JETAA British Columbia Newsletter – January 2014
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The latest issue of the JETAABC (JETAA British Columbia) Newsletter is now available. In this issue, they talk about the JET Returnees’ Reception and Career Development Seminar, a year-end summary from the Vancouver Island subgroup, how to get mobile data when travelling in Japan, how to eat gluten-free in Japan, and much more!
- PDF: http://www.jetaabc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/NewsletterV18N3.pdf
- Online viewer version on Issuu.com at http://issuu.com/jetaabc/docs/newsletterv18n3
JQ Magazine: North American Alumni Regional Conference Advances JETAA Initiative
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Delegates to the 2014 JETAA Regional Conference at the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University, Jan. 2014. (Courtesy of Tim Ogino)
By Tim Ogino (Akita-ken, 2011-13) for JQ magazine. Tim returned from Japan last summer and immediately became involved in NEJETAA as communications coordinator/webmaster. After spending two wonderful years in Tohoku, he returned to Boston to attend graduate school and is excited to remain involved with the Japanese community, looking forward to the day he can return to the land of festivals, kiritampo, and karaoke.
With New Year’s goals and resolutions firmly prepared, 34 JETAA delegates from 15 chapters across North America gathered for the 2014 JETAA Regional Conference at the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA from Jan. 10-12 to discuss ways to improve their JETAA chapters. The New England JETAA chapter played host to this year’s conference and organized a series of discussions, workshops, and seminars under the theme of “Membership Management.”
The week preceding the conference was filled with anticipation about not only the content of the seminars and workshops, but also the weather in Boston. Stories about the week’s now infamous “polar-vortex” surely were intimidating to JET Alumni from warmer climates. Luckily, the temperatures recovered just in time for a comfortable and productive weekend for all in attendance.
The conference began on Friday night with a welcome reception graciously hosted by the Consul General of Japan in Boston, Akira Muto, which featured special guests Museum of Fine Arts Curator Dr. Anne Nishimura Morse and founding JETAA member Professor Ian Condry (Miyagi-ken, 1988-89) of MIT. Their kind remarks emphasized the importance of membership in JETAA as well as the presence of Japanese culture and art in America, setting an ambitious tone for the rest of the weekend.
JETAA Ottawa Newsletter – December 2013
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Via JETAA Ottawa. Posted by Gemma Villanueva (Fukushima 2008-11), the past editor for the JETAA Ottawa Newsletter.
The latest digital issue of the JETAA Ottawa Newsletter can be viewed here: http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=4d0d4aa436ad87ff44921adec&id=80f9a73363
What’s in this issue?
Download past issues here:
http://us4.campaignarchive2.com/home/?u=4d0d4aa436ad87ff4492
1adec&id=13d4251245
JETAA British Columbia Newsletter – December 2013
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The latest issue of the JETAABC (JETAA British Columbia) Newsletter is now available. In this issue, they talk about a road trip in rural Hokkaido, the JETAA Canada Conference held in Montreal, the Sempai Program mentorship for new JETs, and much more!
- PDF: http://www.jetaabc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/NewsletterV18N2.pdf
- Online viewer version on Issuu.com at http://issuu.com/jetaabc/docs/newsletterv18n2
JQ Magazine: 2013 JETAA Oceania National Conference Spotlights Sister City Relationships
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Hiromi Hakuta, assistant director of CLAIR Sydney, addresses alumni at the JETAA Oceania National Conference, Brisbane, Nov. 2013. (Courtesy of Hiromi Hakuta)
By Eden Law (Fukushima-ken, 2010-11). After the JET Programme more than fulfilled its promise of “an experience of a lifetime,” Eden returned to Sydney, Australia, where he joined the JETAA New South Wales chapter to take advantage of the network and connections available to undertake projects such as an uchiwa design competition for the Sydney Japan Festival. He also maintains the JETAANSW website and social media. Other than that, he’s a web designer and a poet, gentlemen and raconteur.
