Via Jessyca Wilcox, one of JETAA USA’s three Country Representatives, sent to JETAA USA chapter delegates:

Hello Everyone!

I wanted to let you all know that between JETAA DC President Maurice “Mac” Maloney (mostly Mac!) and myself, we’ve managed to collect and post all the presentations and handouts that are available from the conference on the jetaausa.com website. If we could get our hands on it, it’s posted up there!

We’ve basically posted the schedule/ agenda from the conference and then linked uploaded files to each agenda topic appropriately. We hope this will aid delegates’ abilities to share the content of the US Conference with their members and will also help chapter officers that were not able to attend see what was discussed, covered and presented on. You’ll find it under 2011 National Conference > Presentations & Handouts

I also encourage you all to subscribe to the JETAA USA website. You can do this by subscribing with your email address (meaning you will get updates in your email inbox) or via RSS feed if you use an RSS reader of some sort. This will keep you apprised of all national efforts AND it will keep you all up to date on progress and deadlines in regards to the 2012 Regional Conference in CO.

Once again- a HUGE thank you and otsukaresama to the JETAA DC crew for putting on an excellent conference!

(Read the rest of this post for the conference agenda with links to relevant info and docs.)

Read More

Via a recent article in the Wall Street Journal:

The 2:46 Quakebook Project is  “a Twitter-sourced collection of personal accounts of the quake and its aftermath….one group’s response to the disaster initiated by the local blogging community that aims to raise money for relief efforts (the title refers to the time at which the magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck on March 11).”

Note:  All proceeds will go to the Japanese Red Cross.

 

It’s amazing to see how everybody in America is thinking of unique ways to help Japan in this time of crisis. People are taking to the streets asking for donations (myself included), there are communities doing translations for towns and villages across the region, and now wibiya, an app for bloggers, has developed a tool that can be placed on the bottom of your blog/website.

Bloggers can download this free application and have a bar underneath their site that informs people about how to donate to the red cross and help the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. This is what innovation is all about. Using technology to help people in need. It is in times like this that I am proud to say that I’m an American. Thank you again to everybody helping Japan.

Click Here to download the application

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 (http://unratednyc.com) and works as a Project Manager at Arrow Root Media (http://arrowrootmedia.com).

JETAA UK just shot out an email announcing its new website.  And it is super-sweet and sexy!

http://www.jetaa.org.uk

Up-to-date job listings.  An easy to find calendar.  A “member counter” graphic front and center.  And a friend-finder….by prefecture!

And we especially love the link to… ehhh, chotto matte… JetWit.com link ha doko deshou ka?

Well, a minor oversight that we’re sure will soon be remedied.  Whoever put the site together (and it looks like a group effort) clearly did their homework and put a lot of good thought into it.  So go and have a look around and enjoy the fruits of their hard work.

O-tsukare sama deshita, JETAA UK!

Update: Turns out that JETAA Southern California has also recently updated its website:  http://jetaasc.org (can’t tell if it’s Joomla, WordPress or something else)  (Thanks to JETAA SC Prez Jason Porath for the update.)

This just in from JETAA Northern California:

Hey everyone,

After talking about it at the national conference for I don’t know how long, our new website is finally up (jetaanc.org)! Check it out and let us know what you think.

Rod McLeod
JETAANC President

Meanwhile, JetWit has checked out the new JETAA Northern California website and thinks it’s cho-beri kakkou ii.  We also voted for “Easier Navigation” as our favorite thing about the new site.  But feel free to vote as you see fit.

On the website topic, you may notice that JETAA Northern California is using Joomla (an open source Content Management System) for its website.  Several other JETAA chapters use Joomla as well.  Meanwhile, JETAA NY and a few other chapter sites use WordPress (a blog program which is also a Content Management System for all intent and purpose).  Together, Joomla and WordPress do seem to be the most popular choices among chapters.  The primary reason being that they have nice layouts and, once set up, multiple users can easily participate in adding content rather than having to rely on one webmaster to add content each time.

The issue of websites and content management systems will be further discussed at the end of January at the Regional Conference being hosted by JETAA Portland (which I just noticed doesn’t use either Joomla or WordPress).  JETAA NY and JetWit webmaster Lee-Sean Huang will be there to contribute to the conversation along with several other knowledgeable and tech-savvy JET alums.

What does your chapter use?  How do you feel about it?  Do you have a preference between Joomla and WordPress, or something else altogether?  Share your comments below.  There’s no one right answer, so the more feedback provided, the better we’ll all be served in the long run.

Thanks to the hard work of JET alum Abigail MacBain, current JET Program Coordinator for the Consulate General of Japan in Miami (and former JETAA DC Newsletter Editor), the Miami Consulate has a wonderfully updated JET Program page.

