WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Interpreter/Translator/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). In her recent posts, she’s been watching the news in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends along with her own observations.
While watching the Japanese news this morning, the story that headlined hit a bit close to home. It profiled a recent scandal regarding takenoko (bamboo shoots) that took place in Kumamoto City, where I served as CIR for three years.
This vegetable was being marked as “Made in Kumamoto,” when in fact supplies had come from China. Even worse, when representatives of the parent company came to visit the local supplier, Kumamoto Cannery, they made three employees pose as farmers and had them take a commemorative photo in a bamboo grove. This picture was then used on the packaging with the caption “Kumamoto Prefecture Bamboo Grove Farmers,” creating a wholesome image for a product that was different than what was being advertised. They claim that their bamboo shoots were selling so well that they had to resort to other sources as their own production couldn’t keep pace.
Food safety is a topic of immense concern in Japan, though in the beginning of the year the threat was largely from abroad. Now that the scandals are domestic in origin it will be interesting Read More
Lee-Sean Huang (Oita-ken, 2003-06), JETAA NY’s webmaster and a grad student in NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, will be presenting his interactive music interface, the head(banger)
phones, at the Interactive Telecommunications Winter Show at NYU this
Wednesday and Thursday nights (tonight and tomorrow night). So drop in to take a look. (721 Broadway, 4th Fl – just east of Washington Sq Park)
The show features a variety of interactive sights, sounds and physical
objects created by student artists. The show is FREE and open to the
public. No need to RSVP. Just show up any time during the 2 nights.
http://itp.nyu.edu/shows/winter2008/
Dec. 17th & 18th from 5pm to 9pm
@ 721 Broadway, 4th Fl
Lee-Sean AKA JETAANY.org Webmaster
http://leesean.net
Events, JETAA Chapter Beat, JETAA Chapters, Uncategorized, Writers 
Comments Off on JETAA Chapter Beat 12.17.08
Freelance writer/editor Jonathan Trace (Fukuoka-ken, 2005-08) takes us on a walk around the JET Alumni community…
JETAA Texoma
What happened at your chapter’s event? If you attend(ed) any of these exciting events, JetWit would love to hear about them. Just email Jonathan Trace with any info, stories or comments.
Blogs, Food & Drink, Writers Comments Off on Thank God for Fridays in Japan – by Peter Weber
Peter Weber (Saitama-ken, Gyoda-shi, 2004-07) is the JET Coordinator at the Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco.
This is how I remember it… As previously mentioned, even though I had overcome many of my dietary obstacles, I still hungered for “American Cuisine”. Although McDonald’s was always easily accessible, it was only a temporary “fix”.
I wanted a more hearty burger. So I went to the place where all answers are found… the internet. After searching words like “Applebees”, “Chili’s”, and “Fuddruckers” I finally hit the jackpot. My salvation was when I entered three wonderful letters followed by one word that makes everyone happy. Located less than 50 miles away in Ueno we found our salvation, and it came with a Happy Hour!
Contest, Translating/Interpreting, Writers Comments Off on Translators Mini-Challenge #3
Translators Mini-Challenge is a new arbitrarily recurring feature presented by professional translator, interpreter and writer Kia Cheleen (CIR, Aichi-ken 1996-98, ALT 1998-1999).
Welcome to this week’s JetWit Translators Mini-Challenge! The first person to respond by email to jetwit /atto/ jetwit /dotto/ com with the correct English translation of the below Japanese term will win a free Gaijin-a-Go-Go CD (Go-Go Bootcamp)!
**************
**************
Stay tuned for the next Mini-Challenge! You never know when we’ll strike again!
Blogs, Books, Cartoon/Illustration, Writers Comments Off on JET alum Robert Weston’s “Zorgamazoo” wins New York Bookbinders Guild award
Robert P. Weston (Nara-ken, 2002-04) reports on his blog (wayofthewest.wordpress.com) that his book Zorgamazoo, just published this year, has won “some sort of design award” from the New York Bookbinders Guild.
This means, he explains, that the book will be on diplay at the New York Book Show on March 24, 2009. He goes on to extend “huge congratulations” to Christian Fuenfhausen, who designed the interior pages, Natalie Sousa, who designed the cover art, and the whole design team at Razorbill Books and Penguin USA.
Article/Journalism, Books, Celebrity, Japan Trends, Roland Kelts, Uncategorized, Writers Comments Off on JET alum Roland Kelts quoted in The New Yorker
Roland Kelts (Osaka, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, was quoted or mentioned this week in articles in:
Blogs, Cartoon/Illustration, Humor, Writers Comments Off on Bankruptcy Bill #7: Debtor Education
Bankruptcy Bill is a cartoon created by Steven Horowitz (Aichi-ken, 1992-94) and Gideon Kendall. To see more strips as well as bankruptcy haiku, go to bankruptcybill.wordpress.com.
Career, Japan Trends, Translating/Interpreting, WIT Life, Writers Comments Off on WITLife #8 – Christmas Cakes and Monolingual Nobel Prize Winners
WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Interpreter/Translator/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03).
My posts from last week were largely doom and gloom about the current economic woes, so I thought I’d start this week with something lighter from recent Japanese TV news—the topic of Christmas cake! Definitely a big deal in Japan.
(For those unfamiliar, Japanese Christmas focused primarily on Christmas Eve. The actual holiday is a regular workday, to the dismay of many an English teacher. It is a secular celebration where couples and families get together to eat typical Christmas fare such as Kentucky fried chicken and strawberry shortcake.)
The TV news this past Friday profiled the major department store Matsuya in Ginza, which sells 25 million cakes during the three day period from the 23rd until Christmas. The cakes that are selected to be featured in its seasonal catalog basically determine how the year’s profits will turn out.
