JETAA DC Newsletter – August 2013
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Here’s a link to the latest JETAA DC Newsletter post. (It used to be a PDF newsletter, but now it’s set up as a blog post. Very nice!)
http://jetaadc.org/august-jetaadc-news/
In This Edition of JETAA DC News:
- Message from the Board
- August JETAADC Events
- New on the Blog!
- Other Events
- Best of JET (etc.) Around the Web
Job: GenNET (Genesee Network for Education Telecommunications) ITV Teacher – Japanese I & II (Michigan)
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Thanks to AJET’s Sarah Stout for passing on this jet-relevant listing. Posted by Kim ‘Kay’ Monroe (Miyazaki-shi, 1995 -97). Click here to join the JETwit Jobs Google Group and receive job listings even sooner by email.
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Position: ITV Teacher – Japanese I & II
Posted by: GenNET (Genesee Network for Education Telecommunications)
Type: N/A
Location: Michigan
Salary: N/A
Start Date: N/A
Overview:
The GenNET Interactive Television (ITV) teacher is responsible for teaching in the assigned area and implements instructional activities for students through the use of interactive video, computers and other instructional technology available in the distance learning environment. Responsible for following established curriculum outcomes and adopting instructional delivery strategies to teach in the assigned area. Read More
Justin’s Japan: Nippon in New York — Karaoke Networking, Poisson Piano and ‘Cutie and the Boxer’
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The award-winning documentary Cutie and the Boxer premieres at Lincoln Plaza Cinema and Landmark Sunshine Cinema Aug. 16. (RADiUS-TWC)
By JQ magazine editor Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02) for Examiner.com. Visit his Japanese culture page here for related stories.
In the dog days of summer, it’s best to escape the heat in a place that’s cozy and cool. For those into Japanese cultural events, this month offers a diverse selection of music, film premieres and parties—all in the comfort of indoor air conditioning.
This month’s highlights include:
Thursday, Aug. 1, 7:30 p.m.
Young Professionals 2nd Annual Midsummer Matsuri and Karaoke Party
Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street
$10 for corporate and individual members, $15 for non-members
Japan Society’s Young Professionals events provide the opportunity for emerging business leaders from the U.S. and Japan (aged 25-45) to meet people with similar interests, experience programming on timely topics, and network with their peers. Attendees are invited to join for a night of networking, singing, eating and drinking featuring singer and Japanese TV personality Alex York as MC! Yukata and other summer attire are welcome, and admission includes light Japanese food and one drink ticket, cash bar thereafter. Space is limited; for advance registration email youngpro@japansociety.org or call 212-715-1219.
Saturday, Aug. 3, 7:00 p.m.
Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue
$35 members/students/seniors, $40 nonmembers
As part of the closing night presentation of the 36th Asian American International Film Festival, this screening of Our Homeland includes a Q&A with the director followed by an awards ceremony and gala reception featuring chef’s tasting tables and open bar with specialty cocktails sponsored by Rémy Martin. Sent decades ago as a child to North Korea under a repatriation program, Sungho returns to Japan for a temporary medical visit. A wrenching human drama unfolds as his family grapples with why he was ever let go. Under the constant surveillance by an accompanying North Korean official, Sungho and his family reunite again in this sensitive tale inspired by Korean-Japanese director Yang Yonghi’s true family story. Capturing the tender feelings of separation, memory, and belonging, the film also provides a rare glimpse into the life of ethnic Koreans in Japan. Presented in Japanese and Korean with English subtitles.
Friday, Aug. 16
Lincoln Plaza Cinema and Landmark Sunshine Cinema
$13, $13.50
Winner of the Directing Award for U.S. Documentary at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and a hit at film festivals around the world, this candid New York story explores the chaotic 40-year marriage of renowned “boxing” painter Ushio Shinohara and his artist wife, Noriko. As a rowdy, confrontational young artist in Tokyo, Ushio seemed destined for fame, but met with little commercial success after he moved to New York City in 1969, seeking international recognition. When 19-year-old Noriko moved to New York to study art, she fell in love with Ushio—abandoning her education to become the wife and assistant to an unruly, husband. Over the course of their marriage, the roles have shifted. Now 80, Ushio struggles to establish his artistic legacy, while Noriko is at last being recognized for her own art—a series of drawings entitled “Cutie,” depicting her challenging past with Ushio. Spanning four decades, the film is a moving portrait of a couple wrestling with the eternal themes of sacrifice, disappointment and aging, against a background of lives dedicated to art.