Have a look at Abigail’s handiwork at http://www.miami.us.emb-japan.go.jp/jet/jetprogram.html

Abigail also reports two big JET Program policy changes as of Monday, August 17:

1. JET alumni can now reapply for JET after 3 years instead of 10

2. The previous requirement used to be that you couldn’t have lived 3 or more years in Japan in the past 8 years. Now it’s 6 or more years years in the past 10.

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Great article from the Isshoni London website run by JET alum Vanessa Villalobos (who is also the Communications Officer for JETAA UK).

There’s a welcome lull in frenetic London life over August… time to enjoy some of the finer things in life: food, music and the great outdoors.

If you, like I am, are counting down the days to the Japan Matsuri at Spitalfields this September 19th, you should indulge in a little Japanese cultural exploration over the summer!

1. EAT FOR FREE AT TOKYO CITY

I know! I couldn’t believe it either! Simply book your table in advance at Tokyo City Japanese Restaurant near Bank on any Tuesday in August, anytime from 11.30am to 10pm at night. A tasty offer too good to miss, you simply pay a £2.50 service charge and the cost of drinks you order.

City workers can feast for free on everything from handmade sushi and sashimi to bento boxes filled with Japanese classics, plus other traditional Japanese dishes, and help Tokyo City celebrate their 10th birthday and the launch of their new August menu.

Tokyo City is at 46 Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7AY

Call 020 7726 0308 and quote the Tokyo City offer when you book.

2. DISCOVER CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE MUSIC

You’ll be pleased to hear Tsuru Sushi plays host to new Japanese music the last Wednesday of every month! Their 100% Genki events showcase Japanese musical and performance talent.

The events have been running for one year on the last Wednesday of each month, and attract a diverse crowd from the Japanese and local communities. Performers are also diverse, ranging from Wataru Kousaka, a sanshin player, to contemporary electronic composer Anchorsong and many others.

CLICK HERE to read the rest of this article

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JetWit webmaster Lee-Sean Huang (Oita-ken, 2003-06) comments after the jump on The Cove, a new documentary about dolphin hunting in Japan.  Please feel free to share your own thoughts regarding this controversial film in the comments section of this post.

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JetWit has become increasingly aware of JET alum artists doing interesting work and making names for themselves in the art world.  Below is a little background on a few of them (though there are many more out there).  Click here for more JetWit posts on art and JET alumni.  You can also see a more complete list of JET alums in the art world in the Art section of the Library.

Zandra Ellis (Nagasaki-ken, 2005-09) – Bronx, NY

• Painter and writer -http://www.flickr.com/photos/zmongoose/

Born in the Bronx to Jamaican immigrants, Zandra Ellis cut her milkteeth on Marley, manga and museums; 17 years later, she emerged blinking in the sunlight, from LaGuardia High School with a diploma stamped “Art.”  Somehow she ended up studying English Literature in college. Nagasaki Prefecture’s Emukae Town (pop. 6,700,) warmly embraced Zandra as an ALT who loved drawing on the board and attending the local pottery class (’05-’09).  Currently working on: freelance gigs/portraits for hire.

Manya Tessler (Wakayama-ken, 1998-2000) – Brooklyn, NY

• Jewelry – www.MANYAandROUMEN.com
• Children’s book illustrations – Yuki’s Ride Home (See interview with her from JETAA NY Newsletter at http://jetwit.com/wordpress/library/profiles/tessler-manya.)
• Read the “engaging” story of how she and her husband met and began designing jewelry together.

Manya’s children’s book “Yuki’s Ride Home” was published by Bloomsbury in 2008. (Read more)  She received an Honorable mention in Category 1 of the Women’s Jewelry Association 2009 DIVA Design Competition. (Read more) She and her husband, Rouman, received the Mort Abelson New Designer of the Year Award at the JA NY Summer Show. (Read more)  And the independent film “Adam” being shown at the 2009 Sundance Festival features several of Manya’s illustrations. (Read more)

Lee-Sean Huang (Oita-ken, 2003-06) – New York, NY

Lee-Sean Huang is New York-base multimedia artist who explores the creative and social possibilities found in the junction of technology, design and art.  Recent works include:

• A computer-generated portrait of Mao constructed from the text of the Little Red Book
• An interactive music installation consisting of headphones that create a unique listening experience based on the wearer’s movements
• And a Japan-inspired animation and performance piece based on a poem by Catullus

Lee-Sean is a co-founder of Hepnova Multimedia, an interdisciplinary design collective and genre-defying band, and is currently a masters student at ITP, the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.  Catch up with Lee-Sean at leesean.net.  (JetWit Editor’s Note: Lee-Sean is also the JETAA NY webmaster, helped me get the JetWit site set up and is the one I call whenever there’s a “JetWit emergency.”)

JetWit has just created a new page in the JETLinks section of this site called “JET Prefectural Websites and Newsletters.”