An essential part of the selection process are the taste-testers who decide on certain ingredients. This year’s hot commodity was Read More
Thanks to writer/designer Meredith Hodges-Boos (Ehime-ken, Uwajima-shi, Yoshida-cho, 2003-05) for her latest spin on the JetWit design, now on mugs, t-shirts and buttons!
Books, Events, JETAA Chapters, Writers Comments Off on JETAA NY Book Club Update
JETAA NY Book Club co-reviver Michael Glazer writes:
JETAA NY successfully kicked off its New York book club last Wednesday night, Dec. 10. The group discussed Murakami Ryu’s Akutagawa Prize-winning novel Almost Transparent Blue.
Murakami’s provocative novel fueled an energetic, funny, sometimes tense and stimulating exchange of ideas while we snacked on pizza and drank oolong tea. The two-hour conversation ranged in topic from talking about ethnic stereotypes to bug eating, the US military in Japan, The Doors, Japanese escapism and Admiral Perry’s black ships as the group tried to figure out if Blue is literary genius or pop culture trash.
Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, January 21 at 7pm, and we will discuss Miyamoto Teru’s novel Kinshu. You can find the book online at bn.com and amazon.com. Contact Michael Glazer or Jessica Langbein for more information.
Kirsten Phillips (Niigata-ken, 2007-08) is part of a yosa-koi dance group that is taking part in another Japan Arts Matsuri (JAM) function on December 23rd at the Knitting Factory. The last one they did in Greenpoint, Brooklyn was very well received and a huge success. In Kirsten’s own words:
“JAM brings Japanese dancers, musicians, martial artists, comedians from around the city under one roof. The atmosphere is that of a traditional Japanese matsuri, complete with taiko and akachochin. The one in Greenpoint even had oden! I know it’s a little inconvenient in the middle of the week, but it’s totally worth it if you miss the way Japan throws a festival.”
Japan Arts Matsuri (JAM) 2008
Tuesday, December 23rd.
Doors open 6 PM. The entire event lasts until 2 AM; Advance Tickets: $10/ $15 at the door
Knitting Factory
74 Leonard Street, New York, NY Tel: (212) 219-3132 Directions: 1 or 9 to Franklin OR St. A,C, E at Canal.
From www.fewmets.net
James Kennedy (Nara-ken, 2004-06), author of The Order of Odd-Fish, has reviewed all haiku submissions containing the designated word “fewmets“ for Haiku Challenge #1 and has selected a winner. Read on for his decision and rationale.
I was blown away by the quality of the fewmets haiku I received. I can state with absolute conviction that these are the best haiku about fewmets that I have ever read!
First, the honorable mentions. Meredith Hodges-Boos (Ehime-ken, Yoshida-cho, 2003-05) wrote an appropriately grim, medieval-epic haiku that ends with a wonderfully forbidding promise of violence:
Fewmets steam on bleak
Frost-covered leaves, hunter stoops
Soon blood will melt ice
Chillingly beautiful! Worthy of Beowulf! I can almost imagine Ms. Hodges-Boos is the kind of woman who makes her own chain mail.
Rick Ambrosio (Ibaraki-ken, 2006-08) put a decidedly modern spin on fewmets:
The fewmets of love;
lipstick wine glass, lost overcoat . . .
painful cotton swab nurse!
Every man who has endured a gonorrhea test will find the last line poignantly evocative. Mr. Ambrosio is clearly a gentleman about town, a chap of wide and varied experiences, a man who almost certainly has chlamydia. He came very close to winning, except that the second and third lines each have one more syllable than a fastidious interpretation of the haiku form allows. As sloppy as a tart’s kiss, Mr. Ambrosio!
Finally, we come to the winner, from the talented Ilya Blokh:
A French truffle, on the
Tongue, melts, but how I was wrong
It was a fewmet
True, the first line might has one more syllable than usual, but Mr. Blokh’s brilliance trumps formal quibbles. The imagination is set giddily free. How did the poet come across this spurious truffle? On what pretext is he eating it? From what beast does this fewmet issue? What does the fewmet taste like? Mr. Blokh creates an entire world for me to inhabit.
And thither shall I now flit, to freely and sportively bombinate among the flowers of his soul.
Click “Read More” to see a couple more haiku submissions.
Elizabeth Bass (Kochi 2002-2004) reports that she finally got a job (YEAH!). However, that means that she is now looking for a replacement intern at the literary agency where she works. The position is unpaid, but because it’s a small office there is a ton of opportunity to get some invaluable hands-on experience in the industry. We are looking for someone to fill the position ASAP, if possible.
We are currently accepting applications for an intern at a small literary agency.
The intern will read and recommend submissions, answer the telephone, draft emails and help in various ways around the office, including filing and restocking office supplies. Because it is a small office (myself and an assistant) the intern will have an opportunity to see close up how a literary agency works and become familiar with the book publishing industry.
QUALIFICATIONS: I am looking for someone with computer skills and some office experience to work 5-6 hours per week. (The days are flexible.) I would hope that the intern was fairly well-read and interested in books.
Please submit a short cover letter and your resume to:
Regina Ryan reginaryanbooks @ rcn . com
DURATION: 5-6 hours per week
COMPENSATION: None
Welcome to the JetWit Haiku Challenge! The challenge is to submit one or more haiku using the designated word. The best haiku submitted wins the prize.
This week’s challenge will be judged by Robert P. Weston (Nara-ken, 2002-04), author of Zorgamazoo, a “rhyming, rhythmical tale of Katrina, a girl with a big heart and an even bigger imagination” published this year by Penguin Books and available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Powells. You can also follow Robert on his blog wayofthewest.wordpress.com.
Note: The winner of Haiku Challenge #1 will be announced later today. Stay tuned!
|
| Subscribe to JetWitJobs |