For the complete story, click here.
I’ll Make It Myself!: The Best Sakura Soft Cream in Town: Kyokusuien
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L.M. Zoller (CIR Ishikawa-ken, Anamizu, 2009-11) is the editor of The Ishikawa JET Kitchen: Cooking in Japan Without a Fight. Ze also 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.
New Rice Cooker Chronicles submissions always welcome. Just e-mail it to jetwit [at] jetwit.com.
Around Japan in 47 curries: Miyazaki air base curry
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Tom Baker (Chiba, 1989-91) is writing a 47-part weekly series of posts on his Tokyo Tom Baker blog, in which he samples and comments on a curry from a different prefecture each week. Here’s an excerpt from his tenth installment, about Miyazaki Prefecture.
To set the scene, Miyazaki is on the east coast of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands. In recent years, this prefecture made national news quite often. Partly this was because a famous television comedian named Hideo Higashikokubaru was its governor from 2007 to 2011. And partly it was because during his term outbreaks of bird flu and foot-and-mouth disease led to strict quarantines and massive culls of chicken, cattle and pigs. Nearly 200,000 chickens and more than 200,000 head of livestock had to be killed and disposed of, in a severe blow to the prefecture’s farmers, especially those who produce Miyazaki’s famous beef.
But in addition to agriculture, Miyazaki’s economy also includes the activities of Nyutabaru Air Base. And those activities include making curry. This weekend I picked up some Nyutabaru Air Base curry at the Miyazaki antenna shop in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
The curry I tried came in two flavors: spicy beef and mild chicken. The beef has a photo of an F-4EJ Phantom jet on the box, while the chicken is adorned with a pair of F-15s.
Hafu: The Mixed-Race Experience in Japan premieres in New York July 28. For more information, click here.
By Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03) for JQ magazine. Stacy is a professional Japanese writer/interpreter/translator. She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations in the periodic series WITLife.
This weekend the annual Asian American International Film Festival will screen the new documentary Hafu: The Mixed-Race Experience in Japan (the title being the Romanization of “half” in Japanese), made by filmmakers Megumi Nishikura and Lara Perez Takagi and. Both half Japanese themselves, these women were inspired to undertake this project due to the lack of media attention on hafus and frustration with the shallow adoration of hafu celebrities on Japanese television.
The film begins with some informative statistics, such as that 2% of Japan’s population is foreign born and a striking 1 out of 49 babies is born to a family with a non-Japanese parent. These numbers have grown greatly over the last 30 years, and yet Japan is still lacking in its understanding of this diverse populace. Hafu features five half Japanese subjects, and their struggles and successes living in Japan today.
One of the families profiled is comprised of a Japanese father and a Mexican mother, who met while studying abroad in the U.S. They later married and now live in Nagoya with their two children. The older one, nine-year-old Alex, is having a hard time at his local school as the other kids tease him for being “English.” Alex’s parents believe that he needs a change in environment and decide to transfer him to an international school. He asks to spend some time in Mexico before the transition, and comes back from this trip brimming with confidence and an easing of the stutter that plagued him when he was being bullied (which his teachers had turned a blind eye to). Alex goes on to love his new school, make friends, and feel comfortable in his own skin without having to worry about being hafu.
Nihongo Master: The Fun Way To Learn Japanese Online
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Posted by Ashley Thompson (Shizuoka-ken, 2008-10), Community Manager for Nihongo Master and editor of Surviving in Japan.
Japanese is one of the hardest languages to learn. I’ve heard this numerous times.
People say it’s because you have to learn thousands of kanji in addition to hiragana and katakana.
As a visual learner, I’ve found the opposite to be true. Kanji makes sense to me. But what I’ve struggled with while learning Japanese, and believe many language learners experience, is maintaining the motivation to study.
This is why I was excited when asked to work with Nihongo Master, an online Japanese learning site with a fun, easy-to-use platform. The site takes an entirely different approach from all the tools I’ve tried, using social interaction and gamification methods to help learners stay motivated. As JETs we tried to make English classes enjoyable for our students, so why not have fun learning Japanese?
I’ve tried and used numerous language learning tools over the years–a few worked well and a lot of others didn’t. I bought study books and didn’t finish them. I found that I enjoyed practicing Japanese through online, computer or phone apps, but then lost focus within a few weeks. Few of them offered any sort of reward system or a way to stay motivated to continue.
