Jun 19

Job: International Student Advisor, University of Mary Washington (VA)

Jobs Comments Off on Job: International Student Advisor, University of Mary Washington (VA)

Via JET alum Carleen Ben.  Posted by Jayme Tsutsuse (Kyoto-fu, 2013-Present), organizer of Cross-Cultural Kansai.  Click here to join the JETwit Jobs Google Group and receive job listings even sooner by email.

Position: International Student Advisor
Posted by: University of Mary Washington
Location: Fredericksburg, VA
Type: full-time

Overview:

The University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA, I would like to draw your attention to an opening for an International Student Advisor within our Center for International Education.

The Center for International Education (CIE) strives to provide quality international education opportunities to students and faculty. Of equal importance, CIE programs make the University of Mary Washington (UMW) accessible to capable students from around the world and ensure they have quality academic experiences. Recruiting more international students to the campus is a charge included in the UMW Strategic Plan, and the critical support services and compliance with the federal immigration regulatory processes provided by this position and others within CIE and the Office of Admissions are integral to UMW’s ability to have an international student population. 
Read More

Jun 19

Job: HR Manager -ISEP (VA)

Jobs Comments Off on Job: HR Manager -ISEP (VA)

Via JET alum Carleen Ben.  Posted by Jayme Tsutsuse (Kyoto-fu, 2013-Present), organizer of Cross-Cultural Kansai.  Click here to join the JETwit Jobs Google Group and receive job listings even sooner by email.

Position: HR Manager
Posted by: ISEP (study abroad provider)
Location: Arlington, VA
Type: full-time

Overview:

ISEP is currently seeking a Part-Time Human Resources Manager located in our central office located in Arlington VA (10 minutes from Washington DC).  Founded in 1979, ISEP is a nonprofit membership organization with over 300 partner institutions in 50 countries around the world. ISEP provides exchange and study abroad opportunities to over 3,400 students annually.

Position Summary:
The Human Resources manager manages the day-to-day administration of the ISEP’s human resource programs. This includes benefits administration, recruitment, employee relations and welfare, compensation and performance management programs, policies and procedures, and employee record maintenance. 
Read More

Jun 18

WIT Life #271: New York Japan Cinefest at Asia Society

Events, Film, Translating/Interpreting, WIT Life, Writers Comments Off on WIT Life #271: New York Japan Cinefest at Asia Society

WIT Life is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03).  She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends along with her own observations.

Last week I went to the 3rd annual New York Japan CineFest held at Asia Society.  It featured six short films ranging in length from 4-30 minutes, many of which had already received awards at other film festivals.  I attended with fellow JET alums, so it was fun to dissect the films together and relate them to our respective Japan adventures.  The event opened with The Misadventures of Incredible Dr. Wonderfoot, and directors Grier Dill and Brett Glass were on hand to offer an introduction.

In addition, two of the movie’s stars, Tsukasa Kondo and Tadashi Mitsui, also shared their experiences of making the film.  The former is actually one of the creators and stars of the web series Second Avenue, which follows two 20-something Japanese roommates in Brooklyn, an aspiring actress and a Japanese gay law student (played by Kondo).  The first season of six episodes (mostly in Japanese with subtitles) are really entertaining, especially for viewers who understand Kansai-ben.

It was fun to watch the quirky podiatrist Dr. Wonderfoot, but my personal favorite out of all the flicks (and audience award recipient) was one of the concluding films, Little Kyota Neon Hood (I also liked the final film Lil Tokyo Reporter that was based on the true story of L.A. Japanese-American community leader Sei Fujii).  This film takes place in Tohoku and features 10-year old Kyota who is suffering from Read More

Jun 17

Rotary Peace Fellowships – July 1 Deadline

Academic, Jobs Comments Off on Rotary Peace Fellowships – July 1 Deadline

————————————————————————————————————

Overview: 

Are you looking to make a significant impact on the world by promoting tolerance and cooperation? Each year, Rotary funds some of the world’s most dedicated and brightest professionals to study at our Rotary Peace Centers. These fellows are committed to the advancement of peace, and often go on to serve as leaders in national governments, NGOs, the military, law enforcement, and international organizations such as the United Nations and World Bank.

Read More

Jun 16

JETwit Job Hunter Profile: Lauren Carroll

JETwit Job Hunter Add Comment (3)

JETwit Job Hunter is a new feature started by Autumn Widdoes (Okinawa-ken 2010-14).  Autumn is a writer with a focus on performance and film who will soon return to the job market herself. She’d like to put her four years of experience in Japan to good use in future employment.