One of the best things about being a member of JETAA is the community, and over the weekend of 15-17 of November, the Oceania community of JETAA got together for our annual antipodean regional conference. For those of you up north who don’t know, JETAA Oceania comprises of five Australian chapters (the state chapters of Queensland, New South Wales, Canberra, the uber-chapter of South Australia-Victoria-Tasmania, Western Australia) and three New Zealand chapters (South Island, Auckland and Wellington). Representatives from Sydney’s CLAIR office (Tsuyoshi Ito, Hiromi Hakuta and Julien Ansart) attended as observers of the proceedings. This year, JETAA Queensland played host in Brisbane, the northern capital that looks to Asia and is close to the Gold Coast, a favoured destination for young Japanese looking for sun, surf and sand. Appropriately, we had our first lunch meet on Friday at MOS Burger, the famous Japanese fast food chain whose only non-Asian presence internationally is right in Brisbane.
JETAA Oceania was invited to attend the Welcome Back Reception for returning JETs at the Japanese Consul General’s home in Brisbane on the Friday night, a chance of course for us to network and hobnob with the cream of Brisbane’s Japanese cultural community. And after the reception finished (early, predictably), JETAA kicked on in town for a night out (hint: it’ll always involve karaoke—usually lots of obscure Japanese songs sung by that one quiet serious person who turns into a blurry, hip-thrusting maniac).
The first day of the conference began on Saturday, early (for some, too early) at our hotel and Laura Tasharofi, president of JETAA Qld, began proceedings by explaining the theme of this year: Australia-Japan sister-city relationships. As explained by Hakuta-san, of all countries, Japan has the most links in Oceania, with 108 sister city relationships in Australia and 44 in New Zealand. Therefore, the potential for JETAA to get involved is great, and the conference’s objective is to find ways to participate and be more prominent in our local communities. To start discussions and provide ideas and examples, two guest speakers, Ross Humphreys and Barry Hancock, were invited who are respected members of the Brisbane community and its influential sister city relationships.
JETAA Singapore welcomes home recent returnees
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Thanks to JETAA Singapore’s Nathalie Ng for sharing this update, originally written by Shane Wong:
JETAA Singapore had a simple but fun welcome back reception for recent returnees of the JET Programme on 26 Oct 2013 at the Minds Café Funan Centre. Opened to all members and friends, the event was also attended by staff of the Embassy of Japan in Singapore and CLAIR Singapore.
After a brief round of introduction, smaller groups were formed where the chatter continued over games, free-flow drinks and snacks. It was a good time for members to reminiscence their time on the JET Programme with the recent returnees sharing their experiences working and living in Japan.
Congratulations on successfully completing your stint on the Programme, and welcome home!
And thank you, Akita, Aomori, Miyagi, Shimane, and Tottori for hosting and sharing your cultures with our JETs. We hope, as always, that this would be the beginning of closer ties between Japan and Singapore.
JQ Magazine: 2013 JETAA National Conference in Minneapolis Recap
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JETAA USA National Conference participants in Minneapolis with former Vice President of the United States Walter Mondale, Sept. 26, 2013. (Courtesy of Yeu-Li Huang)
By Yeu-Li Huang (Yamanashi-ken, 2007-2010) for JQ magazine. Yeu-Li is the current chapter secretary of the JET Alumni Association of the Southeast (JETAASE).
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The JET Alumni Association of Minnesota (JETAAMN) hosted this year’s USA National Conference from Sept. 26-29 with assistance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR). Attendees included delegates from all 19 JETAA USA chapters, as well as representatives from CLAIR, MOFA, and the Consulate General of Japan at Chicago.
Each national conference spotlights particular challenges facing the JETAA community. This year was no different, as critical topics included continuation of the JETAA national initiatives, common issues facing JETAA chapters, membership outreach, and collaboration between JETAA chapters and other Japan-related organizations.
Thursday, Sept. 26
The conference got underway with an evening reception at the restaurant Crave, featuring former Vice President of the United States Walter Mondale as a special guest. A native Minnesotan, Mondale was also the U.S. ambassador to Japan from 1993-96. In his speech, Mr. Mondale praised the work that the JET Program has done in building personal relationships between Japan and the U.S., and called for “JETers” to continue fostering those ties.
JETAA Singapore’s Natsumatsuri!
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L-R: Libing, Eugene and Shane, helping out at the JETAA booth. (Click the photo to see more photos on the JETAA Singapore website.)
Thanks to JETAA Singapore’s Eugene Neubronner (Hiroshima-ken, 2010-12) for sharing this great update:
“This is Eugene Neubronner from the JETAA Singapore Chapter committee. We recently had our own Natsu Matsuri and we’ve finally gotten around to posting up pics and a writeup. Would love it if you guys could feature it and link to it as we’re always looking for more people to come on down who are ex- and interested JETs!”