Nihongo Master, on the other hand, provides incentive to learn, and keep learning, by unlocking achievements and earning points as you read lessons, complete tasks and do spaced-repetition vocabulary drills. The community groups and weekly community chat offer a chance to practice Japanese and ask questions. Or if you’re up for some friendly competition, you can build a team and compete against other teams as you learn.
This community aspect is something many of us studying on our own might find helpful, especially as it doesn’t require being at a specific location (other than your computer, of course). And the platform helps those of us who thrive off a little friendly competition. I wish that I had something like this years ago–a positive external motivator that makes the lessons less about endless textbook reading and more about learning for the fun of it.
Remembering that summer before I went to Japan on JET, I also think Nihongo Master would be useful for new JETs trying to cram as much Japanese into their brain as they can before they arrive. The lessons start out at the absolute beginner level and are engaging and easy to follow, helping beginners master hiragana and katakana. If you’re farther along you can skip ahead to later lessons. The hiragana, katakana and vocabulary in the lessons also include audio recordings by a native speaker for pronunciation practice, with a recorder to practice matching your pronunciation.
Another big plus is that Nihongo Master doesn’t use romaji in the lessons, so beginners become familiar with the Japanese writing systems right away.
The free Japanese-English dictionary comes in handy too, with definitions and sample sentences for over 150,000 words and 13,000 Kanji.
The introductory lessons are also free, and after that a premium subscription lets you access all lessons, make study lists, build custom vocabulary drill lists, and download kanji writing practice sheets for US$12 a month.
I’m excited about this platform and think its unique approach to language learning will fill in a large gap, particularly for those, like me, who need some external motivation and fun, especially if you’re new to Japanese.
Visit Nihongo Master to learn more and try it out for yourself. We would love to hear your thoughts!
Books: An English Language Guide to Crafting in Tokyo
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Interview by Rose Symotiuk (Hokkaido 2003-2005) with Angela Salisbury, author of the Tokyo Craft Guide:
As a JET, I keep track of my friends from my Japan days on Facebook. I started seeing posts by my fellow JETs for this cool e-book about crafting in Tokyo. Imagine my surprise when I realized that one of the authors, Angela Salisbury, was an old friend from high school!
I reached out to her to find out more about the book, crafting in Japan, and the JET crafting scene….
Rose: So, how long have you lived in Japan?
Angela: 3 years
Rose: Why did you move to Japan?
Angela: Adventure! The real answer? My husband’s job needed him in Asia, and we decided Tokyo was the place for us.
Rose: Is there an expat crafting scene in Tokyo? If so, can you tell me a little bit about it? Read More
Fu Chanpuru Recipe
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Posted by Benjamin Martin, a JET from 2008-2013 in Okinawa, publisher of the blog MoreThingsJapanese.com and author of the award-winning YA fantasy series Samurai Awakening (Tuttle).
After nearly five years living in Okinawa, my favorite food is still Fu Chanpuru. While it might sound like part of a martial art, Fu is actually wheat gluten (so steer clear gluten intolerant people… sorry! you’re missing out). In Okinawa, you can buy Fu in packages, either in long roles, or in more compact forms. Fu is baked and dry, so you will have to hydrate it before use.
Ingredients
- 72g Fu- gluten
- 1 carrot cut into thin slices
- 1 large onion
- 1 packet mushrooms
- 1 bell pepper, sliced
- 1/2 small cabbage
- 170g meat (sausage, pork, etc)
- 3 eggs
- 3tbsn soy sauce
- 1tbsn garlic powder +extra
- 1tsp salt
- 2 packets dashi
- 3 small chingensai plants, cleaned and chopped (optional)
- water
- 2tbsn Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Visit MoreThingsJapanese.com for the full recipe.
Kitcher’s Café, a new series by Lana Kitcher (Yamanashi-ken, 2010-12) is an assortment of articles, topics and commentary written for the JET Alumni community. Lana currently serves as the Business Development Associate at Bridges to Japan, a New York-based cross-cultural consulting firm founded by JET alum Jennifer Jakubowski (Hokkaido, 1995-97).