WELCOME to the inaugural post of JETwit Job Hunter Profiles.  The purpose of this project is to:

1. Share profiles of job-hunting JETs and JET alumni, and
2. Invite JETwit readers to offer suggestions, advice, and any other help, either by posting in the comments section of this post or by contacting the profiled job hunter directly.
3. The goal is to help everyone find work and increase the rate of post-JET employment, which in turn will make us an even stronger alumni network and community.

Here’s the first profile.  Take a look and see if you can help:

Job Hunter:  Lauren Carroll (Mie-ken, 2006-09) is a JET alum  currently seeking employment in the San Francisco Bay area, though she is also open to employment opportunities in other regions of California, Seattle, Colorado, and New Mexico.

Objective:  To work in a cross-cultural industry that uses or taps into her creative background and skills in the fine arts as well as her interest in Japan and international exchange. She would like “to help new international transplants learn about and adjust to the US” and would like to work with Japanese people who are moving to the USA. She is seeking this type of work without the requirement of fluency in Japanese.

Areas of Interest: 

• cross-cultural consulting
• international student advising at the university level
• international exchange as a coordinator

Job Hunting Strategies:

• Websites such as HigherEdjobs, JETwit, and Craigslist.
• Informational interviews with contacts in industries that she is interested in.
• Letting everyone she  knows know that she is seeking a job in one of these fields.

Challenges:  Lauren has faced the challenge of having to manage an extensive career search while also working full-time at a job that is ending in a month. She feels that the Bay Area is a very competitive job market, though it also offers an incredible amount of opportunities, and that she hopes to make the connections she needs to gain a foothold in the career industries listed above.

Web Presence:

• Her blog documenting her years in Japan can be found here: http://ieatdirt.blogspot.com
• To contact Lauren visit her LinkedIn profile.

To help this JETwit Job Hunter, post your comments below, or contact Lauren directly. 

If you’d like to be profiled, click here to submit your information through the JETwit Job Hunter Google Form.  

Reminder that there are a number of JET Alum professionally oriented LinkedIn groups set up to help you.  By joining groups in fields that interest you, you can find and connect with other alums in that field.

Jun 16

Job: Communications and Events Officer at Japan Society (London)

Jobs Comments Off on Job: Communications and Events Officer at Japan Society (London)

————————————————————————————————————

Overview: 

Location: London £19 – 23k depending on experience
The Japan Society is the leading independent body in the United Kingdom dedicated to the enhancement of the British-Japanese relationship in all its facets. It is a membership organisation and educational charity whose core programmes include approximately 80 academic, business and cultural events each year, support for schools teaching about Japan, provision of small grants, publication of periodicals and books, and maintenance of a small historic library. Read More

Jun 16

Job: International Student Service Coordinator for Teaching House (NYC)

Jobs Comments Off on Job: International Student Service Coordinator for Teaching House (NYC)

————————————————————————————————————

Overview: 

HNY – sister company of Teaching House – is recruiting a student services coordinator to join their team at the Chelsea, NYC, school.

International House Language School New York (IH New York) is looking to recruit a full-time student services coordinator to join our team at our Chelsea language school. The position involves working closely with international agents to organize classes, accommodation and excursions for students traveling from abroad. The role also includes working with the students once they’re attending school to support them and ensure they have a successful and enjoyable experience. Read More

Jun 14

JQ Magazine: Heisei Nakamura-za Kabuki Returns to NYC This Summer

Art, Article/Journalism, Celebrity, Events, JQ Magazine Comments Off on JQ Magazine: Heisei Nakamura-za Kabuki Returns to NYC This Summer

After a seven year absence, Heisei Nakamura-za brings Kabuki to New York’s Lincoln Center Festival July 7-12. (© Shochiku)

By Mark Frey (Kumamoto-ken, 2002-06) for JQ magazine. Mark served as the editor for JETAA Northern California’s Pacific Bridge newsletter from 2007-11, and is currently chapter president as well as coordinator of the JETAANC Kabuki Club.

A warm thought to heat you up as the Fourth of July approaches: real, live Kabuki is coming back to New York City July 7-12 as part of the annual Lincoln Center Festival.

This is great news for Kabuki fans in America. And if you were ever curious about Kabuki, it is a rare chance to see the real thing in your own backyard. The performance is part of a very interesting project called “Heisei Nakamura-za,” which was started about a decade ago by the late, great Kabuki actor Nakamura Kanzaburo, who passed away unexpectedly at age 57 in December 2012.

Kanzaburo wanted to give audiences the chance to experience Kabuki the way it used to be in the “good old days” of the Edo period. Back then, Kabuki was a popular entertainment for the common people. It featured smaller theaters, a more intimate relationship between actor and audience, and a more festive, earthy, raucous feel. So Kanzaburo started constructing temporary theaters in Japan and around the world that reflected this atmosphere. He extended the mood to the plays he staged, putting a contemporary spin on old classics.

In 2012, this reporter was fortunate enough to be able to see Kanzaburo perform in the last Heisei Nakamura-za theater he constructed, in Tokyo’s Asakusa district. It was an unforgettable experience. Some of the best actors of our day were walking a couple feet away from me on the theater’s modest hanamichi runway. A special energy flowed between the actors and the audience that I hadn’t felt at established Kabuki theaters. At the end of the final play, the entire back wall of the theater disappeared and we enjoyed a beautiful, open-air night view of the Sumidagawa River and the newly constructed Skytree Tower. It was a magical evening.

Read More

Jun 13

Job: Outside Sales Representative at Yamamotoyama (NYC)

Jobs Comments Off on Job: Outside Sales Representative at Yamamotoyama (NYC)

Jun 12

Haiti: English Language Teaching Fellow [By June 20th, 2014]

Jobs Comments Off on Haiti: English Language Teaching Fellow [By June 20th, 2014]

————————————————————————————————————

Overview: 

The goal of HELP’s Academic Department is for all students to develop English proficiency, capacity in information technologies, as well as the skills and desire to work for positive change in Haiti. HELP’s English, IT, and Leadership classes are taught as separate curricula, however cross-curricular connections are an important part of course development. Read More

Jun 12

Job: Sales position at Japanese trading company (NYC)

Jobs Comments Off on Job: Sales position at Japanese trading company (NYC)

————————————————————————————————————

Overview: 

This is an excellent and rare opportunity to start your career at one of the most prestigious Japanese firms. There will be an excellent chance to learn business and network with big players in the industry. The company offers an excellent benefit including tuition support. Read More

Jun 11

[FRIDAY DEADLINE] Job: Director of External Affairs at US-Japan Council

Jobs Comments Off on [FRIDAY DEADLINE] Job: Director of External Affairs at US-Japan Council

————————————————————————————————————

Overview: 

The registration deadline (June 13) for this position within USJC’s Tokyo office is quickly approaching. Please forward this information on to any potential candidates!

DIRECTOR OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
(FULL-TIME, TOKYO-BASED)
The Director of External Affairs is responsible for developing, implementing and managing the day-to-day implementation of the Council’s external relations, communications, and development plans. Fluency in Japanese and English is required. We seek a candidate who is committed to the goals of the organization and can bring experience in external relationships including communications, stakeholder relations, and fundraising, primarily with corporate and major donors that have vested interest in U.S.-Japan relations. We seek a candidate who will work closely with board leadership and supporters in the implementation of organizational plans.

This position offers an opportunity to make an impact in a growing non-profit and an opportunity to network with prominent leaders at the forefront of Japan-U.S. relations. Read More

Jun 11

I’ll Make It Myself!: Rosemary-Orange Ricotta Muffins

Blogs, Food & Drink, I'll Make It Myself, Writers baking in Japan, breakfast, cooking in Japan, Food, homemade ricotta, I'll Make It Myself, make your own ricotta, muffin, orange, recipe, ricotta, rosemary, savory Comments Off on I’ll Make It Myself!: Rosemary-Orange Ricotta Muffins

L.M. Zoller (CIR Ishikawa-ken, Anamizu, 2009-11) is the editor of The Ishikawa JET Kitchen: Cooking in Japan Without a Fight. Ze works in international student exchange; writes I’ll Make It Myself!, a blog about food culture in Japan and the US; curates The Rice Cooker Chronicles, a series of essays by JETs and JET alumni on the theme of cooking/eating and being alone in Japan; and admins The JET Alumni Culinary Group on LinkedIn.

Can’t find ricotta in your grocery store in Japan? Never fear! It’s a piece of cake (muffin?) to make your own in Japan. Muffins work well in the moven, too.

Click HERE to see MORE.

