Traveling Tastebuds: Rice Spoon: An Alternate Use For Those Who Don’t Have Mixers
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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.
Call me jealous because I am. I do not have a mixer. I have neither the counter space nor an extra $300 for one of those beautiful KitchenAid mixers that comes in so many lovely shades. The only good thing about being mixer-less, is that I get to be really self-righteous when it comes recipes that call for mixers, but could easily be done by hand. For those of you who suffer from this same affliction, there is a nice consolation prize.
Living in Japan I baked a lot…
*Click here for the rest of the story and a great cookie recipe.*
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.
Today’s news profiled companies that are not only surviving this tough economic climate but prospering in it. The first was McDonald’s, who in America was also one of the retailers along with Walmart that reported positive gains last year. In Japan its success 
is attributed to the revamping of the coffee served there dubbed McCafe. Its taste was reformed last February, and 2008 sales saw great improvement over the previous year (for hot coffee growth of 40 million cups, for cold 20 million cups). It goes for 120 yen, and a survey of customers during the peak 7:45-8 a.m. 15-minute period found that 50 out of 63 customers purchased coffee. One of those 50 asked about its taste responded with a satisfied smile, “It tastes just like can coffee.” Keeping stores open 24 hours and expanding the 100 yen menu McDonald’s also contributed to the store’s success.
Japanese convenience stores have also been seeing their sales grow. This is directly related to the introduction of the Taspo last May. This is a smart card from the Tobacco Institute of Japan issued to adults (20 or older) so that they can use the age verification tobacco vending machines. A recent survey indicated that only Read More
There’s a good discussion on the Honyaku Google Group about why J->E translators seem to be very busy despite the bad economy. I’ve attempted to summarize some of them below, but you can find the full discussion by signing up for the group at http://groups.google.com/group/honyaku/. Definitely worth signing up if you work in (or want to work in) the Japanese-English translation field.
Suggested theories for why Japanese-English translation work has increased:
- Companies are cutting costs by outsourcing work to the market that used to be done in house
- A variant on the outsourcing theory: Many jobs were already budgeted and need to get done, but with layoffs there are fewer in-house workers so more is going to the translators. i.e., It’s a short-terms windfall.
- A variant on the short-term windfall: With more layoffs and fewer in-house employees, using a cheaper translator actually becomes more expensive because it requires more work by in-house employees to fix it up. Therefore, it makes more sense to give the work to higher quality translators who will be more accurate the first time around. (Note: I’m paraphrasing but probably could have worded this better.)
- Patent translation tends to be longer term work and is unaffected
- If you’re a good translator, you’ll continue to get work regardless
- As March approaches, departments in Japanese companies need to use up their budgets so that they don’t get shrunk the next time around
- Spring is just usually the busiest season for translation
- More translation work from U.S. (and less from Japan) because yen is stronger than the dollar and this makes U.S.-based translators relatively cheap labor
- Downturn has forced part-time and less-experienced translators out of the business leaving more work for more established translators
- For finance/investor relations work, there’s a short-term increase because the economic crisis has forced companies to disseminate press releases and other communications to all of their investors/consumers.
Feel free to post more theories and other comments for the benefit of the JET/JET Alum/Friend of JET/JetWit community in the comments section of this post.
JetWit Blog Beat: Fresh blogs added to the Alum Blogroll!
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JetWit Blog Beat by Crystal Wong (Iwate-ken, 2002-04) is a recurring item featuring posts from the blogs of various JET alumni. Crystal is a former English-language writer for Kyodo News. She now works as a media planner in Chelsea and sorely misses all her favorite midtown ramen joints.
Happy Presidents’ Day, everyone! When you have a moment, stop by and say hi to the two JET bloggers just added to the JetWit blogroll:
Rose Symotiuk (Hokkaido, 2003-2005) works in publishing in New York and and is the author of Rose Reviews here on JetWit. You can find her musings and adventures at Rose in New York.
Jody Godoy is a current JET and freelance journalist who found out about JetWit in the AJET monthly bulletin. Visit her website to learn more about her work.
Check back often for highlights from these and other great alum blogs.
Writing Opportunities: Sushi and Sake; JETAA Chicago
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Two writing opportunities: One for LA-based Sushi & Sake Magazine and the other for the JETAA Chicago Newsletter.
