Jun 14

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

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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.

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Jun 13

Job: Outside Sales Representative at Yamamotoyama (NYC)

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Jun 12

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

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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)

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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

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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

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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.

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Jun 8

JQ Magazine: Book Review—‘Cinema of Actuality’

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“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.

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Jun 5

Internship for Japanese Speaker at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Work from Home)

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Jun 5

Job: Asia Programs Director at Univeristy of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC)

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Overview: 

This position establishes, manages, and promotes all study abroad programs in Asia. It requires close collaboration within the Study Abroad Office with those responsible for advising, finance and operations, and outside the Study Abroad Office with academic units that sponsor and support each study abroad program. The successful management of programs entails ensuring that each is financially viable and articulates closely with the on-campus academic curriculum, and regular and effective communication with foreign partner universities, institutions and service providers. The position is also responsible for: putting in place administrative and logistical arrangements for proprietary UNC-CH study abroad programs in Asia, managing the donor-funded SE Asia Summer Program and managing the office’s sole joint degree program (with the National University of Singapore). Program management also requires availability to deal with emergencies on a 24 7 basis Read More

Jun 5

Job: 2 Positions at Emergency Assistance Japan (USA) Inc. [Richmond, VA]

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Human Resources Generalist Overview: 

The HR Generalist is primarily responsible for administering policies relating to all phases of human resources activity.

• Maintains knowledge of legal requirements and government reporting regulations affecting human resources functions and ensures policies, procedures, and reporting are in compliance.
• Recruits, interviews, tests, and selects employees to fill vacant positions.
• Plans and conducts new employee orientation to foster positive attitude toward company goals.
• Keeps records of benefits plans participation such as insurance and pension plan, personnel transactions such as hires, promotions, transfers, performance reviews, and terminations, and employee statistics for government reporting.
• Trains management in interviewing, hiring, terminations, promotions, performance review, safety, and sexual harassment.
• Advises management in appropriate resolution of employee relations issues.
• Responds to inquiries regarding policies, procedures, and programs.
• Administers performance review program to ensure effectiveness, compliance, and equity within organization.
• Administers salary administration program to ensure compliance and equity within organization.
• Administers benefits programs such as life, health, dental and disability insurances, pension plans, vacation, sick leave, leave of absence, and employee assistance.
• Investigates accidents and prepares reports for insurance carrier.
• Conducts wage surveys within labor market to determine competitive wage rate.
• Prepares employee separation notices and related documentation, and conducts exit interviews to determine reasons behind separations.

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Jun 5

Job: Local Coordinator for Japanese Exchange Students at Laurasian Institute (Seattle)

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Overview: 

Help bring Japanese high school students to your community

The Laurasian Institution (TLI) is looking for outgoing, warm-hearted JET alumni to join our team of Local Coordinators for exchange students from Japan. Our students come to the U.S. to attend an American public high school for one year and live with a volunteer American host family. As a Local Coordinator, you will have a key role in creating positive impressions of America, breaking stereotypes, and fostering mutual understanding between Japan and the U.S. Read More

Jun 5

Life After JET: Breaking Up with Japan

LifeAfterJET commdao, discussions with dao, japan, jon dao, podcast, the low dao Add Comment (1)

Some people have issues, and for me, I had Japan issues. When I came back from Japan, I went through a wicked case of reverse culture shock. I lost all sense of identity returning home. In my mind, I’d built myself up as the “international” guy in my circle of friends. So when I was back in Arkansas, despite having the best groups of friends and family one could ask for, I felt like I had nothing. Read More

Jun 3

Job: Ambassador to Japan at Riot Games (Santa Monica and Tokyo)

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Overview: 

As Ambassador for Japan, you’ll represent Japan’s interests in Santa Monica and own the relationship between regional Rioters in Tokyo and the central teams. While focusing on leveling up Riot’s global communication, the players will remain at the front of your mind. You’ll gain an in-depth understanding of players and cultural differences in the region that’ll help you champion projects and initiatives that deliver an awesome experience to players in Japan. Read More

Jun 3

Job: English Speaking Electrical Engineer at JESCO Holdings (Tokyo)

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Overview: