Sep 29

JQ Magazine – Book Review: ‘The Way of Taiko’

By Rashaad Jorden (Yamagata-ken, 2008-10) for JQ magazine. A former head of the JETAA Philadelphia Sub-Chapter, Rashaad currently studies responsible tourism management at Leeds Metropolitan University. For more on his life in the UK and enthusiasm for taiko drumming, visit his blog at www.gettingpounded.wordpress.com. Many JETs—myself included—have been drawn to taiko because we love the sound emanating from the […]


Sep 14

JQ Magazine: Book Review – ‘Gadget Girl: The Art of Being Invisible’

By Rashaad Jorden (Yamagata-ken, 2008-2010) for JQ magazine. Rashaad worked at four elementary schools and three junior high schools on JET, and taught a weekly conversion class in Haguro (his village) to adults. He completed the Tokyo Marathon in 2010, and was also a member of a taiko group in Haguro. Sometimes, we’re just trying to find out where […]


Sep 7

JQ Magazine: Book Review – ‘The Accidental Office Lady: An American Woman in Corporate Japan’

  By Lana Kitcher (Yamanashi-ken, 2010-12) for JQ magazine. Lana is the business development associate for Bridges to Japan and enjoys working as a freelance writer for a number of online publications. To read more about Lana’s adventures in Japan, visit her blog at Kitcher’s Café. Laura Kriska’s experience as recounted in The Accidental Office Lady parallels in […]


Aug 25

JQ Magazine: Book Review – ‘Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty’s Trek Across the Pacific’

By Jessica Sattell (Fukuoka-ken, 2007-08) for JQ magazine. Jessica is a freelance writer and a graduate student in arts journalism. She readily admits that while she is an avid Hello Kitty fan, she is always going to like Chococat more. For many, young and old, female and male, Hello Kitty (or Kitty-chan, as her diehard fans lovingly call her) has been […]


Aug 10

JQ Magazine: Book Review — ‘Yokohama Yankee’

By Michael Glumac (Miyazaki-ken, 2008-09) for JQ magazine. Michael is currently enrolled as a graduate student in international affairs, and has been a music publicist and artist manager. Pages of Leslie Helm‘s new book Yokohama Yankee seem as though they might be perfectly at place in a Dan Brown novel, and this I mean in […]


Aug 3

JQ Magazine: Book Review – ‘Amorous Woman’

By Rashaad Jorden (Yamagata-ken, 2008-2010) for JQ magazine. Rashaad worked at four elementary schools and three junior high schools on JET, and taught a weekly conversion class in Haguro (his village) to adults. He completed the Tokyo Marathon in 2010, and was also a member of a taiko group in Haguro. If you were to tell stories centering on […]


Jul 14

JQ Magazine: Book Review – ‘From Postwar to Postmodern, Art in Japan 1945-1989: Primary Documents’

  By Jessica Sattell (Fukuoka-ken, 2007-08) for JQ magazine. Jessica is a freelance writer and a graduate student in arts journalism. She was previously the publicist for Japan-focused publishers Stone Bridge Press and Chin Music Press. The abstract and avant-garde sculptor, painter and all-around revolutionary Japanese artist Tarō Okamoto famously said, “Art is an explostion” […]


Jun 23

JQ Magazine: Book Review – ‘Persona’ and the Muddy, Dark Spiritualism of Yukio Mishima

By Sharona Moskowitz (Fukuoka-ken, 2000-01) for JQ magazine. Sharona is interested in fresh, new voices in fiction and creative nonfiction. Who was Yukio Mishima? Persona, the lengthy new tome by Naoki Inose (the current Governor of Tokyo) and Hiroaki Sato, seeks to answer that question with the use of a comprehensive set of primary resources such as interviews, unpublished writings and personal […]


Feb 16

JQ Magazine: Book Review – ‘Yoko Ono: Collector of Skies’

By Rashaad Jorden (Yamagata-ken, 2008-2010) for JQ magazine. Rashaad worked at four elementary schools and three junior high schools on JET, and taught a weekly conversion class in Haguro (his village) to adults. He completed the Tokyo Marathon in 2010, and was also a member of a taiko group in Haguro. “Everybody knows her name, but nobody knows what […]


Jan 27

By Rashaad Jorden (Yamagata-ken, 2008-2010) for JQ magazine. Rashaad worked at four elementary schools and three junior high schools on JET, and taught a weekly conversion class in Haguro (his village) to adults. He completed the Tokyo Marathon in 2010, and was also a member of a taiko group in Haguro. The 1960s were a decade of enormous change […]


Dec 22

JQ Magazine: Book Review – ‘Samurai Awakening’

By Rashaad Jorden (Yamagata-ken, 2008-2010) for JQ magazine. Rashaad worked at four elementary schools and three junior high schools on JET, and taught a weekly conversion class in Haguro (his village) to adults. He completed the Tokyo Marathon in 2010, and was also a member of a taiko group in Haguro. For those who have lived in Japan, there […]


Dec 15

JQ Magazine: Book Reviews – ‘Belka, Why Don’t You Bark?’ and ‘The Future Is Japanese’

  A pair of this year’s releases from Haikasoru.  Belka, Why Don’t You Bark? By Sharona Moskowitz (Fukuoka-ken, 2000-01) for JQ magazine. Sharona is interested in fresh, new voices in fiction and creative nonfiction. War: It’s a Dog’s Life. Battle Is a Bitch. War and Fleas. These were just a few of the potential titles I had streaming through my […]


Dec 8

JQ Magazine: Book Review – Haruki Murakami’s ‘1Q84’

Roland Kelts, don’t kick me in the balls— One man’s attempt to review a book honestly while still keeping friends By Rick Ambrosio (Ibaraki-ken, 2006-08) for JQ magazine. A staple of the JET Alumni Association of New York (JETAANY) community, Rick manages their Twitter page and is an up-for-anything writer. My girlfriend wouldn’t shut up about it. “1Q84 is the […]


Oct 21

JQ Magazine: Book Review – ‘The Buddha in the Attic’

By Liz Mathews (Hiroshima-ken, 2005-06) for JQ magazine. Liz is the JETAA New York Book Club wrangler. I would like to start by saying that the JETAANY Book Club discussed reading Julie Otsuka’s The Buddha in the Attic for at least five months before choosing it for our fall meeting. This is notable because 1) […]


Oct 7

JQ Magazine: Autumn in Nagasaki

By Mohan Nadig (Hyogo-ken, 1998-99) for JQ magazine. Mohan currently lives in Tokyo. A word of advice: If you haven’t been to Nagasaki, go. Since my time as a JET in Hyogo Prefecture in 1998, I’ve been on something of a mission to visit every prefecture in Japan at least once. Last year, one of […]


Page Rank