copy for $0.99 for iPhone/iPad/iPodTouch or pay $1 for a PDF version for Mac/PC/Android/whatever.
More info here and below: http://larsmartinson.com/kameokadiaries2-now-available/
In Lars’ words:
When I submitted my first e-comics to Apple, ( The Kameoka Diaries: Volume One and Young Men of a Certain Mind ) it took one month for them to get approved, so I’m surprised & delighted it only took two days this time. But hey, I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth!
I’ll write more about the new volume of The Kameoka Diaries soon; I just wanted to get this announcement blog entry out right-away.
So please check it out. And if you enjoy it, please consider writing a review on iBooks, and/or telling your friends, and/or tweeting about it, and/or “liking” it on Facebook. Thanks a bunch!
JETwit Note: I just downloaded a copy onto my iPhone as soon as I saw the announcement. Volume 1 was great, even on an iPhone screen.
JET Eliot Honda’s latest video project: A YouTube series called “Sister City Ties”
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The latest video project by current JET Eliot Honda (Ehime-ken, Uwajima-shi), who previously created four videos about his JET town of Uwajima-shi:
“So here’s a preview show of a YouTube series I’ve been working on called Sister City Ties. It will show the sister city relationship between Honolulu and Uwajima.”
Fukushima group releases the latest “akabeko” tees to support local charities
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*********** Via Eyes 4 Fukushima
For T-Shirt orders (international and w/in Japan), please visit http://e4f.fujet.net/shoppingcart/
All procceds will go towards Fukushima charities which are actively promoting rebuilding efforts after the March 11th earthquake, tsunami and power plant disaster.
Fukushima JETs recently launched a local initiative – Eyes for Fukushima (E4F). Quick blurb from their website: It aims to promote grass roots internationalization in Fukushima Prefecture with devotion to improving the lives of people affected by the March 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster through events and fundraising. Eyes for Fukushima seeks to foster ties between Japanese citizens and JET participants at the person-to-person level.
JapanLocal: Shimane JET Welcome Video
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Shimane JET Joshua Del Pino recently put out this video titled “Shimane JET Welcome Video,” an excellent introduction to the prefecture for JETs as well as non-JETs.
For more information about life as a JET Programme participant in Shimane Prefecture, please check out the following link: http://www.shimaneajet.com/
