Japan Society: An Incisive Afternoon with Director Takashi Miike
Celebrity, Events, Japan Trends, Video 
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Via Japan Society (NY):
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JapanInfo e-Newsletter – January 2009
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The January 2009 edition of JapanInfo is now available. JapanInfo is published by the Consulate General of Japan in New York/Japan Information Center and is a great source of info for Japan-related things going on in New York and the surrounding area.
Highlights include:
Statistical Overview on Americans and Foreigners Living In Japan
According to recent statistics from the Ministry of Justice, there are over two million foreigners living in Japan, or 1.69% of the total population (approximately 130 million). Compared to ten years ago, the number of foreign residents increased 45.2%, while the total population of Japan (including foreign residents) showed only a 1.3% increase. 
Read more…
Happy New Year! I hope that 2009 will be a good one for us all.
The start of the New Year is the perfect time to take stock of the past and reassess the future. Since I took office, I have put my energy into changing the mindset of our staff, and providing better service,… With an ear for our visitors’ suggestions, all of us at the Consulate are determined to continue our efforts, so that the Consulate is even more accessible to everyone.
JETAA NY Shinnenkai Photos
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Last Friday, January 23, JETAA NY hosted yet another terrific shinnenkai at Naniwa, the only place in town we know of that has a big tatami room. 34 people gathered for tabehodaishabu-shabu and nabe along with nomihodai beer, sake and shochu. Old JETs, new JETs and everywhere in-between JETs were all represented. O-tsukare sama to JETAA NY Social Coordinator Monica Yuki for organizing the whole shebang. Also, special thanks to professional translator Kia Cheleen (CIR, Aichi-ken 1996-98, ALT 1998-1999) for providing yummy baked goods for everyone to take home with them.
*Special post-party treat: Seeing Cindy Hoffman looking fabulous in her gown at the nearby Waldorf-Astoria Hotel for a high-falutin’ Australia Day event.
See all of Monica’s photos here. Samples are below.
17th Annual JET Programme Essay Contest (reminder)
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Via Sacha Battrick, the JET Liason at CLAIR-Tokyo.
CLAIR is now taking submissions for the 17th Annual JET Programme Essay Competition. We welcome submissions from both current and former JET participants, and there are some great prizes up for grabs.
Full details here: http://www.jetprogramme.org/e/news/essay%2009.html
There’s an article in today’s NY Times on increased availability and usage of self-publishing/print-on-demand companies such as iUniverse, Blurb, Lulu Enterprises and CreateSpace. Something for all the writers out there to be aware of.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/books/28selfpub.html?th&emc=th
WIT Life #23: Oyaji Bentos
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Interpreter/Translator/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). Recently she’s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
One segment of today’s news went into a lunchroom where a group of men sat around with their bentos. The announcer assumed that they had been made for them by their beloved wives (愛妻弁当), but it turned out the men had made them themselves. They profiled several of these groundbreaking pioneers, all in their 30s. 
One bachelor had been cooking for himself the past year, explaining that each morning he simply put together leftovers from the night before to make his lunch. However, he confessed that he would like to “find someone who could do this for me.” Another single bento-maker revealed his secret to be Read More
Job: Bilingual Proofreader – Japanese (NYC)
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Via Craigslist New York. I’m posting this, though I’ve grown cynical enough to think it might be a sketchy post. Maybe b/c there’s too little information in the post. If anyone does pursue it, please share your experience.
Bilingual Proofreader **Japanese** (West Village)
Reply to: job-1008867982@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2009-01-26, 5:37PM EST
If you are a seasoned(2-3 years) proofreader and are fluent in Japanese, please send in your resume for immediate consideration and start working asap.
Job: Director of International Students and Scholars – City University of New York
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Via Chronicle of Higher Ed international education jobs page:
http://chronicle.com/jobs/id.php?id=0000589974-01&pg=r
Position: Director of International Students and Scholars
Salary: $70,000 to less than $90,000
Institution: City College of City University of New York
Location: New York
Date posted: 1/22/2009
Job: Freelance writing for Tokyo mag
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Via Tokyo Craigslist. Note what it says about how the first article is uncompensated. Is that normal?
Contributors for Established English Tokyo Publication
Reply to: submissions @weekenderjapan. com [?]
Date: 2009-01-26, 10:21AM JT
Japan’s oldest English magazine, recently re-vamped and re-launched is currently looking for freelance feature, dining, and travel articles.
-Please send professional/published writing samples (minimum 2) with inquiry. Blog/online samples accepted.
-Looking for innovative, pitches on Tokyo and Japan with a twist that will appeal to a wide demographic of readers.
-Writers with a focused knowledge on a particular industry, niche market or culture with a Japanese element most sought.
- Compensation: First published article uncompensated. Subsequent contributions 15-20cents/word.
Job: Peace Corp Country Desk Clerk (D.C.)
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Via JETAA DC:
Peace Corps Country Desk Assistant, FP-0303-7/6 (Equivalent to GS-07/08)
ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER: DPC9-0009-JP
APPLICATION DEADLINE: 2-12-2009
JOB LOCATION: Washington, Dist of Columbia
WORK SCHEDULE: Full Time
SALARY RANGE: $41,629.00-$ 68,385.00
OPEN DATE: 1-23-2009
TIME LIMIT: Term, not to exceed 30 Months Read More
JETAA Chapter Beat 1.26.09
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Freelance writer/editor Jonathan Trace (Fukuoka-ken, 2005-08) takes us on a walk around the JET Alumni community…
- Book Club Discussion of Yukio MIshima’s After the Banquet – Wednesday, January 28th, 6:00 at the Samovar Tea Lounge in Yerba Buena Center. Whether you’ve read the book or not, come join in the discussion at the first meeting of the Book Club.
- 2009 JET Programme Interview Volunteers Needed – Wednesday, February 11th through Thursday, February 19th. The Consulate General of Japan is looking for JET Alumni to help serve as interview registration assistants.
- Economic Earthquakes: Conversation with Yasumasa Nagamine, Consul General of Japan – Wednesday, January 28th, 5:45 at USF Lone Mountain Campus. Explore the economic future of Asia and the world during the current economic crisis.
- Shinnenkai – JETAA Pacific Northwest will be hosting their late “Shinnenkai” in early March to kick off 2009. This family-friendly “shinnenkai” combines the ever popular chapter governance issues and annual officer elections with a cultural presentation and lots of delicious food. Stay tuned for more details!
- 2009 Washington State High School Japanese Speech Contest Volunteers Needed – Thursday, March 26th at McEachern Auditorium, Museum of History & Industry. Help out the community and meet new people by volunteering at this fun and educational event.
- Sakura Matsuri Volunteers Needed – The annual Sakura Matsuri in DC is on April 4th this year and they are looking for volunteers to help with the performing arts team. Work with musicians, dancers and martial artists and be a part of the festival.
- Multicultural Festival 2009 – Saturday, February 7th JETAA Canberra will be running its beer and gyoza stall at the festival. If you have free time come down and help out at this year’s event.
- Japan Festival in Sydney – Saturday, February 14th, 12:00 to 8:00 at Darling Harbour. JETAA Sydney is helping to organize this year’s event so be sure to come over and share in the Japan-related festivities.
- JETAA Oceania Logo Competition – JETAA Oceania is looking for logos. Help promote the JET Programme and embrace your creative side. Entries due by March 1st, 2009.
- 2008 JET Returnees Reception – Friday, February 20th at the Consulate General. Meet the newly returned and reflect on times past at this year’s Returnees Reception. There’s only enough room for the first 20 ex-JETs, so don’t delay.
- Family BBQ – Saturday, February 21st, at Kings Park(dates and locations tentative). Come to this family event and share in some tasty barbecue and friendly conversation.
- Kimono Exhibition – Sunday, February 8th, at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota.
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.
WIT Life #22: Consumers’ What’s Hot and What’s Not 2008
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Interpreter/Translator/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). Recently she’s been watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
The start to a new year always invites reflection on the previous one. Some of this delving is not so pleasant (i.e. 2008 fourth quarter earnings), but looking at other aspects such as best sellers from the year can be very enjoyable. The magazine Nikkei Marketing Journal annually examines the latter and uses sumo rankings for its classification system. 
They came up with 36 items for last year, and appropriate of 2008’s declining economy a theme running through the list was low price and good value. For example, the top rankings of Yokozuna East went to clothing store Uniqlo and Yokozuna West went to Seven Premium Top Valu, an in-house discount brand from the retailer Aeon (i.e. Jusco). Ozeki East was captured by Read More
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Manga Contest: Meredith Hodges-Boos’ submission
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Writer and artist Meredith Hodges-Boos (Ehime-ken, 2003-05) recently submitted the below entry for the manga contest sponsored by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a contest which I’m guessing ties in with Prime Minister Taro Aso’s “manga diplomacy” (explained in more detail in NPR’s 10/3/08 interview with Roland Kelts (Osaka, 1998-99). I encourage everyone to take look at Meredith’s wonderful work that pays homage to the JET Program as well as to the world of manga. (Suggestion: Click the button at the bottom of the video player to expand the screen so you can read the dialogue.)
Growing Pains: A freelancer’s follow-up – by Devon Brown
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Devon Brown (Tokyo-to, 2002-04) is a freelance writer with a focus on food. You can read more of her writing at TravelingTastebuds.blogspot.com.
In a recent post titled “Growing Pains”, she sought some perspective on the business of freelance writing. In a subsequent JetWit post, we aggregated the responses of writers in the JET alum community in response to Devon’s question. Below she shares her new perspective:
Growing Pains: A follow up on an over edited piece by a newbie freelance writer
The jury is in and it seems I’ll just have to man up.
The freelance writing world can be a cold hard place and the fact that I’m getting paid and will have a byline in a national mag is going to have to be consolation for my hurt ego. The rational part of me knows that magazines have their own voice and until I’m so big and famous that they’re willing to pay me $5 for every single word I type, I’m gonna have to deal.
Thank you to everyone who offered up some insight. I heard of some horror stories that I hope to never experience myself.
On the upside, I did get a final PDF of my piece. Seeing it in print was awesome!
JetWit says: “Internet Explorer, bad. Firefox and Safari, good!”
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If you’re looking at this site using Internet Explorer as your browser (as opposed to Mozilla Firefox, Safari or Chrome), then you most likely can’t see the interesting and helpful items along the sidebar. Also, some posts might look incomplete or just plain weird.
To see the sidebar items you can
1) click on any post (such as this one),
2) scroll all the way down to the bottom of this homepage where the sidebars have been pushed for fushigi na reasons, or
3) Use a different browser to view JetWit.com. (Firefox, Safari and Chrome are much better browsers than anything created by Microsoft , in terms of speed, security and functionality. So a good long term move as well to download a new browser if you can.)