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Dear JET Alumni,
Greetings from the JETAA Southern California Media Coordinator (Toyama-ken, 1995-98). I act as the liason with Sushi & Sake Magazine, a monthly publication that features a JET alumni column in each of its publications. Sushi & Sake’s primary goal is “to introduce Japanese culture to the non-Japanese residents of Southern California with particular emphasis on cuisine, language, its business community, and geographic regions…” I am seeking JET alumni who would like to share stories about the JET experiences (in 450-500 words or less) and be featured in Sushi & Sake. This is a great way to impart one of your unique memories about your time in Japan with a broad readership. You don’t have to be a professional writer…just willing to put some words down on paper and send them to me. Please contact me with any questions and dozo yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Sincerely,
Elizabeth White, JETAASC Media Coordinator
slo_white /atto/ msn /dotto/ com
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My name is Elizabeth Friedman and I am the new editor of the JETAA Chicago’s newsletter. I would like to invite all JET alums to submit articles for the spring edition. I have listed some ideas for submissions, but feel free to send in whatever you feel would be appropriate to include in a JETAA newsletter.
The deadline for submissions is March, 20th.
Please send your articles to me at jetaachinewsletter /atto/ gmail /dotto/ com.
Submissions can include:
–Comic strips
–Restaurant reviews
–Japanese cultural activities in Chicago (music, movies, theater, art exhibits, etc…) reviews or thoughts on
–Announcements about JET alumni (marriages, graduations, jobs, etc…)
–Short stories (maybe a series–one page per issue), poetry, visual art, etc… done by JET alums that was inspired by Japanese culture
–Reflections on returning home from your JET experience
Feel free to contact me at jetaachinewsletter /atto/ gmail /dotto/ com if you have any questions.
Rose Symotiuk was a JET in Akan, Hokkaido from 2003-2005. She works in publishing in New York City. You can follow her blog at http://roseinnewyork.wordpress.com/.
Repeat After Me is the first fiction book by Rachel DeWoskin. DeWoskin went to Beijing in 1994 to work as a public-relations consultant and was quickly recruited to star in a Chinese nighttime soap opera, titled Foreign Babes in Beijing, which was watched by approximately 600 million viewers. At the time, she was one of the few foreign actresses working in mainland China and was considered a sex symbol. You can pick up her popular book about her experiences, titled Foreign Babes in Beijing: Behind the Scenes of a New China, here.
Repeat After Me follows the lead character, Aysha, a young New Yorker, after a mental breakdown causes her to drop out of Columbia and start teaching at an English school. There she meets Da Ge, a young Chinese man with his own problems. The story starts somewhere in the middle and unfolds in wonderous ways: from Aysha’s parents’ divorce, to her life in Beijing years later with a stunning surprise, always returning to her tragic, vivid romance with Da Ge.
Splashed across this story in bright color is China, in mouth watering Read More
NPR’s Studio360 Features Bankruptcy Haiku by Steven Horowitz
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Bankruptcy Bill is a cartoon created by Steven Horowitz (Aichi-ken, 1992-94) and Gideon Kendall. To see more strips as well as original bankruptcy haiku, go to bankruptcybill.wordpress.com.
Listen to one of Bankruptcy Bill’s haiku read on the “Haiku-ing It To The Man” feature on NPR’s Studio360. (Starts with about 1:31 left in the feature.)
Here’s the story lead from the Studio360 website:
Haiku-ing It to the Man
A few weeks ago we asked listeners to submit original haiku inspired by the state of the economy. Dozens poured in: our own unscientific proof that the financial crisis is a boon for creativity. Here are some of our favorites. (http://www.studio360.org/episodes/2009/02/13)
NY Times article on Japan Society appointment of Ambassador Sakurai to head post
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The February 6 NY Times article “Japan Society Names a New President” offers some additional perspectives on Japan Society and the challenges that Sakurai-san will face as well as some of the tools and uique perspectives he’ll bring to the job. (See the original JetWit post with Japan Society press release here.)
JetWit BlogBeat: Winter Tomatoes and Blasts from the Past
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JetWit Blog Beat by Crystal Wong (Iwate-ken, 2002-04) is a recurring item featuring posts from the blogs of various JET alumni. Crystal is a former English-language writer for Kyodo News. She now works as a media planner in Chelsea and sorely misses all her favorite midtown ramen joints.
