Japan Local: Yadoriki Village in the Kanagawa mountains
Japan Local, Local Government, Travel/Tourism, Video 
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“Japan Local“ is a new feature intended to share the small town Japan experience with potential visitors and tourists. If you have videos or photos or writing about your town, please feel free to submit to jetwit [at] jetwit.com.
Thanks to JETAA Tokyo President Byron Nagy for sharing this video titled “Experience Yadoriki in Under a Minute,” made by a Friend of JET (or a “JET in spirit” to borrow Byron’s phrasing):
JET alum Bruce Feiler’s TED talk on The Council of Dads (video)
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JET alum Bruce Feiler, author of Learning to Bow, Walking the Bible and several other best-sellers including his recent book The Council of Dads, recently spoke in connection with the TED lecture series:
I just came across a vlog run by Jason, a JET alum who taught in Shimane-ken, which recommends JetWit as a good resource for JET alums and also contains a significant amount of videos, written content and links intended as a helpful resource for JETs.
Here’s a link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWtIgFjWt2g (FYI, he talks about a few other things before mentioning JetWit, including the most bizarrely named snack I can remember hearing about.)
And here’s a link to his YouTube video channel for JET-related videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/myargonauts?feature=mhum#p/p
Video: English Teachers – The Series
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Thanks to JET alum Jennifer Wang for forwarding the link to “English Teachers: The Series,” an original web-based comedy series about teaching English in Japan. (Kind of like Scrubs if it took place in a private English school.)
http://englishteachersseries.com
Here’s the first episode. Click the above link to see more episodes:
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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!
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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!
Notable JET alums: Bruce Feiler comments on anti-Islam protests on CNN
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Bruce Feiler (Tochigi-ken, 1987-88), author of Learning to Bow as well as several very thoughtful books on the topic of religion including Walking the Bible, was recently a guest on CNN discussing current anti-Islam sentiment with Anderson Cooper. Click here to read more posts about Bruce Feiler on JetWit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-pVfz8UbZU
JET ROI: JETAA Rajio Taiso
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JETAA Portland is getting ready to make a video of a group of its members doing NHK Rajio Taiso (radio exercises) in Portland’s Japanese Gardens on September 8. And it’s hoping to inspire other JET Alumni chapters to do the same in front of their respective landmarks. The goal is to aggregate all of the videos into one big video that shows JET alumni doing Rajio Taiso all over the U.S. and, preferably, the world.
While the idea takes a lighthearted approach, it will also help symbolically demonstrate to Japan’s population how JET alumni everywhere are and have been promoting and spreading Japanese culture around the world.
For more information, or to submit your own video, you can contact JETAA Portland’s webmaster Bob Schnyder at webmaster@jetaaportland.com or go to: http://www.jetaaportland.com/community-events/rajio-taiso-portland-japanese-gardens/
And if you have no idea what Rajio Taiso is (or you just need a little dose of natsukashii) here’s a video:
JET Alum Video: Eigo Noto – a new perspective
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I found this JET-made parody video (which I’ve since found out was made by Lena Franco (Okayama-ken, 2008-10)) after seeing it posted on a fellow JET alum’s Facebook status:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQrfiJ2WFeQ
And one more cute and fun video by Lena titled “Souljia Boy” which is a compilation of video clips where she taught students the dance that goes with the tune:
http://www.youtube.com/user/francol86
Notable JET Alums: Maynard Plant and Monkey Majik
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Members of Monkey Majik with Deputy Minister Len Edwards
Maynard Plant (Aomori-ken, 1997-2000) is the founder of the well-known Japan-based band Monkey Majik (www.monkeymajik.com), which consists of two Canadian members (Maynard and his brother Blaise) and two Japanese members-tax and DICK.
For more information you can check out their:
- Website: www.monkeymajik.com
- Wikipedia entry (where you’ll learn about the origins of the band as well as how Maynard is fluent in Aomori-ben): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_Majik
- Embassy of Japan in Canada press release: “Goodwill Ambassadors, Monkey Majik, arrive in Ottawa to celebrate the 80th Anniversary of Japan-Canada Diplomatic Relations”
Here is their song Change with the Yoshida Brothers (a video all JET alums will appreciate):
Do you know of any notable JET alums? Let us know at jetwit [at] jetwit.com.
JET ROI: “Because of JET……”
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JETAA NY Webmaster and tech/social media guru Lee-Sean Huang (Oita-ken, 2003-06) got the ball rolling with a video series called “Because of JET…..“ in which he uploaded short video clips of JET alumni sharing some good things that they experienced and witnessed as a result of participating in JET. The first few videos were taken at the JETAA National Conference this past weekend in New York.
Here’s the link to see all the videos so far: http://becauseofjet.tumblr.com/
- Send your own video testimonial to webmaster@jetaany.org to have it included and let people know about some of the positive effects of JET that they might not otherwise be aware of.
- If you can say your piece in Japanese that would be particularly helpful, according to Matt Gillam of CLAIR NY.
- Additionally, you can post your own “Because of JET…” testimony in written form by posting in the comments section here or in this other post on JetWit: http://jetwit.com/wordpress/2010/07/04/jet-roi-because-of-jet/
- Written testimony in Japanese is also potentially very helpful.
Here’s one of the videos:
Baseball: Great catch by Hiroshima Carp centerfielder
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Tom Baker reviews “Moon,” “Shutter Island” and “The Wolfman”
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Tom Baker (Chiba-ken, 1989-91) is a staff writer for The Daily Yomiuri. He usually writes for DYWeekend, the paper’s arts and leisure section. You can follow Tom’s blog at tokyotombaker.wordpress.com.
His two latest articles are movie reviews, one of “The Wolfman,” and one that discusses “Moon” and “Shutter Island” together. Here are some excerpts:
THE WOLFMAN
In most werewolf movies nowadays, it is standard to show a person’s nose and jaw elongating into a snaggletoothed lupine muzzle when they transform from human to wolf. [Makeup artist Rick] Baker has done that before, but in this film he pays homage to Lon Chaney Jr.’s furry but still humanoid look in the 1941 film The Wolf Man, on which the new film is based. Then and now, the title monster has modest fangs, a woolly forehead, a beard that goes up to his eyes and a nose that darkens at the tip.
Our first glimpse of Baker’s version of this classic face is literally over in a flash, as we see it illuminated by a pistol shot during a nocturnal battle. (In case you missed it the first time, the scene repeats a moment later, with a larger gun.) Later scenes reveal the monster’s face at greater length.
MOON and SHUTTER ISLAND
Teddy Daniels and Sam Bell are men who love their wives. They are also the respective protagonists of two new movies, Shutter Island and Moon, that take us far enough inside the characters’ heads to see each man passionately embracing his wife in a dream.
But when Teddy awakes, he finds himself trapped on his movie’s titular island, unhappily remembering that his wife has been dead for years. And when Sam awakes, he finds himself trapped on his movie’s titular heavenly body, unhappily remembering that his wife is on Earth, and he has not seen her for many months.
Teddy (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a U.S. marshall investigating the disappearance of an inmate from a prison hospital for the criminally insane on Shutter Island, Mass., in the 1950s. Sam (Sam Rockwell) is the solitary human staffer of a mining facility on the dark side of the moon, possibly in the 2050s.
The settings are very different, but both are ominous, isolated places in which intense psychological drama will unfold. In both movies, the protagonists have high-stakes confrontations with themselves, and with the powers that be.
Read the rest of the review here. The review is deliberately spoiler-free, but you can read Tom’s further comments about the endings of “Moon” here and “Shutter Island” here.
Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, is interviewed on ABC’s “World News Tonight” with Brian Ross and Diane Sawyer.
JetWit Blog Beat 2.7.10
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JetWit Blog Beat by Crystal Wong (Iwate-ken, 2002-04) is a recurring item featuring posts from the blogs of various JET alumni. Crystal is a former English-language writer for Kyodo News. She now works in online marketing in New York and relishes her constant hunt for the best cheap(ish) eats in the city.
Hope everyone had an excellent Super Bowl weekend – I’m sure it was a good one for those rooting for the Saints. Without further ado, let’s get to the much belated first Blog Beat round up of 2010!
– In need of a winter pick me up that you can easily whip up in the kitchen with a few staples? Check out Elizabeth White’s (Toyama-ken, 1995-98), delicious Sausage & Tortellini soup recipe, inspired by her grandma Mary.
– After participating in the JETAA Regional Technology Conference, JETAA NY and Jet
Wit webmaster Lee-Sean Huang (Oita-ken, 2003-06) reports from Portland, Oregon on what he calls some of the “best Thai food I’ve ever had outside of Thailand.”
– Check in on Kevin Kajitani (Kyogo-ken, 2006-07) and his experiences with New Year’s traditions in Japan.
– Learn how Robert Weston (Nara-ken, 2002-04) deals with writer’s block and his obscure novel recommendations in his online interview with WriterGirl.
– Snow in Japan is a very different affair than it is in New York, as you can see in enviable fashion on JET alum Toby Weymiller’s blog.