Jun 9

JQ Magazine: From JET to the U.S. Department of State, Alumni Share Their Stories

Article/Journalism, JQ Magazine, Local Government Comments Off on JQ Magazine: From JET to the U.S. Department of State, Alumni Share Their Stories

By Sheila Burt (Toyama-ken, 2010-12) for JQ magazine. Sheila is a scientific writer at the Center for Bionic Medicine, a research group located within the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. She blogs about urban issues and Japan at www.sheilaburt.com, and writes the column “Letters from Japan” for Gapers Block. Follow her on Twitter @smburt.

Many of those who apply to the JET Program, and for several other teaching or translation positions in Japan, have a strong interest in international relations and diplomacy. But how does one transition from being eigo no sensei to a government career in the Foreign Service?

Via email, JQ reached out to three former ALTs who now work overseas for the U.S. Department of State to learn more about how they successfully made the big jump, and how their time in Japan influenced their respective careers.

Katrina Barnas, Consular Officer in Ecuador

Katrina Barnas (Chiba-ken, 2001-02) holds a BS in journalism from Northwestern University and a Master’s in Public Administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. After working for nine years in higher education administration at Columbia, she joined the Foreign Service in 2013 and recently started her first tour as a Consular Officer in Ecuador, where she assists American citizens in Ecuador and interviews other nationalities interested in traveling to the U.S. for tourism, study and work. She has also been an active member of the JETAA community, serving as vice president of the JET Alumni Association of New York (JETAANY) from 2005 to 2007, and then as a founding member of its board of directors from 2006 to 2011. Here, Barnas discusses how she applied to the JET Program on a whim—and how that decision ultimately shaped her future career path.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do after college. I had studied journalism but in my senior year, I was no longer sure that was the path I wanted to pursue. I liked traveling and children, so when some of my friends applied for JET I decided to apply as well. It is interesting to look back on it now since at the time I did not have a strong interest in Japan, but now I can’t imagine my life without a Japanese influence.

JET helped make my choice of joining the Foreign Service less daunting because I knew that I had done this before and succeeded. Through JET, I had experienced working in another country—getting beyond just a visit and belonging someplace very different from my hometown, and I knew that although it was going to be different that I could do it.

Read More

Jun 8

JQ Magazine: Book Review—‘Cinema of Actuality’

Article/Journalism, Books, JQ Magazine, Reviews Comments Off on JQ Magazine: Book Review—‘Cinema of Actuality’

“Artists often make great sociological commentators, and Furuhata’s book sheds new light on the insights of these filmmakers.” (Duke University Press)

By Lyle Sylvander (Yokohama-shi, 2001-02) for JQ magazine. Lyle has completed a master’s program at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and has been writing for the JET Alumni Association of New York since 2004. He is also the goalkeeper for FC Japan, a New York City-based soccer team.

Yuriko Furuhata’s Cinema of Actuality: Japanese Avant-Garde Filmmaking in the Season of Image Politics examines a turbulent and disruptive period in Japanese history. As in other areas of the world, Japan in the late 1960s-early 1970s marked an era of youthful rebellion against the establishment, in both its public and private spheres. Furuhata’s analysis examines this period through the alternative Japanese film movements going on at the time, from New Wave figures like Masahiro Shinoda, Yasuzo Masumura and Hiroshi Teshigahara, to avant-garde filmmakers like Toshio Matsumoto and Kiyoteru Hanada. However, most of the films studied in the book are by Nagisa Oshima, largely considered to be the father of the Japanese New Wave and the “Jean-Luc Godard of Japan.” By eschewing the more traditional tendencies of the directors from Japan’s Golden Age such as Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujiro Ozu, these directors incorporated such formalist experiments as jump cuts, disjointed angles, shaky handheld camerawork, pop music and, most importantly, the inclusion of television news footage. 

Since many of these directors were relatively young, they shared the political sensitivities of the student protesters, who sanguinely staged media events to garner attention. The “season of politics” era was prominently displayed in nightly television newscasts, which covered a wide spectrum of politically disruptive events, from hijackings to hostage crises to mass student rallies and protests. The aesthetics of this new generation of film appropriated this contemporary media coverage in attempt to both reflect and critique it. By converging with other media cultures, these filmmakers engaged in a theory-filled dialog with the nature of representation itself, in effect becoming simultaneously media practitioners as well as theorists/critics. By making this powerful argument, Furuhata—an Assistant Professor of McGill University’s Department of East Asian Studies and World Cinema Program—forcefully disputes film scholar Noël Burch’s often-quoted notion that Japan was a cinema culture devoid of theory and serious study.

Read More