Devon Brown (Tokyo-to, 2002-04) shares her thoughts on making do without quality tomatoes during the winter season (although the jarringly springlike weather this past week would seem to indicate that summer might not be as far off as we think).
James Kennedy (Nara-ken, 2004-06), author of The Order of Odd-Fish, shares his charmingly illustrated experience of visiting an old friend while meeting some new fans.
JETAA Southeast (South Carolina Subchapter) Shinnenkai Recap
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Via the JETAA Southeast e-mail newsletter:#
JETAA/SE South Carolina Chapter Shinnenkai Recap
South Carolina Sub-Chapter holds first event
By Daniel Stone
Saturday, January 24th, 2009
Clemson, SC– With several small and informal gatherings with alums meeting separately, JET alums residing in South Carolina finally met everyone under the same roof.
Clemson University’s Roderick International House was the site of this year’s Shinnenkai. Four South Carolina JETs and one Georgia JET were joined by ten other “Friends of JET”. This group ranged from a Japanese expatriate from Kyoto working in Greenville as a sushi chef, a German businessman who works in Greer, a Japanese grad school student from Fukui, a TESOL instructor from Seneca, a Japanese translator working for a textile company in Gaffney, a Personal & Business Coach from Greenville, and several undergraduate Clemson students that were interested in learning more about the JET Program.
“Back in 2007, Lee Ferrell and his wife, Cheryl, met me Greenville. We ate at a Korean restaurant on Woodruff Rd. The meeting was very Read More
The JetWit Business Model?
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“What is the JetWit business model?” some of you may have wondered.
Shoujiki ni itte, JetWit isn’t earning any income as of yet per se at the moment technically speaking (with the exception from a one-time paid ad placed by Interac).
But that doesn’t mean that JetWit doesn’t want to, or can’t, earn any income. The site and community is certainly providing value in various ways, including helping a number of people to find work opportunities. It has access to terrific writing and translating talent. And given that JET alumni chapters are primarily focused on their own regions, JetWit is essentially the only channel for reaching JET alumni (i.e., a targeted audience of educated, Japan-savvy types) all across the U.S. as well as abroad.
With so much going for it, it seems like one would have to be a baka to not have JetWit generating dollars (or yen). Since that’s exactly the case, however, there is some comfort in realizing that much larger entities struggle with the same issue of trying to earn income while giving away something for free. At least according to my brother Greg who has over 10 years of online marketing experience.
In his post on The Digitalists titled Free* (or, how to give away the store without giving away the store), Greg comments on Wired editor Chris Anderson’s new book Free and a possible direction the traditional model of content provider-advertiser-consumer may be shifting.
The short post is well worth a read for everyone trying to figure out how to navigate the shifting business world (which I think includes most recent JET returnees as well as numerous alums).
Yes they did!
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Japanese TV has never been averse to using blackface, so why stop now? Especially when presidential magic is involved.
Job: Membership Manager – Wing Luke Asian Museum (Seattle, WA)
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Via JETAA Pacific Northwest:
Wing Luke Asian Museum in Seattle, WA seeks Membership Manager
The Wing Luke Asian Museum seeks a Membership Manager who will be responsible for creating a vibrant and sustainable membership program encompassing all levels of membership, including major donors, ensuring the financial success and growth of the program over time. Read More
Job: Japanese Teaching Job in Baltimore County (MD)
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Via Marc Hitzig JETAA DC who works for the Japan-America Society of Washington, D.C.:
Japanese Teaching Job in Baltimore County
Dear JETAAs & FOJs,
This job announcement just came across my desk. They need a teacher to start in March or April.
Below is a teaching job in Baltimore County, MD. If you are interested please contact
John Neubauer
Educational Specialist
World and Classical Languages Read More
WIT Life #27: Reinventing Valentine’s Day
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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.
In the midst of the economic slump and the fact that Valentine’s Day falls on a Saturday this year, Japan’s chocolate companies are really stretching the meaning of the holiday. Because it will not be celebrated on a weekday, they will be losing the lucrative income from “Giri Choco” (obligation chocolate) which is customarily given by females to the males in their office. In order to make up for this, several innovations have taken place.
Chocolate companies are anticipating that many families will be spending V- Day together with “sugomori” or nesting, much like was seen over New Years. In preparation for this, new flavors such as strawberry and marshmallow were designed and Read More