As I sat in my empty Yamanashi apartment, one year ago this month, a flood of feelings rushed over me. I had come full-circle, able to cram everything into two suitcases again with anxious yet excited feelings of leaving home for something unfamiliar. I had a bundle of memorabilia set aside to take with me, and pictures of the last days that I had with my students, coworkers and friends. I knew it was going to be hard to say goodbye and turn the page to the next exciting chapter of my life, but I didn’t think that it was going to feel so daunting. This was the first time in my life that the next steps were utterly unplanned and unpredictable. After high school I knew I was going to college, during college I knew I wanted to work for the JET Program… but now that the JET Program was over, the next year was a completely blank slate. I was going to have to return to my hometown temporarily to figure it out, and that idea to me was terrifying.
LRK ©2013
Many of the JETs that are in Japan right now are clearing out their desks, packing up their apartments, attending farewell parties, and being brought to tears by the students and coworkers that shared many moments with them this past year (or five). Where once was an unfamiliar, foreign and strange place, has become normal life. Do they realize that many of them are about to leave Japan, bound for an even stranger land – the one that they once called home?
As many of us have experienced, returning to your home country after any amount of time living abroad is more challenging than it may seem at first. They try to warn us about reverse culture shock, but we convince ourselves that “I will be different,” and “It won’t happen to me, I already know what to expect.” Some people really don’t experience any strange or frustrating feelings when returning home, but for individuals like myself, the first year back may be a challenging and rocky road.
As JET alumni, what do you wish someone had told you during your final days in Japan? What are some of the words of wisdom that you wish you had known before coming back? How can we help these transitioning JET participants, soon to join the alumni community? My advice to them would be this: Read More
WIT Life #243: Effect of Internet on Japanese elections
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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.
This past Sunday’s election for the Upper House of Japan’s Parliament provided an overwhelming victory to PM Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party. As the New York Times noted, “His conservative coalition now seems assured a working parliamentary majority through 2016, which would end the trend of weak revolving-door governments, which saw six successive prime ministers over the past six years.”
The results also seem to be a vote of confidence for Abenomics, the Prime Minister’s economic plan comprised of the three arrows of monetary easing, fiscal stimulus and pro-growth strategy. While these reforms seem to have been beneficial so far, there are voices of concern regarding Abe’s nationalistic views and their impact on Asian neighbors.
Another interesting aspect of the election was how it was affected by the introduction of Read More
Let’s Talk Japan, Episode 13 – Traditional Japanese Garden Design
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Let’s Talk Japan is a twice monthly, interview format podcast covering a wide range of Japan-related topics. Host Nick Harling (Mie-ken, 2001-03) lived in Japan from 2001 until 2005, including two great years as a JET Program participant in Mie-Ken. He practices law in Washington, D.C., and lives with his wife who patiently listens to him talk about Japan . . . a lot.
This episode of the Let’s Talk Japan podcast was recorded at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, North Carolina. Well-known in the region’s gardening circles, Masashi Oshita, or “Mike” as he is known locally, is a master of traditional Japanese garden design. Together, Nick and Oshita-san discuss what makes Japanese gardens unique, the challenges of creating a Japanese garden outside of Japan, and how traditional Japanese garden design elements can in incorporated into everyday life.Enjoy!
Nick
If you have not already done so, be sure to “Like” the podcast on Facebook, and follow the podcast on Twitter @letstalkjapan. Additionally, please consider leaving a positive rating and/or review in iTunes.
JET alum helps produce “The Birth of Sake” documentary
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Tara Hohenberger, who first fell in love with saké and the Japanese culinary world as an ALT in Nara (2001-2003) wrote to us about a film project she is helping produce. The documentary The Birth of Saké profiles the production seasons and lives of the workers at Tedorigawa, a fifth-generation, family-owned sake brewery in Ishikawa, Japan. Tedorigawa has been producing some of the world’s top award winning sakés since 1870 and still utilizes very traditional brewing methods.
Tara is working on the project with filmmaker Erik Shirai, who was a cinematographer on The Travel Channel’s No Reservations’ with Anthony Bourdain. The crew was first invited to the brewery in August of 2012 and was intrigued by the intense and relatively unknown process (even within Japan) of traditional saké making. Led by Brewmaster Teruyuki Yamamoto, the team of brewers is made up mostly of migrant farmers who grow rice in the summers and return to the brewery in late October to begin an intense six-month period of saké production. They will live under the same roof and eat three meals a day together. At the most intense time, when they brew the ultra-premium Daiginjyo variety they will barely have time to sleep.
In January 2013, they returned to Ishikawa and were granted permission to spend several weeks living amongst the workers at the brewery. It allowed them a rare window into a cast of vibrant and dynamic characters and fueled their interest in painting a deeper portrait of the people behind the product. Shirai’s film captures this little understood world with his signature lush visual aesthetics in the stillness of winter in northern Japan.
On July 9, they launched a Kickstarter campaign running through September 2, 2013, to complete the project. They hope to raise $50,000, which will allow a visit to film the Brewmaster in his hometown of Noto, Japan to illustrate the contrast of the intense life he leads inside the brewery for six months a year, with that of his land, his rice fields, his wife, children and his grandchildren. The film will also capture the critical moment when the workers return to the brewery to begin the production cycle again. Funding will also cover editing, musical composition, licensing, equipment rentals and other post-production costs.
You can view the trailer on The Birth of Saké’s Kickstarter page at
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1802764272/the-birth-of-sake
The filmmakers greatly appreciate your help in spreading the word about the film. Follow them at facebook.com/birthofsake + on Twitter: @iamwhatieatTV
WIT Life #242: End of Japan Cuts 2013
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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.
Author with the venerable Tatsuya Nakadai at a recent screening of Ran
Yesterday Japan Cuts 2013 came to a successful close, with a jam-packed schedule of four films in a row. I only caught the middle two, Japan’s Tragedy and Dearest, both of which deal with the theme of death (like the earlier screened I’M FLASH, and they all do this deftly in their own unique ways). Japan’s Tragedy stars the amazing Tatsuya Nakadai, an 80-year old actor who I had the honor to interpret for at an event last month at the Museum of the Modern Image when his film Ran (directed by Akira Kurosawa) was featured and he participated in a Q&A following the film.
Nakadai’s downtrodden character in Japan’s Tragedy is in direct contrast to his genkiness in real life. The father he plays has recently lost his wife and has also been diagnosed with lung cancer on the morning of 3/11. After going through one operation he decides that he doesn’t want any more treatment, and furthermore that he will board himself up in his room and die beside the altar for his late wife. His son who is living with him since leaving his wife and daughter, as well as his job, is surviving on his father’s pension and taking care of him. Unsure of how to react to his father’s pronouncement, he initially tries to Read More
JQ Magazine: Citizens of the Bay Area, Film Buffs, and Lovers of All Things Japanese, Lend Me Your Ears!
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Catch the U.S. premiere of Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo as part of NEW PEOPLE’s fifth annual J-POP Summit beginning July 27. (© khara. Licensed by FUNimation Productions, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.)
By Preston Hatfield (Yamanashi-ken, 2009-10) for JQ magazine. Preston received a BA in English literature with an emphasis in creative writing and a minor in Japanese at the University of California, Davis. After spending an amazing year on JET in Yamanashi, he spent a year writing and interning with book publishing companies in New York. He currently lives in Marin County, where he continues to cover local Japan-related stories for JQ, and teaches English as a second language at an international school in San Francisco.
Mark your calendars for the weekend of July 27 when NEW PEOPLE and the San Francisco Japantown Merchants Association kick off the fifth annual J-POP Summit. With a special thematic focus on the kawaii phenomenon, this extravaganza promises to be bigger and better than the last one (not unlike the stages of an RPG boss fight).
“Each year we strive to present a comprehensive cross-section of the latest in hot J-POP trends across fashion, film, art, music, anime/manga and pop culture that are happening in Japan NOW!” says event publicist Erik Jansen, who has been promoting the event since the beginning.
The weekend at NEW PEOPLE and Union Square promises a spectacular showcase of live music. In addition to performances by iconic pop star Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and LoVendoR, the new band featuring former Morning Musume star Reina Tanaka, you’ll also have the chance to hear Kylee, an American-born teenage singer whose stock has been rising steadily in the pop music scene. In case you’re worried if all that cutesy music is going to turn your brain to pudding, rest assured that a punk rock show by the Akabane Vulgars and Daichi’s beat boxing and vocal mix mastery will sculpt it back to its normal Jell-O consistency.
And if music isn’t your thing? “We always receive a wide variety of attendees, from ages 7 to 75 and from across all walks of life,” Jansen promises, and this year there will also be an array of other events, including a Harajuku-inspired fashion show, a Pop Gourmet food festival, a sake tasting hosted by the Japanese Consul General of San Francisco, a rebooted edition of the Real Escape Game, the Vocaloid Dance Contest and a full lineup of special guests including guest of honor Katsuya Terada, one of Japan’s greatest illustrators, who will be doing freehand drawings and signing autographs to promote his new art book at the Kinokuniya bookstore.