So far, the only ones listed are Hiroshima-ken and Akita-ken.  There are, of course, many more out there.  So please send an e-mail to jetwit [at] jetwit [dot] com to share links for your prefecture’s:

• Website
• Blog
• Yahoo or Google group
• Wiki-site
• Facebook page
• Twitter feed
• LinkedIn group
• Any other crazy new form of media the kids have come up with recently

Thanks and yoroshiku.

Dan Dooher, an Akita-ken ALT and who also serves as the Prefectural Advisor, recently let JetWit know about their English-language guide to Akita-ken for JETs.

http://www.akitajet.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

Not sure if other prefectures have done something similar or if this is standard, but Akita-ken has put together a fantastic wiki-style site.  When you first arrive you see a map of Akita divided into cities.  Clicking on a city leads to a whole wealth of useful information for any JET (or any English-speaker for that matter) who’s planning on going there.

The left sidebar includes links to topics such as Entering JET, Financing, Travel, Health, Driving, Computers and Phones, Entertainment, Volunteer Opportunities and other extremely helpful topics.  On the right are feeds for “Latest Discussion” and “Events/Updates.”  And scrolling down leads to a Calendar as well as an Article Spotlight featuring “What is the Akita International Sumo Taikai?“  (Note: How come my prefecture didn’t have a sumo taikia?)  (Additional note: How come the internet didn’t exist when I was on JET?)

Do other prefectures have JET sites like this? (We know, for example, that Hiroshima-ken has The Wide Island View, a terrific e-zine for the JET community there, published by Gail Cetnar Meadows and Josh Zimmer.)

If so, please send the link to JetWit along with any other info and we’ll be more than happy to post it on the site for the benefit of readers.

JETAA NY Webmaster Lee-Sean Huang (Oita-ken, 2003-06) is settling into his summer internship at Creative Commons in San Francisco and is working on a site called OpenEd that will act as a kind of portal for the open education community.

Lee-Sean suggested that the JET community, which already does a lot to share their lesson plans and ESL games, might be a good group to engage on OpenEd site.

Lee-Sean has started a a preliminary Wiki page and says he would welcome any input as well as more links to relevant resources.  Since the site is a wiki, anyone can create an account and edit the site.

http://opened.creativecommons.org/OER_for_JET_Programme_Participants

Hiroshima-ken’s Gail Cetnar Meadows and Joshua Zimmerman have announced the launch of Wide Island View, their super-sweet online prefectural newsletter (though “newsletter” doesn’t really do justice to what they’ve put together).

Featured articles include:

• Diving with Sharks in Palau
• JetWit.com: Bringing the JET alumni community together
• Fukuyama Let’s Film Festival 2009
• Homemade Sanuki Udon Recipe
• A Night of Pachinko
• And much much more.

To put it in perspective, when A.J. the JetWit mascot goes to bed at night, this is what he dreams about. :-)

Keep up the good work, Hiroshimites (or whatever the proper term is)!

There’s a nice mention of JetWit in a recent post on The Wide Island View–The JET Programme Newsletter of Hiroshima Prefecture.  (www.wideislandview.com)  Glad to see that word awareness of JetWit is on the rise among current JETs.  Especially since it’s intended to be a helpful resource with the transition, and due to Japanese privacy laws it’s relatively difficult to get contact information to reach out to current JETs.

JetWit is also thrilled to find out that such a beautiful website of a prefectural newsletter even exists.  It’s definitely worth a visit for the articles as well as for the easy-on-the-eyes layout.  And they even pay tribute to the past, posting links to the PDF versions of newsletters past, before everything moved to the web.

By the way, if there are any other prefectural newsletter websites out there, please contact JetWit and let us know so we can post links to you guys.

Just found out about another JET alum author out there in the JETAA-sphere…

Suzanne (Borsum) Kamata (Tokushima, 1988-90) is the author of the novel Losing Kei (Leapfrog Press, 2008), a picture book, Playing for Papa (Topka Books, 2008) and the editor of three anthologies – Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering (Wyatt-Mackenzie Publishing, 2009), Love You to Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs (Beacon Press, 2008) and The Broken Bridge: Fiction from Expatriates in Literary Japan (Stone Bridge Press, 1997). Her articles, essays, and short stories have appeared in over 100 publications, and have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize five times. She is also the 2008 recipient of the SCBWI Magazine Merit Award for Fiction. She is currently fiction editor of literarymama.com, and provides manuscript critiques on a freelance basis.

• To learn more about Suzanne you can visit her website at http://www.suzannekamata.com or her blog at http://gaijinmama.wordpress.com (RSS feed here).

• Read an interview with Suzanne Kamata on children’s books and diversity by the blog Kabiliana.

• Go to the Authors/Books section of the JetWit Library to see a complete list of JET alum authors (at least to JetWit’s knowledge).