Natsu Matsuri 2013
Back in August, Singaporeans, Japanese and everyone else came together to enjoy one of Japan’s favorite events during summer, the Natsu Matsuri. While it is unfortunate that Singapore has a very controlled use of fireworks and firecrackers, that didn’t mean we couldn’t have any fun. JETAA Singapore members were out in force as well, with our own booth to drum up interest in the JET Programme.
JETAA Singapore’s booth was a collective grab bag of games and information on the JET Programme, and saw a surprisingly strong interest that threatened to overwhelm our members and committee staff on hand. Many clamored for the Japanese games we had – including a haiku contest, match-the-word and more – but others were also interested to find out more about the JET Programme, something our ex-JET members were more than happy to talk about. Here’s to hoping more people apply and discover the joys of living and teaching in Japan!
Held at the Japanese Primary School in Singapore’s Changi, the annual event sees thousands of people attending – many dressed in their own yukata. The 2013 Natsu Matsuri was the 26th to be organized by The Japanese Association of Singapore. It features dozens of stalls hawking traditional Natsu Matsuri food, games and a massive stage for performances throughout the evening culminating in a Bon Odori dance everyone’s invited to join in on.
If you happen to be living in Singapore and is an ex-JET (Singaporean or otherwise) who’s somehow not on our list, do reach out to us! We’d love to get to know more of you. JETAA Singapore holds regular events and meet-ups. Do email us at secretaryjetaasingapore [at] gmail [dot] com.
お疲れさまでした〜
Click here for the full post and to see more photos from the event: http://jetaasg.wordpress.com/2013/10/18/natsu-matsuri-2013/
JETAA New South Wales organizes uchiwa design competition for Sydney Japan Festival 2013
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Posted by Eden Law of JETAA New South Wales:
To help promote the Japan Festival 2013 happening in Sydney on December 14, we folks at the JETAA New South Wales chapter have hit upon the idea of running an uchiwa design competition. As the Japan Festival takes place at the height of the Australian summer, an uchiwa seemed a logical choice as one of the cultural icons of Japan. Competitors are invited to submit a design that will decorate a thousand uchiwa, or traditional Japanese rigid fans, which will be handed out to help visitors to the festival stay cool and look cool. Some additional prizes may also be announced at a later date.
It’s been an idea that’s been percolating for a while, which we’ve able to realise thanks to the support and funding of the Sydney Japanese consulate. Part of the planning required sorting out our funding and locating a printer in Japan – anyone who’s ever been in Japan during summer would have noticed the masses of these uchiwa printed in their thousands by companies to promote and advertise everything from business services, new products to idol concerts and movies. If successful, we hope to run it next year again, and hope that it will become our unique stamp on the festival.
The competition site can be viewed at www.jetaansw.org/uchiwa-comp-page/, and runs until November 3rd 2013. Winner will be announced on our website, Facebook group (as well as the festival page) and Twitter.
Japan UK Careers Seminar – Tues Nov 12
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Via JETAA UK. Posted by Kim ‘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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Don’t miss out on any emails from JETAA UK – add events@jetaa.org.uk to your address book or safe list. You are registered on the JETAA UK website with the email address stevenwaseda@jetwit.com. To unsubscribe, login to your account at www.jetaa.org.uk, click on “My Profile” and update the “Receive JETAA mailshots” field.
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JETAA Canberra establishes Facebook group, updates website
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Originally posted by Eden Law to the JETAA Oceania FB group:
Recently the JETAA Canberra chapter in Australia unveiled a new-look site as well as starting up a Facebook group, joining the rest of the JETAA Oceania chapters online. While it may have been a long time in coming, the JETAA Oceania chapters had a long-term strategic plan to increase their presence and outreach through the use of social media, formulated in the 2011 regional conference on the topic.
For an Antipodean (i.e. Down Under) point of view, you might like to look at what the southern JETAA chapters have been up to:
- – JETAA Oceania: Facebook
- – JETAA Queensland: Facebook and Website
- – JETAA NSW (New South Wales): Facebook, Website, Twitter/Instagram: @jetaansw
- – JETAA Canberra: Facebook and Website
- – JETAA Vic/Tas/SA (Victoria/Tasmania/South Australia): Facebook, Website, Twitter: @JETAAVicTasSA
- – JETAA WA (Western Australia): Facebook and Website
- – JETAA Wellington (New Zealand): Facebook, Website, @JETAAWellington on Twitter
- – JETAA Auckland (New Zealand): Facebook, Website, @aucklandjetaa on Twitter
- – JETAA South Island (New Zealand): Facebook, Website, @JETAAsthisland on Twitter
JQ Magazine Seeks Writers for Fall 2013!
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Visit JQ magazine online at http://jetaany.org/magazine.
As we head into fall, 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 fall 2013 ideas pitch package, and contact JQ editor Justin Tedaldi (magazine [at] jetaany [dot] org) to sign up for stories.
Now, JQ is looking for additional help behind the scenes! Our editor (celebrating his fifth anniversary at the helm in November) is seeking a capable assistant to help with the posting, social media sharing and story assigning across all JETAA chapters. If you’re a wiz with WordPress, Facebook and Twitter, and enjoy all forms of Japanese arts, events and media, reach out to Justin. Thanks and yoroshiku!
Welcome “Kansai JET Alumni”!
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Thanks to former AJET Chair Matthew Cook (Osaka-fu, 2007-12) for sharing the good news. Great to see the JET alumni community expanding!
For more info about Kansai JET Alumni, see below:
- Website: http://kansai.jetalumni.org
- Facebook Organization Page: https://www.facebook.com/kansai.jetalumni
- Facebook Group Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/225984954222698/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/KansaiJETAlumni
- LinkedIn Organization page: http://www.linkedin.com/company/3306686?trk=tyah
- Linked in Group Page: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=5149145&mostPopular=&trk=tyah
Australian JETAA chapters recognized for Tohoku revitalization efforts at CLAIR Sister Cities Forum
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Via the JETAA New South Wales (Australia) website: http://www.jetaansw.org/jets-recognised-in-award/
The work and support by members and participants of the JET Programme and JETAA chapters for the revitalisation of Tohoku after the 2011 earthquake, was formally recognised in an award presentation at the 2013 CLAIR Sister Cities Forum.
Presented by Alderman William (Bill) Willson, President of Sister Cities Australia, the award was received by Ben Trumbell, president of the NSW chapter of JETAA. It was given in the presence of Ms Yoko Kimura, Chairperson of the Board of Directors of CLAIR (Council of Local Authorities for International Relations) and Dr Masahiro Kohara, Consul-General of Japan in Sydney.
“The award was presented to me as the closest president representative of JETAA. In my acceptance speech I outlined the importance of the JET Programme and the number of participants and members of JETAA, along with our objectives and a summary of our activities,” Ben said. “Australia has been fantastic in their response to the events in Tohoku. The Victorian JETAA chapter for example did fantastic work with the Big Bento Lunch initiative which raised more than $15,000 across our chapters.” The NSW chapter’s achievements should also be noted for raising awareness, starting with an exhibition of Fukushima school children’s letters at the 2011 Sydney Japan Festival, which lead to the visit of Councillor Alan de Surf of a junior high school in the city of Iwaki, Fukushima.
The 2013 CLAIR Sister Cities Forum marked the 50th Anniversary of the sister city relationship between Lismore, NSW and Yamato Takada in Nara, Japan. This was the first ever sister city relationship between Australia and Japan and was instrumental in initiating the close post-war relationship that exists between the two countries today, thanks to the efforts of Father Paul Glynn who began the first efforts in forging this link.
The subject of sister cities will continued to be explored by JETAA in the annual JETAA conference to be held later this year in Brisbane. Ben states that he hopes to share ideas and case studies including the Lismore-Yamato Takada story at the conference, as well as looking forward to sharing the award with the other chapters and presenting the certificate to the Australian country representative.
JETAA USA Quarterly Report – Q1 for 2013-14
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What’s going on with JETAA chapters in the US? Below is the latest Quarterly Report from the JETAA USA Country Representatives:
Dear JETAA USA Chapter Officers,
Our Q1 CR quarterly report for 2013-2014 is now available here (and also posted below). Please note this report may seem a bit dated as it covers April-June of this year. The Q1 report includes updates on the CR elections, the JETAA USA Institutional Capacity Project, the 2013 National Conference, the 2014 Regional Conference, and tech updates. You can read previous CR reports here on jetaausa.com.
Thanks!
Christina
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